Sustainable film production: History and Key Facts

Sustainable film production is the concept of film production with particular concern for environmental, economic, and social issues. Sustainability in film production incorporates socially and environmentally responsible decision making into the pre-production and production of the film. It involves sustainable development principles at all levels of filmmaking and is best accomplished in a unified manner with collaboration and cooperation from all departments or participants in making the film. The sustainability of the film production should start at the launch of the project, and involve all of the key stakeholders including the director, film producer, production or costume designer, cast, and crew. Sustainability can be included in all departments of film and media making, including content creation. Writing about sustainability, or including environmental issues in a film is sometimes referred to as Climate Storytelling.

Film production can be sustainable by working with the triple bottom line of environmental, social, and economic factors. Environmentally, for example, by reducing carbon emissions produced by travel arrangements; selecting vehicles with less CO2 emissions, improved route planning, carpooling or adopting a more sustainable means of transport can help reduce the environmental footprint. Socially, by establishing clear guidelines for minimizing the impact of the filming schedule on local communities (one way this can be achieved by limiting hours of work and engaging early with communities about the logistical effects on the area) and by integrating social enterprising suppliers in the production's supply chain. Economically, the film production can be intentional about helping communities’ benefit from film activities: for example, by employing local residents and paying them appropriately or utilizing local props, extras and catering. Green shooting encompasses pre-production, production, post-production, distribution, and consumption, advocating for the integration of eco-consultants to ensure compliance with sustainable practices across departments. Digitization efforts, in pre-production especially, aim to reduce paper use and increase energy efficiency and post-production continues these efforts with digital technologies that further reduce the footprint. Green shooting additionally contains concepts outside of the environmental aspect, making changes in the distribution of resources, equity, and social justice.

Source and attribution

Text excerpted from Sustainable film production by Wikipedia contributors, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The extract is abridged and formatting has been adjusted; the adapted text on this page is shared under the same licence. Revision history.