The Art of Eco-Responsible Filmmaking
It’s the great moral dilemma facing those who create the entertainment we consume.
How can we justify the environmental impact that comes with making art?
From emissions spewed from on set generators and transportation vehicles to food wastage that comes from feeding cast and crew to non-recyclable materials sent to dumpsters after wrapping, the cost to our environment is staggering.
How to tackle the issue was the focus of the Strategies for Sustainable Cinema panel presented during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
It was filmmaker and producer Jennifer Baichwal who introduced the panel and set the tone of the discussion.
“I have to say that I've been kept up at night wondering if the extent of our footprint was worth it. Somebody once asked a Buddhist monk, ‘What can I do to save the planet?’ And he said, ‘Go to sleep.’ So, when I think about all the places that we've gone, I hope that the impact we have made with those stories is worth the footprint.”
Baichwal, a TIFF board member who’s been spearheading the festival’s sustainability initiatives, has spent her career making vitally important films such as Manufactured Landscapes, Watermark and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, documentaries that shine a light on the beauty and fragility of the planet under duress from human existence. So, when she asks if the stories told by content creators are worth the impact, we need to listen.
The panelists included Justin Cutler, Ontario Creates Film Commissioner and co-chair of the Green Screen Program and Sam Read, Executive Director of the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance, based in New York City.
The two agree that tackling the issue of sustainability begins long before the cameras roll.
“I don't think it's an expensive endeavour if you've planned for the culture shift and you've thought about how, in your prep period, to train your crew and your staff on making very simple choices,” says Cutler.
“It's about starting early and maybe even looking at if you can squeak out a little bit of budget for a sustainable production consultant on your set who has that expertise and can help mobilize your crew to make those choices. It's a simple line item that you can add in.”
According to research conducted by Telefilm and the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance, the biggest carbon culprit for all productions is transportation. That is especially true in Canada as our productions, more so than in other countries, relies heavily on gas-powered vehicles.
“On any given production we see about half of the carbon emissions coming from fuel, and that's largely transportation, so the trucks and the cars that are being used to transport crew and equipment,” says Read. “But it’s also diesel generators that are used as a reliable source of mobile power. So those are two really key areas where we're focused, and our members do a lot of work around clean mobile power and trying to expand access to batteries and work with crews to understand how to get the most out of those batteries as a replacement for a diesel generator or how to work with EVs in replacement for a diesel truck.”
Green Grid
One of the mandates for Cutler’s Ontario Green Screen Program is finding ways to reduce the use of diesel generators on location shooting.
“We work with a lot of municipalities across the province thinking about how to become better community stewards as an industry,” he explains. “The noise that diesel generators produce and the emissions they produce are disruptive, as well as the difficulty in shutting streets down for permits.
“If we can prove to those communities that we're doing so in a clean, considerate way, it goes a long way. So, we've introduced a new grid tie-in map for Ontario that helps productions tie in directly to the electrical grid as opposed to using diesel generators. We have a Google map that location managers can use to figure out where tie-in spots are close to base camps or key filming locations. We have about 90 of those locations across the province and we're now thinking about other ways to move forward.”
Both Cutler and Read are encouraged by emerging new technology such as hydrogen generation that will transform film and television sets.
However, one thing that won’t change on film sets is the physical props, costumes and large-scale builds required to make imaginary worlds come to life. What to do with those after use has become a key component of sustainability plans. The onus on recycling - or circularity - is taking hold.
“When we're thinking about circularity, there are all sorts of opportunities that we can take advantage of,” Cutler explains. “Sustainable lockups are a big opportunity right now. There are set sales through Ready, Set, Recycle here in Ontario, and we've seen prop houses start to think about circularity. Great production designers are now thinking about designing sets for reuse, which I think is important. So, we're taking a more tactical approach to this, and we're starting to see great results.”
Read adds that there is also a community-centered approach to the problem.
“We've seen some great stuff happening. For example, New York has a warehouse of materials from sets that is open to community groups or theaters. So, you’re wrapping a set and you have a bunch of set walls or other materials that might go to a landfill, but can you find a student production or a film school or a local theater that could actually use them and keep those things in circularity, but also provide a benefit to the community there?”
Planet Placement
One of the most interesting, and least talked about elements of creating an eco-responsible industry lies in messaging. Not heavy-handed or didactic preaching, but more integrated onto the content itself. Call it planet placement.
“We've seen across the years the power that this industry has to affect people's perceptions,” says Read. “You look at something like Will & Grace and the success of that and how it changed minds on gay marriage and LGBTQ rights. Or you look at the designated drivers which came from Cheers.
“And so, what sustainable behaviors can be shown on screen? It could be something as specific as a whole show being written around it. But it also could be something as minor as putting solar panels on a house in the background of a shot. Or if you're writing a sitcom and you're writing the dad as a plumber, can you make the dad a solar panel technician?
“There are all these opportunities to keep highlighting the pathways forward for a sustainable future that this industry has an incredible opportunity to incorporate into the content that we're showing on screen and make a real impact that way.”
