Greening the Production Pipeline

Every stage of filmmaking, from pre-production to release, offers opportunities to reduce our environmental footprint. By implementing sustainable practices throughout the pipeline, we can minimize our impact and create a more responsible industry.

When a manufacturer wants their product to be more sustainable, one approach they can take is a 'Life Cycle Analysis'. This is where they look at each step involved in making their product, from 'cradle to grave' to find the opportunities to reduce the negative impact on the environment and/or increase positive ones. This approach can be a useful way to look at how we make content and where the opportunities are for positive change.

Development - Where Climate Action Starts

Development is the stage where you start to put your creative ideas on paper. It’s when scripts are written, messages are honed, research is conducted, and the first stages of planning for production occur.

It is often the most critical point in any project for sustainability because climate action starts with content development. Once a script is polished, the story-boards are drawn, the budget is locked, and key creatives hired, it’s often too late for many sustainability initiatives to be considered.

Development is also the time when climate narratives and creative elements can be discussed with development teams, researchers, story editors, artists, writers, directors and other key talent. Not all content has to address climate change, but any content can be climate content. There is often a direct correlation between the script and a production’s carbon footprint. Factors that impact the budget are likely to have a carbon impact as well.

Top Tips: Development

If you are writing or reading scripts, review them with a sustainability lens. Can night shoots be minimized to reduce energy use? Is the story set in far-flung locations that will require additional travel? Will it require the use of materials that can’t be re-used after?
Have a conversation with the creative team on how environmental issues will be included in your project. Does it have a place in your story? Do any of your characters care about this issue? Are there opportunities to showcase the beauty of the natural world or include eco-friendly messaging in an authentic way for the audience?
Talk to your partners. If you’re working with a funding partner (e.g. TELUS STORYHIVE!), talk to them about climate storytelling. Find out what their priorities are and how your story can support them.
When pitching your stories, highlight the opportunities your story will have to promote planet-friendly messages or information.
Include sustainability in development plans and budgets to ensure it's on the agenda from the start.
Improve your climate literacy. Educate yourself on climate change and climate justice so that you can talk about them in your content where appropriate.
When researching documentary subjects, look for eco-elements to their background, interests or stories. You may find an authentic connection between environmental messages that your subjects care about and your story that you can put on-screen.
Familiarize yourself and your creative teams with the intersection of climate change and climate social justice to take advantage of opportunities to deepen your stories into the human element. Use resources like those from Good Energy Stories. When climate justice is added to the mix, the potential for storytelling expands exponentially.

Pre-Production

Pre-production is the weeks of intense planning that happen after receiving the official greenlight for production and before the day when cameras officially begin to roll. Pre-production emissions are primarily from any travel associated with pre-production.

Pre-production is crucial for setting the tone for the entire production. Take the time with your team to discuss sustainability and create a sustainability plan that includes sourcing local suppliers, planning efficient transport for location scouts, and using digital documents to reduce paper waste.

Top Tips: Pre-Production

Hold a sustainability meeting with your creative team, department heads as soon as possible to finalize your sustainability plan.
Opt for virtual location scouting, virtual meetings and virtual auditions to reduce travel emissions.
Ensure that sustainability is part of production and planning meetings and include all department heads in conversations about how to be more sustainable.
Create a sustainability plan and share it with the entire crew.
Choose suppliers that support your sustainability goals.
Consider how sustainable choices can be shown on screen.

Pre-Viz

Pre-visualization, or 'pre-viz,' is a crucial stage in modern content production, especially for projects using virtual production, or with complex visual effects, action sequences, or elaborate set designs. It involves creating animated or digital representations of scenes before filming begins, allowing filmmakers to plan shots, camera movements, and character actions in advance. Pre-viz is a foundational element of virtual production, where real-time rendering and in-camera visual effects are used to create final shots on set.
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With effective pre-viz, productions can reduce the need for resource-intensive on-set experimentation and optimize set construction and logistics, and when integrated with virtual production techniques, can lead to a more streamlined, efficient, and ultimately, a far more sustainable filmmaking process.

Production (Principal Photography)

This is the phase where your content is actually shot, and can last a day or several years and no two shows are alike when it comes to principal photography. Staying on schedule can be the difference between completing a film, and not, particularly for low budget films. When thinking about production, problems and issues often have to be solved quickly and the option close at hand isn’t always the sustainable one.

Top Tips: Production - Emissions & Waste Reduction

Have a list of pre-approved sustainable vendors, (local restaurants with veggie options or compostable packaging, green hotels, mobile battery power options, etc.). Create a 'rapid response' guide for common issues with sustainable solutions, and designate a 'green' person to make quick checks.
Opt for electric or hybrid vehicles when possible.
Swap out generator use for battery-charged equipment.
Plug into the grid where possible to provide on-set power.
Reduce or remove air travel. Opt for economy-class flights wherever possible.
Be strategic and efficient in planning travel to filming or scouting locations.
Rent materials where possible to support the circularity of renting systems.
Keep in mind reducing food waste when making or coordinating meals for production.
Engage your team in the planning process and ask them for ideas on how to relegate the old, more wasteful methods to the dustbin.
Make green choices accessible and easy: provide reusable water bottles, coffee cups and mugs or remind people to bring them from home to avoid single use plastic.
Implement a digital service so that documents like scripts, call sheets or schedules can be shared digitally, either over email or on a cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox (both have free options!)
Delete obsolete emails and documents from digital spaces to reduce server consumption.
Promote carpooling, public transit or even virtual meetings to reduce travel emissions.
Hire local talent!
Find local options for food rescue or donations to avoid food waste. Compost where you can!
Work with the director and cinematographer to rely on natural light to reduce the need for power generators or artificial lighting.
Opt for re-chargeable batteries where possible.
Consider a “leave no trace” mindset for shooting on location.

Post-Production

Post production is the editing stage of production, where raw footage is cut and stitched together into a cohesive story. The direct emissions for editing and post production are going to be lower than production in almost all cases, but it’s important to ensure that editors don’t leave on-screen sustainable scenes on the cutting room floor. Enable power saving tactics on computers, and post suites.

Quick Tip: Ensure your editor gets a list of the sustainability messages or on-screen actions (such as normalizing sustainability behaviors) that you created during production to make sure they don’t end up being cut!

Release

The direct emissions during the release phase can come from the emissions associated with creating and shipping physical copies of your content (opt for digital delivery and copies where possible). Carbon emissions can also show up in travel to festivals, premieres, and special events. Consider travel best practices in your release plans such as virtual attendance options, offsetting travel carbon emissions, and choosing accommodations with green certifications.

Quick tip: Look for opportunities to talk to audiences about your planet-friendly messages and actions, such as Q&A’s, social media campaigns with sustainability hashtags, and provide resources for audiences to take further actions.