Eco-Friendly Filmmaking at the Vancouver International Film Festival

In 2016, the Vancouver International Film Festival introduced the Sustainable Production Forum (SPF) for the first time. This is an event that increases awareness for sustainable film and TV production and gathers industry leaders alongside sustainability advocates to examine best practices for eco-friendly filmmaking. This year, the event will take place at the Vancouver International Film Festival on October 5th and 6th.

Topics that are covered during the SPF include filming with reusable props, building with eco-friendly supplies on set, and lessening the amount of fuel consumption by diesel generators. At the event, production crews can get assistance with obtaining wood that is certified to come from a responsibly managed forester and wood that is sourced locally for building sets.

Zena Harris is the Creative Director of the SPF event and the founder of Green Spark Group, a sustainability consultancy that is devoted to sustainable production practices. Green Spark Group teams up with other like-minded organizations to recycle donated set materials to other production crews for free.

Season 10 and 11 of The X-Files and season 1 of Legion were filmed in Metro Vancouver, following sustainability practices influenced by the SPF. During the X-Files shoot, the production crew avoided producing 19 metric tons of carbon emissions, averted 68% of waste from landfills, and even saved almost $150,000 by doing so. When filming Legion, the film crew avoided producing 252 metric tons of carbon emissions, averted 55% of waste from landfills, and even saved around $48,000 as well.

Eco-friendly filmmaking is not only saving the environment one production at a time, but also cutting on production costs and saving film and TV crews money. To learn more about sustainable production at the Vancouver International Film Festival, click here!