SUSTAINABLE CREATIVITY IN ACTION!!!
Anyone who has worked in film knows that there are some big sustainability challenges for our art departments—a lot of what we build is made out of single-use, often toxic materials and is on screen for mere moments. Often, it is our local and independent industry who are leading the way with innovative examples of sustainable and economical art department strategies.
As the sustainability manager recently on a local alien-horror film, I was stoked to support some art-department-led initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of our production.
Community collab:
If you haven’t been to one of Auckland’s recently developed community recycling centres, it is well worth a trip. Our production has been working with the awesome team at Tāmaki Zero Waste Hub.
Tāmaki Zero Waste Hub has several bespoke makers’ spaces to enable the up cycling of all sorts of materials, a storage warehouse of fixable items, an op shop, and a recycling centre.
For this film, our art team worked with the hub to borrow a huge amount of the set dressing that we needed. It was all given either free or at a reduced cost on the understanding that we would bring it back at the end.
This setup is a real win-win for the Hub, which has had the same arrangement in the past with other film crews. The main kaupapa of the community recycling centres is to give things another life of being useful out in the world. Film crews will often take run-down or even slightly broken items and fix them up so that they are camera-ready. This means that when the film wraps up, and items come back to the Hub, they are ready to go out into the shop and get taken away again by community members. So it’s a win for the Hub, a win for the film crew, and a win for the community.
This work all sits within a local and national push to reduce what we are sending to landfill. Could your current project be working with a community recycling centre? Here is a link to find out more information about them. Check them out—there are so many awesome possibilities for collaborations in this space:
https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/rubbish-recycling/Pages/community-recycling-centres.aspx
Alien Slime Time
Our art department also made a major push to make their slimes compostable.
A lot of things that would have traditionally been made with plastics and polymers on another job were made out of organic and compostable materials—the sorts of things that you might find in your kitchen.
Some of the materials they used included:
Argar argar. This jelly was used to create slick-looking textures in all sorts of bright colours. It has a plastic-y finish and is fairly durable.
Kombucha scobies. The scobies create a skin-like texture that can be dyed with food colouring. They can be grown to a wide range of sizes and thicknesses. Some were so thick and durable that they were taken home by a member of the art team to reuse after being handled roughly on set for weeks.
Sea Moss. This is a natural material that creates a funky texture when combined with other items.
Water beads. These are usually sold as a sensory toy, although they were initially developed to be used for water retention in soil. They come in all sorts of funky colours and look like little plastic balls when hydrated.
Slimes out of nontoxic materials. This initiative was spearheaded by the art department, and I, as the sustainability manager, supported them to ensure all the compostable materials were sent to a commercial composter. Our art department told me that we could have done even more of the sets with natural and compostable materials if we had more lead time. This is often the case with more natural products—such as plaster, which can replace polystyrene and spray foams and make just about anything, so long as you have plenty of lead time.
There is so much that we can all do to make the productions we work on more sustainable—ask yourself what you can do on your next production?
WRITTEN BY ROSE ARCHER – Sustainability Manager