Film shoots and global warming

film shoots and global warming 

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On location film shoots have always been a pet-peeve of mine.  It’s not the fact that they are doing shooting on location, I just don’t understand why there is so much unnecessary waste on these film shoots.  Seriously, between the constantly running generators, to the trucks idling in the street, to the trash created from serving meal after meal using plastic or Styrofoam products, to the large “sun” lights running for hours at a time, to the extras and assistants of assistants standing around waiting for the shoot to happen, etc – how much can one location shoot cost, much less affect climate change or global warming?

To be honest, it’s probably more than most production companies are willing to sit down and examine.  Even if they put fuel additives or bio-fuels in their trucks, limited the use of plastic and Styrofoam or used Energy Star lights and appliances, there is still so much more that could be done to lower costs and lower their impact on the environment.

There is one network that announced it is doing something about it…Fox’s “24” just recently announced it is going green and plans to become the first “carbon neutral” television series.  Apparently they have hired consultants to measure the carbon-dioxide output from production.  They also started using 20% biodiesel in their trucks & generators, have installed motion monitors in bathrooms and kitchens and are paying a little more so California utilities can supply them with wind and solar power.  Per the Global Energy Initiative Data Site, all these changes have resulted in reducing their carbon emissions by 43%.  They then purchased high-quality carbon offsets to cover their remaining and “unavoidable” emissions. 

If one TV show can make such a turn-around regarding climate change and global warming by doing some simple but basic actions, just think how much difference could be made if more TV shows and networks were doing the same.  Now if they would just streamline their location shoots, they’d probably save a lot of money too!

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