Making Films Environmentally Friendly
Filed under: Drama, Independent, New Releases, Tech Stuff, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Politics, Cinematical Indie
There are plenty of ways to promote a movie, but Sweet Land by Ali Selim might be the first to try and use the label "Environmentally Friendly" as a selling point. The real question is: Do audiences even care?The environmental impact of movie making is something most of us have never given any thought to -- after all, it's not exactly the sexiest topic in the industry. Yahoo! News spoke to Sweet Land director Ali Selim about the decision to run a "carbon-neutral" production. What that means is that the production calculated all of the carbon dioxide emitted during the production. The total was measured against the productions investment in renewable energy -- Selim chose to invest in a reforestation project in Germany and a windmill project in Jamaica. The emissions report cost the filmmakers five thousand dollars to perform plus the cost of their investments. Selim extended this eco-friendly way of shooting into all aspects of the production. He encouraged the crew to carpool, maximized location shooting to limit traveling, and even used natural light whenever possible.
Sweet Land is not the first film to use this model, both Syriana and An Inconvenient Truth commissioned similar reports. As admirable as Selim's method might be, is "environmental friendliness" the best marketing strategy? It seems pretty unlikely that an audience would flock to a movie because it got great "emission reviews." Would a film's impact on the environment impact your decision to see it?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-16-2006 @ 9:11PM
Chanda said...
I wouldn't go see a film I wasn't interested in just because it's carbon-neutral or in other ways environmentally friendly. But, if I were trying to decide what movie to go see and I know one of them has balanced out its emissions, I'd pick that one.
As a marketing strategy, it won't save a film, but it does build good will toward it and the film companies/movie studios involved. I'm a fan of anything that helps our planet last longer. Especially since I'm planning to make this place home for another century or two.
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11-02-2006 @ 5:25PM
Christopher Campbell said...
I don't know that I would be drawn to a film just because it is carbon-neutral, but I do appreciate any sort of action done for the protection of the environment. I'm not sure that Sweet Land is really exploiting its good deeds as a marketing strategy, though. I haven't noticed any advertisements that point to it being carbon-neutral.
Anyway, I recommend the film for its beautiful, humorous story, as well as for its gorgeous cinematography. It is really great, and the fact that it was able to afford the cost of being good for the environment in addition to being so well-crafted is more a promotion of carbon-neutral production for the rest of the film industry than the other way around.
Especially since it is unlike other carbon-neutral films in that its story has nothing to do with environmental issues.
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