April 24, 2007
Its Not Easy Going Green
There is some lively behind-the-scenes discussions happening at this year's Hot Docs festival. Yesterday, the industry got together to talking about the environmental impact of cinema. According to the Greencode Project, "A recent UCLA study of the environmental footprint left by Hollywood finds that California's media industry creates more greenhouse gases than the apparel, hotel, or aerospace industries in the region." Yesterday, Greencode Project organizers met with filmmakers to unveil their proposal to draft a process "similar to the code against the inhumane treatment of animals in films." For a film to receive the Greencode stamp of approval, it would have to show that it followed environmentally friendly, on set principles such as using production car co-ops or sourcing craft services coffee from fair-trade suppliers. The environment will also be the focus at his year's Doc Summit on Friday at the Rogers Industry Centre.
Image courtesy of Greencode Project.
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A bit of a poor choice in wording for the slogan.
Forget buying fair trade coffee. That's not the problem. The real issue how to reduce the amount of waste created when you build a scale model of the Titanic and then sink it in a giant tank of water.
Last year China had to ban film production in a particular valley because a film crew had destroyed natural features while shooting The Promise in 2005.
Remember the concern about how The Beach had modified the coastline or something while shooting?
It may not seem like a big deal compared to other issues, but it is a global issue. Think of how many films are shot on location around the world, and then triple that for what India shoots all by itself.
Sidd - I'd like to think it was intentionally acknowledging the objective of most executive producers...