SPOTLIGHT ON SUSTAINABILITY
Production forum at VIFF considers best practices for reducing TV- and movie-set waste
The first thought that comes to mind walking by any location shoot in the Lower Mainland isn’t about the degree to which it is green and sustainable. Making movies is all about stuff, much of it single-use-only stuff. Zena Harris took notice of this.
With a master of arts degree from Harvard in sustainability and environmental management, Harris, president of the Green Spark Group, wanted Hollywood North to clean up its game.
Green Spark Group’s sustainability consultancy has worked with studios including Fox, NBC/ Universal and Amazon to implement best practices to reduce production waste. Among the triumphs the company claims is diverting 81 per cent of the waste from the X-Files from the landfill. Try to picture accomplishing that with your own household waste and it quickly becomes apparent that this is no small feat. Harris wanted to bring the concepts being applied to a greater industry segment.
Working with Vancouver International Film Festival, the first-ofits-kind Sustainable Production Forum launched at VIFF in 2015. What began as a meeting is now a two-day long conference boasting its very own Sustainable Production Excellence Awards celebrating global efforts in sustainable film production.
“There’s so much happening in the area at the moment, and that is why we can do this and why VIFF is providing a platform to focus on it,” said Harris. “We bring people from far-flung places in the world so that we can share knowledge, accomplishments, technologies and more so we can learn from each other and really elevate the industry.”
As for whether there was an inception point where sustainable production suddenly became something to talk about, Harris said it goes back well over a decade.
“Major studios were talking about it and there were provincial initiatives going as far back as 2006, but there wasn’t any kind of a festival or forum to bring people together to take it further,” she said. “I pitched it, they went for it because they thought it was important, particularly with the many green initiatives in both the city and the province and wanting to get something happening when there were a large accumulation of filmmakers and industry in one single space.”
Among the hot topics for this year’s event will be an overview of the Reel Green activities that took
place in the past year. Real Green is a B.C.-based initiative of sustainable practices in the motion picture industry designed to improve the industry ’s position as environmentally sensitive. Other topics will include specific means of reducing environmental impact on set as it relates to specific roles and overall productions, and ways of working within the new Industry Stewardship Pilot Project relating to location resource management and collaboration between community, municipal, provincial and industry partners.
“It’s going to be an exciting event, especially with the awards component that notes the hard work that people are putting in to really make a difference,” said Harris. “There are several big announcements and launches that I can’t really talk about yet, but they will be important moves forward for all stakeholders.”
And specific things contribute to giving film productions a better environmental profile?
“Fuel is probably the number one thing to reduce for positive benefits,” she said. “Secondly is sourcing materials locally with FSE-certified woods and repurposing your materials for additional uses. A comprehensive, integrated waste management system with recycling, composting and trash makes a huge difference as well.”
Like any industry, Harris said that getting the message out equals getting people involved. When you feel like you are participating in doing something good and can get singled out for it, it can increase willingness to participate in sustainable production.
“Hopefully, we can be inspiring other places in the world to do the same and vice-versa,” said Harris. “There are always individuals, specific crews or companies that come up with really innovative ideas. It all helps to transform the culture.”
Trying to get the entertainment industry to adhere to the 17 goals put forth by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals is not going to be seamless. But events such as VIFF’s Sustainable Production Forum are bringing the thinking forward where there may not have been much interest before.
The Sustainable Production Forum is part of VIFF’s industryspecific programming and there are many other events under different stream banners to take in that don’t involve screenings. A focus this year under the NEXT stream VIFF Immersed banner is the burgeoning world of immersive content creation in the form of VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality) and MR (mixed reality).
Among the events showcasing the Lower Mainland’s industry leaders are New Realities in Storytelling (Sept. 29, The Reliance Theatre, Emily Carr), which features talks and demonstrations from leading immersive artists, designers and developers, and B.C. Immersed (Sept. 30, The Centre for Digital Media). Presented by Creative B.C., this daylong workshop series for producers, directors, techies and others includes introductions to such platforms as Samsung’s End-to-End VR Ecosystem available through the Samsung Creators Project. VIFF Immersed: Exhibition (Sept. 30Oct. 2, The Centre for Digital Media) will feature VR, AR and MR experiences.
Word of advice, wear shoes you balance well in. Some of these technologies are really able to confuse your take on, well, reality.