It’s easy to get the impression that the film and television industry has largely picked the low-hanging fruit of sustainability. LED lighting is both an environmental and a financial boon: reduced trucking, crew, generator and fuel costs have never been a hard sell to line producers. Moving beyond that, though, takes new ideas—especially given the current economic circumstances.

People at every level of production have their part to play, but those who make a living hauling lights around back lots are often aware that the ability to have nice things comes from the very top.

Matt Rivet, partner at Altman Solon, a consultancy focused on media and tech, works with corporates—from studios to broadcast and cable networks to streaming services—and all the tech that supports them. He also supports investors in media companies and assesses the commercial merits of said investments.

“Generally speaking, I think there’s a shift toward sustainability, broadly," Rivet says. “The most obvious place that everyone goes is energy consumption. It feels like it’s a place where there is a very obvious way—quick wins is where it’s at. The other things are waste, water, how you buy, where you buy from.”

Taking popular new ideas and making them part of the solution can help take the sting out of change, Rivet adds. “One of the things we highlight in our report is travel mileage. Virtual production can potentially be one of those things that helps reduce the amount of travel that needs to be done.”

Virtually Obvious
Sony Pictures, Rivet relates, has run the numbers on at least one kind of production. “This is not analysis we did—it’s Sony Pictures’ Greener World initiative,” he says. “They compared two productions with scenes that were shot on location and in a VP studio.

“The comparison in terms of the overall emissions was quite stark. I don’t know the exact numbers but it was something like 15-25% less emissions.” The embodied carbon of a high-end virtual production stage, of course, is far from zero, but it can be amortized over multiple productions.

The hugely varied tasks required of film and television production have always made coordination difficult.

“Media and entertainment is inherently disparate,” Rivet reflects. “People are going to various places doing various things, and it’s hard to consolidate. We’d love to, but it’s just not practical … in our data, there’s a lack of awareness of benefits of sustainability. Sixty-eight percent of folks said that’s why they hadn’t prioritized sustainability. Fifty-six percent said there was not enough of an incentive, or high up-front costs.”

“Media and entertainment doesn’t have to be a first adopter,” Rivet points out. “Other industries will go there. The future here will likely be some level of moderate change over some period of time.”

Even so, that time may not be now or next week.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that M&E companies are under a lot of financial stress," Rivet says. “They’re looking for opportunities to improve efficiency and save on their cost basis. And I do believe, if you model it out, there’s a long-term benefit for sustainability because it will create some savings. The push and pull is that they can be interested in doing those things, but they have to balance that against the realities of operating their business.”

The Buy-In
Ben Stapleton, executive director of the U.S. Green Building Council California, has seen firsthand how critical boardroom-level support can be. Even with that support, Stapleton counsels that getting the most from any sustainability initiative often means more than a simple equipment exchange.

“It’s about working these ideas into the production from the beginning, not as an afterthought,” he says. Generators are an example … people use generators and run cables, it’s expensive and dangerous and creates a bunch of carbon. You can just distribute the power into smaller batteries all around the production, save money on wiring and have a safer set.”

Broadening the scope of sustainability efforts beyond energy doesn’t necessarily mean they need to become expensive, Stapleton continues. One concept involves direct reuse of resources such as the lumber used to create often short-lived sets.

“Waste is clearly an important area," Stapleton says. “How do you approach material reuse, prop reuse? It’s not just creating new props and backgrounds. There’s a ton of waste that comes out of that process—how is that waste managed? Yes, it is a sustainability principle to figure out how we can reuse, but it’s also going to be cheaper to reuse.”

Again, though, the imperative to make that happen needs support throughout the organization. “Part of the challenge is—let’s say—you’re someone who’s managing the set design and the props,” Stapleton adds. “If you don’t have buy-in from the person who’s handling the financial and operations side, they’ll come to you and be like: ‘What are you doing here? That’s not how we handle things.’ If people have been [trained] and understand why these decisions need to be made, they can approach it differently. It doesn’t add cost and delay.”

Moving to the Grid
Mark Thornton, a London-based lighting technician, has enough experience at the sharp end of film production to put him in a good position to assess new ideas. The knowledge that electric mains flow beneath most city streets—often just feet away, but inaccessible—led Thornton to get involved in a project to provide access to that power at key locations.

“I was contacted by Film London who were talking about putting this mains post into Victoria Park,” Thornton recalls. “They’d already done most of the work on it, so I got involved in a consultation group and said the place where it is is brilliant, but here’s some suggestions for the box itself. I suggested a few ideas of how to manage it, being a remote location away from Film London’s base and not something they’d normally do.”

Power drawn from the grid will usually be cleaner—and certainly quieter—than power that is generated on-site.

“That was the whole point of it being at Victoria Park,” Thornton adds. “They had a lot of fairgrounds and live events, concerts. They were trying to make sure people were able to use the post—actually it’s a rather large box—rather than bring in generators. The issue is not only sustainability and environmental impact, it’s also noise. Even when we go on the route of having battery generators, we have to charge them somewhere. The idea is that a production could go to Film London and say, ‘We have a 25kW battery pack that we’d like to charge up on a regular basis’ and it’d be up to them to charge a cost.”

Rules in the Way
That sort of idea requires no new technology and comparatively little investment; as so often, the barriers are administrative. Here, Thornton refers to another idea that seems to combine high utility with low inconvenience, but which has found itself enmeshed in red tape.

“One of the ideas is that we get access to EV charging points. There is a company that makes towable batteries … they use the Tesla power packs and the brains so they can go and use the Tesla supercharger—but if you do that in central London, it doesn’t have a [license plate], so it doesn’t have an account.

“It’s the rules that seem to be getting in the way,” Thornton muses. “The infrastructure is technically possible but there’s someone with a pen somewhere who says you can’t do that. As an industry, we’re doing pretty well, moving toward LED light sources. The physics is not going to change, but if you look at the wider country, there’s a lot of renewables, wind power, wave power, as soon as they start phasing out all the natural gas … There’s a really good web site called Gridwatch that I’ve used quite a few times to highlight where the [U.K.'s] energy comes from, and the closer natural gas gets down to zero, the better off the country will be.”

While those big-picture issues are addressed at a societal level, Thornton points out, there are still some very accessible avenues to explore. Particularly, he proposes one very general principle which will be painfully familiar to people experienced with single-camera drama—and talismanic of the drive for sustainability as a whole.

“There’s a bit of people not knowing what they want,” he concludes. “It’s about planning—right across the board, from personnel management to kit ordering to logistics. If we were able to plan, if someone up the food chain made a decision early in the process, we could plan better. The problem we have as an industry is everyone leaves it to the last minute.”

Sony Pictures Post Production Services has announced that the final phase of a multi-year effort to expand and modernize its motion picture and television sound facilities has been completed. 

As part of an effort to establish an inviting, state-of-the-art space for filmmakers and creative sound artists, the studio said it has integrated the latest immersive sound technology across 14 mix stages on its lot in Culver City. It has also made extensive aesthetic improvements. Its historic Cary Grant, William Holden, Kim Novak, Burt Lancaster and Anthony Quinn mix stages have been restored to sparkling condition, with new acoustics, cinema screens, creature comforts and creative support.

“We want filmmakers and sound talent to feel inspired when they walk onto our lot,” says Kimberly Jimenez, senior vice president, Post Production Services. “We offer sound facilities that are at the highest level of technology in an environment that is warm and welcoming. There’s nothing like it in our industry.”

The project began in 2019 with the renovation of the studio’s 325-seat Cary Grant Mix Stage, one of the industry’s largest. To support immersive sound formats including IMAX and Dolby Atmos, the studio was equipped with new sound tech, including a dual 2 x 24 fader Avid S6 console, four Avid Pro Tools HDX-3 workstations, a 192-channel HDX-3 Pro Tools recorder and a stunning JBL speaker array. A 50’ x 20’ cinema screen and 4K projector complete the true theatrical experience. 

“It’s a haven for audio and visual perfectionists,” observes Lane Burch, executive director, Post Production Sound Engineering. “We offer the perfect blend of cutting-edge technology, comfort, and creativity.”

From there, the work proceeded systematically to the Kim Novak, Burt Lancaster and Anthony Quinn and, most recently, William Holden mix stages, with each furnished with near identical mixing, editing, reproduction and projection systems. The studio’s other stages were also upgraded, establishing a uniform workflow studio-wide. “Standardization was a principal focus,” says Burch. “Each room uses the same technology, and they have similar acoustical environments. Projects can move between our stages without modification or disruption.”

Additionally, the stages went through a transformative physical restoration with an eye toward optimizing acoustics, aesthetics and comfort, while preserving their historic ambience, unique décor and stunning architectural features, the studio reported.

For example, the Anthony Quinn Mix Stage’s Japanese-themed fountain, artwork and domed ceiling were restored while incorporating the latest acoustical panel and other sound absorbing features. (The mix stage is pictured above.)

“Our stages were built with style,” noted Jimenez. “They are beautiful structures. What better place to work on a soundtrack than at a functioning movie studio. This is a special place.”

Two-time Emmy Award-nominated supervising sound editor Mandell Winter has followed the expansion of Sony Pictures’ sound department closely and is elated with the results. “The engineering team was methodical in the way they upgraded the rooms and made each one the best it can be,” he says. “I have clients who only want to mix at Sony because of the vibe of those stages. They know it’s going to make a difference.” Winter’s work at Sony Pictures includes all three films in The Equalizer franchise.

Academy Award-nominated and two-time Emmy Award-winning re-recording mixer Tony Lamberti added he prefers to mix film and television projects at Sony Pictures because the consistency and reliability of the mix stages are unmatched “I’ve done many movies at Sony, and I’m thrilled every time I hear one in the field,” he says. “Whether it’s at the Motion Picture Academy or a commercial movie theater, the sound translates perfectly. I know that the hard work I put into the soundtrack is going to translate to the audience, and that’s the most important thing to me.” Lamberti’s mixing credits at Sony Pictures include Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse and The Woman King.

The lot has been producing soundtracks for more than 100 years, including some of the most beloved movies and television shows. Through Sony Pictures Entertainment’s commitment to remaining ahead of the curve of technology and responding to the industry's creative needs, it continues to be a magnet for visionary filmmakers and award-winning sound mixers, editors and designers.

“We are continuously growing, expanding and looking toward what comes next,” said Jimenez in explaining the studio’s success. “We work as a team, and we are always looking for ways to improve and do things better.”

DENVER—The duo of Wazee Digital and Sony Pictures Post Production Services will continue, as the two companies have announced an extension of their partnership. Sony Pictures will continue to use Wazee Digital Core and its automated metadata-processing technology to store, view and manage assets.

Wazee Digital Core

The Wazee Digital Core is a cloud-native media asset management system that powers all other Wazee Digital products and services. Sony Pictures has utilized Core for the past six years to create time-based metadata for its assets. Analysts then use the system to manage inventory, share content and create custom clips for delivery.

The new deal extends Wazee and Sony Pictures’ relationship through Dec. 2017.