News Archive

Carbon vs. Celloid

29 September 2009

From the National Post Weekend Edition - Saturday, September 19, 2009

 

by Tabassum Siddiqui, National Post

While there's a certain glamour to seeing a film production take over the streets of Toronto -- the lines of white trailers parked curbside, generators fired up, mounds of water bottles perched atop catering tables -- the mini-villages hastily assembled by these here-one-day, gone-the-next on-location sets can be an environmental nightmare, sucking up energy and creating a mountain of waste over the course of even a brief shoot.

Busy filmmakers have enough to worry about, besides their carbon footprint, but a new pilot project spearheaded by the local film and television industry aims to make it easier for productions to be more environmentally friendly.

Green Screen Toronto, founded in 2007 by local enviro film festival Planet in Focus in conjunction with more than a dozen industry partners (ranging from film and TV unions to the major local studios) and governmental support (the City of Toronto is also on board), is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring all film and television productions shooting in Toronto begin to adapt to the environmental demands facing the industry.

"As an industry, we realized there was a role for Toronto to play in greening film operations," says Green Screen's resource director Ed McNamara, the group's sole employee, who works part-time out of Planet in Focus's office in the Distillery District.

An initial proposal to offer a LEED-type certification to productions that made an effort to go green was shelved in favour of developing a resource guide for the industry and establishing a pilot project that would match interested productions with an environmental consultant who could assess their needs. Green Screen secured a two-year $250,000 grant from the Ontario Media Development Corporation to move forward with the pilot project, which begins this fall.

Green Screen recently put out a call for productions to participate in the pilot project, which will see independent consultant Melissa Felder work directly with each production to help them figure out how to be as environmentally efficient as possible.

"We want to help them figure out what sort of quantifiable environmental benefits they can expect, and also make the business case for going green," Felder explains.

The hope is that at least five productions will sign up for the initiative during the 2009-10 pilot so that Felder can devote enough time to each show during their pre-production process to determine what steps they might be able to take during filming. Several productions have already indicated interest, with at least three ready to commit to the two-to-three-month consultation process, Felder says.

She will consult with the production manager, or another point person from each shoot, to assess where the production could cut down on waste, energy expenditure and other environmental hazards, keeping in mind the hectic pace and overall scope of filming.

Felder notes that even the smallest changes can make a difference, such as when a set uses a refillable water cooler instead of doling out plastic water bottles to the cast and crew. While something that simple might seem like a no-brainer, on a busy set, it's often seen as easier to grab a bottle rather than make repeat trips to a cooler. Creative considerations can also come into play -- Felder points out that a big action-movie franchise like The Matrix used more than 10,000 tons of concrete and steel to construct sets, but that perhaps CGI animation wouldn't have given the films the same epic effect.

"We've tried to show that [greening] doesn't have to be this huge, restrictive change," Felder says. "We're starting to see similar changes in other parts of the world, so it's clear this industry is going to look very different in the near future. But it's not going to happen quickly -- it'll take years before the infrastructure is in place to deliver alternatives."

Green Screen, one of the few global organizations specifically dedicated to greening the film industry, is looking to put Toronto on the map when it comes to developing those alternatives. (McNamara notes that New Zealand has been leading the way, with similar initiatives in Los Angeles, London and New Mexico.)

"What we're offering right now might be the first program of its kind," McNamara says. "We realized that if Toronto could establish itself as a leader in this, it could be a potential boon for business."

Local independent producer Victoria Hirst ( Century Hotel), who's hoping to work with Green Screen on a future production, sees huge potential in the initiative.

"Hopefully, they will be leaders in making change," Hirst notes. "We as an industry are trying to think about what we can do to help the planet -- every little bit counts, and what Green Screen is about is making it easier to follow procedures that other productions will have paved the way for."

Hirst notes that she and other producers have been talking up Green Screen to their peers in the industry, while McNamara and the rest of the Green Screen crew have been busy networking at the Toronto International Film Festival this past week, trying to spread the word to filmmakers looking to shoot in Toronto over the next several months (both Canadian and international productions are eligible for the pilot project as long as they're filming within the GTA).

"Interest is growing -- we're hearing from more people all the time," McNamara says. "We're looking for a cross-section of productions so we can get a broad idea of what we can offer. The goal is to create a program that's accessible to all -- Canadian, American, big-budget, small-budget, film or TV. The idea is to be as inclusive as possible."

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