Green film making

[Dave Watterson]

Call it "global warming", call it "atmospheric degredation", call it "overpopulation and pollution" - the essential point is that we, as a species, are damaging our planet.

Video makers inevitably require high-tech kit to work with - even the tapes/discs/memory chips onto which we record require complex precision production. Often we travel - at least partly for the purpose of filming. How might we reduce the impact on the Earth of our hobby?

As you might guess people who make nature programmes for television are more aware of these issues than most of us. They see the impact of mankind on the forests, oceans, savannahs and wildernesses. At the recent WildScreen festival in Bristol a code of practice was launched. Its authors insist there is no rocket-science in improving our carbon footprint. They recognise that many of us are already going some way towards best practice. The code - complete with check lists and eventually calculators etc will make it easier to do better.

A new website is being developed but you can see the code at:
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/res ... /greenfilm

You can watch an interview filmed near Bristol waterfront with Andrew Buchanan - one of the authors at http://vimeo.com/3038088.

- Dave

[Roy]

Just a thought, if climate change is due to humans behaviour, who was responsible for the ice age, which also was a climate change.

[billyfromConsett]

How about if we:
- put energy efficient bulbs all around our homes
- Use sockets that turn everything possible actually off when they're in standby
- Stop using tumble driers as a matter of routine

Let's face it, until The USA, China and India decide to join in with saving the planet, what we can do almost certainly amounts to a totally insignificant, and some would say zero impact on anything.

But cutting our fuel bills makes sense this month and every month.

[FILM THURSO]

There's still a lot of if's and but's about global warming and like many things scientific, it is mostly conjecture. However it is clear that change is happening and we need to be aware that as a species our "advances" in the last 200 years have marked a whole new pattern within earth'e climent. Earth does go through fluctuations like this in short periods of time and it is possible that it is in everyway just nature doing it's thing. The industrial revolution saw masses of polution but that was only in America and Europe at a time when population was considerably lower. Through the 20th Century there were the atomic bomb tests and very numerous they were too. Whilst you can't feel there heat now as such we have to remember that radiation does just cool off and dissappear in a short period of time. In the latter half of the 20th century we moved to cleaner fuels and no so much now are towns choked with chimney smoke but the population has risen massively.
Are we in balance or not over this period of time. Humans have done lots of things that simply aren't natural and have added to the overall temperature over and above the general balance that occurs when one things goes out in favour of another.

The latest one that makes me laugh is people who switch to biomass heating (logs to the commoner) thinking it's good for the enviroment. Hang on it's wood you're burning and it makes no difference if the forests are being replaced as quick as cut, you're still piling smoke into the air. Patio heaters, put a jumper on! Learn to enjoy the cold because one day we might have no choice.

p.s. the ice age is only a theory too!

[Roy]

I think you will find that the Ice Age theory has been proved beyond doubt. Many brilliant scientists have shown proof. This is just one of them
http://library.thinkquest.org/3876/iceage.html

[FILM THURSO]

Yes, ...along with the big bang!










Outside of film making I'm researching ancient civilisation in the Caithness, this includes a meteor strike and ancient cultures between 15.000BC to 400AD. Most of the facts are nothing short of a guess, most guesses are completely wrong- and just the professionals work!

[Roy]

You may be completely right in your assumptions, and there again you could be completely wrong. You must have info that others haven't to be able to say with such conviction that most guesses are wrong, not could be or probaly wrong, but definately wrong. No matter nobody takes note of what you or I think. Mores the pity.

[Willy]

How about if we:
- put energy efficient bulbs all around our homes
.

Hello Billy,
Last week an article appeared in our newspaper about energy efficient bulbs. You mean lamps that can burn longer, don't you ? I'm asking you this because of the language barrier. Well, the article says that scientists have found out that energy efficient bulbs are very bad for our environment. I've forgotten why. I was surprised by that. l don't find my newspaper of last week anymore, but it must be true.

[FILM THURSO]

They contain Mercury... NOW THERE'S A SMART IDEA! (Many video projectors also contain mercury based lamps )


I understand the original light with the first fillament that worked way back in Victorian times is still working! I want that one.


LED's are the next step.

[Roy]

In the long run I don't think that you will save money by using so called economy lamps. To start with some of them are very expensive. e.g. to replace six candle lamps in my lounge has cost £70, andf they don't work with a dimmer. I remember many years ago the then government implored us the save electricity by cutting down on this and that. The country obeyed and what happened? the consumption of electricity fell so much that the power companies profits fell, and so, in true British style,they raised the price tarriffs to the consumer. If film makers want to go green, they should make films telling the world how much it will cost the man in the street to go green and how much is government hype..

[FILM THURSO]

I live on an estate of former AEA housing from the late 50s and early 60s. The houses here have front to back living rooms which as standard are fitted with two light fittings on the ceiling. Nearby is a house, the sort with curtains open wide at all hours (that's okay if you live one floor up) where one can see each fitting has loyally be fitted with energy saving bulbs. However any enviromental saving that might have been garnered by such aplication has be swindled from earth's well being in that the standard light fittings have been replaced with two powerful ceiling fans each with additional light sockets. And now kitted with a total of SIX 25watt (=100w tungston each) the Northern Light House Board have been able to switch off the lighthouse at Scrabster.

[Pqtrick]

Trying to be green and cleaner! Looked at the options to get to BIAFF in Chesterfield, what’s the best way? Well PAR AVION of course!

Seriously looked at the TGV from Lyon to Lille, then onwards to London St Pancras, that bits OK and the fare is reasonable. Then St Pancras to Chesterfield is direct and there should be a good fare, No way! Perhaps if there is a full moon when earth is being invaded by little green men and there is an ‘r’ in the month, you can get a good fare. Two single first class fares are cheaper, I was kept being informed by the website, find them could I? the fares quoted meant it was cheaper to fly to the New York.

So the more pocket environmentally friendly way is to fly to Stansted, hire a car, and pay for the fuel and insurance. And it’s by far the cheapest! So at least the car will be green by just standing on the hotel car park for a couple of days. Bleat over.

[Willy]

Then St Pancras to Chesterfield is direct and there should be a good fare, No way! Perhaps if there is a full moon when earth is being invaded by little green men and there is an ‘r’ in the month, you can get a good fare.

Cher ami, yes you're right. Public transport is very expensive. And I don't like British Rail. Once my car was set on fire in a "protected car park" of British Rail. It was awful. Luckily I knew a very good English friend who picked me up in that peaceful village in the "Garden of England". The Railway Police knew everything, but they help me. Maybe I shouldn't have told you. It happened more than ten years ago, but I can't forget that moment.

This year the ferry seems to be very cheap. I am going to Chesterfield by car. A PO-ferry ticket Calais-Dover for car and four passengers is only £65 Of course it's better to take fuel on the continent. In Britain fuel costs almost twice as much. I mean gasoil (diesel).

[Brian Saberton]

I'm travelling down on the train mainly because I can virtually do it "door to door" but I can travel to London first class for quite a bit less than it's costing me to go to Chesterfield in standard class. It's hard to see any logic in the way ticket prices are structured on the UK railways and if I didn't live so near to the station I'd be going by car. In today's paper there is an interesting report on continued weekend disruption to West Coast services north of Penrith which is adding hours to journey times from the North due to replacement bus services having to be used to by-pass engineering works. In many cases this is making it quicker to drive. So much for the brave new world of faster journey times by train.

[Dave Watterson]

Thought not strictly about greener film making ... I've been finding that many regular airlines have adopted a policy for which the old British Rail was often mocked: return fares almost cheaper than singles.

Trying to move from home to one festival in Austria, on to another in Bulgaria and then back home; I was looking for a series of one-way flights ... and had to organise my schedule around two returns to make the price sensible. I was tempted to buy returns and not use the other half ... but when you and your luggage are at the mercy of airlines you don't want to upset them!

Dave

PS If any of you have films that might be loosely related to the theme of "river" - even metaphorically - the Rousse Festival in Bulgaria is looking for entries. No fees. Attending film makers get free lodging and half-board. Details on the main site at http://www.theiac.org.uk/events/festivals/danube.html