Forget for a moment the spilled popcorn, the left-over drinks, the broken plastic 3D glasses, and think instead about what it took to make the movie that you have just seen. How many flights the cast and crew took to locations around the world? How much extra power was needed for all of those amazing explosions, or eerily creepy night time scenes in the middle of the woods? Or how many different times they shot that pivotal scene amidst the chaos of a fight scene on set?
Hollywood movies are a multi-billion dollar business, mainly based in America, but creative visions know no bounds and if your story requires a scene halfway up a mountain, then you need to find the right mountain to film on. And that may not be in California.
There are different ways to call a movie ‘Green’. Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ may not be a classic boy meets girl movie, but it can be considered green. It is a documentary released in cinemas around the world that highlights the urgency of doing something about Global Warming and Climate Change. It was very well made, and even won an Oscar or two. It was also one of the first Carbon Neutral films, with investment made into renewable energy, equalling the Carbon expended in the making of the movie.
The pursuit towards Carbon Neutral film productions is due to films such as The Day After Tomorrow (sensationalising what could happen if the Earth’s oceans reached a crucial tipping point), and Syriana.
There are new developments in sustainable technology that enable film and television productions to reduce carbon expenditure on packaging, shipping, fuel consumption, plastic usage and paper wastage.
Alongside the technology developments, the stories on the screen are also becoming increasingly more focused on climate change. Even kids films such as Wall-E are tackling the idea of what could happen when the climate on earth changes and we use all of the finite resources available on the planet. Highlighting the issue of sustainability in these ways helps to spread the message about being careful with our planet in a way that scare tactics and political battles don’t.
As with other global industries there are many new developments each year on improving the sustainability of film and television production but there is still a long way to go. Next time you are at the cinema, stop and think, where in the world was all of this filmed?
Emma Kirkman
