Greening the Screen

This is the second and last unit in my senior STEAM course Economics. In this unit, we looked more in-depth about thinking like an economist. What led us to our internal portion of our investigation was a book by Kate Raworth titled, "Doughnut Economics- 7 ways to think like a 21st-century economist". In order to tackle the 7 parts of this book we paired in two and prepared a mini-lesson presentation for our peers. The importance of this was to understand the book's proposals in bettering the economy while saving the eco-system. For the external portion of our course, we visited We Work where we then met up with Rheaply. We had the opportunity to talk to the CEO and team members of this company where we learned how their business is innovating a circular economy by sharing professionals resources inside their industry. With the knowledge a
nd experience we gathered up we then took action into our learning by thinking how do we view the economic world. I decided to have my focus be the sustainability in film production. By taking Raworths lesson of a closed-loop economic system I am proposing for this model to be imposed in the film industry.

Greening The Screen

GA, "sustainable filmmaking", 2019

   As we imagine ourselves creating a story in action our mind immediately goes to wanting the best location, costume design, storyboard, equipment, etc. Although in pre-production, production, and post-production is meticulous in thinking about whom and where our sponsors and resources are coming from, we still tend to lose our focus in the waste that gets made behind the glamour. Sustainable film production isn't a new topic thankfully but nevertheless is it enforced or talked among our culture. One of Raworth's passage speaks on a circular economy. A circular economy works in eliminating waste and the production of it by ways of sharing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling in the results of having a decrease in pollution and carbon emissions and an overall balanced community. Although this isn't an idea that raises surprised heads it still raises questions as to how this can be infiltrated in a working society. This is the same question Raworth asks us as she states, "the job of today's economist is to figure out what kind of finance systems, regulations, and government support is needed to make that happen because the design will already do it but the finances, government, and business need to realign with redesign meaning that an economist job is to figure out how do you design the institutions to make this possible." This exact idea of thinking the solutions are already set for us but placing ways we can have this be a requirement in our growth as individuals, business owners, and community builders is what influenced me to think of this in a field of film. Filmmaking becomes scary when data shows that the making of a big-budget blockbuster can generate 3000 tonnes of C02 and one hour of tv production generates 9 tonnes of C02. This data puts you at a halt when you closely look at the quick changes that can be practiced within these film studios. My model focuses on the benefit of sustainable production. The amount of money that can be saved by reducing set construction by 20 percent and then reusing 25 percent of the material could save about $20,500. This being just one form of the bigger solution comes from turning accessibility to credibility. On our FE we spoke to Rheaply where we discussed how they use a circular economy module in working with the businesses. This led to the relationship between film studios and how much more of a closed net it can become if transparency was set in a way that was accessible for them. One of the team members that we spoke to at Rheaply spoke on how creating a platform that allows businesses to be part of the process allows Rheaply to gain credibility and allows the business to reduce waste through partnerships in their community. Although America is not confined to this type of model... yet, this is when we have organizations like the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to learn from. The BAFTA encourages sustainable production through a selection of 12 of the U.K.’s largest production companies. Consequently, the Academy has its own carbon calculator and a nonprofit organization named Media Greenhouse that promotes sustainable production practices in the industry. This form of placing value in waste reducement is what sets us up to want to meet the standards. Fortunately, when thinking of cinematography as a worldwide language we have a grand hope that America will to learn from studios like the UK and become a closed net community.

Cited Works
- “News.” Sustainability Could Play Leading Role in the Film Industry – Green Production Guide, https://www.greenproductionguide.com/sustainability-could-play-leading-role-in-the-film-industry/.