Last week, our masterclass ‘Green Filmmaking is taking over Europe’ took place at the EYE Amsterdam, in conjunction with the Festival Film&Science, and was a true success. The masterclass was hosted by our project leader Chai Locher, and took place to a full house, brimming with enthusiastic attendees from film professionals to media students, and sustainability entrepreneurs. There is clear European-wide support for green filmmaking, and initial connections between national industries have been made. Now the question is: how can we consolidate across boarders to further refine and improve the process, in favour of an advanced and innovative EU film industry? Check out what’s next for EU green filmmaking in a recap of the day’s events here, or check out the day in pictures here.

Illustration: HumanEmpire

In every presented European case, practical industry support as well as guidance is currently being provided in favour of sustainable filmmaking alternatives. Related green agencies, organizations, as well as initiatives exist, and are sometimes in addition to internal industry incentives which have been generated to further green film industry practise.

Common ground has been established and now, common guidelines and general EU tools can be the way forward. A unified framework would help to make the co-production process easier, and would encourage film professionals to maintain their green standards when shooting across boarders. Green filmmakers could also use such a framework to their advantage, while working in favour of local green industries across Europe.

Overview of day’s events

Kim van den Heuvel of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund in Belgium, expressed commitment to generating a carbon neutral industry and also explained the way in which an industry specific carbon calculator was derived from local production case studies. Locality and physical accessibility of shooting locations has been identified by the AudioVisual Fund as the areas of greatest impact, as production-related transport is the greatest area of resource consumption on set. The AudioVisual Fund is in the process of producing a sustainable film lable, while encouraging filmmakers to become aware of their outputs through using a carbon calculator before collecting the last 10% of film their funding.

Next up, Michael Geidel of The Green Film Initiative in Germany was on hand to discuss institutional support, financial savings to be made within sustainability, social corporate responsibility, and the reduction of waste by 50% on German sets.

Mathieu Tronquit of PRIMI and Ecoprod in France, discussed the collective nature of French sustainability initiatives, while presenting a practical green tool-kit made available to industry professionals within France. The toolkit includes a production carbon calculator, best practices guide, tech support, and related workshop offerings. Filmmakers shooting in the Ile-de France and PACA region, are also eligible for funding that is granted on the grounds of sustainable practice.

Christiane Schultz of the Hamburg Film Fund shared the practicality and applicability of “The Green Shooting Card“; an established green label , which provides sustainability assistance and information to filmmaking professionals.

During the open Q & A, an enthusiastic audience member proposed creation of a resource where European filmmakers could find information, and ask questions from a unified platform. Chai Locher explains: this is exactly what the Green Filmmaking Project intends to do, and what it is currently working towards. Chai further adds that the Green Filmmaking Project has been invited to speak at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for this very reason- speaking to its role as a leading body in European green filmmaking.

A buzzing borrel after the masterclass took place in the beautiful EYE Amsterdam foyer and bar, and provided those present an opportunity to further network and continue the green discussions.

A ‘green resource table’ was set-up throughout, and made free practical green filmmaking resources and information -such as our ‘How to green your film production (so far)’ guide – readily available.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this most informative, and inspiring meeting of greening European minds. It is only onwards and upwards from here, we are taking the film industry into the future!

If you enjoyed this article, you will also like the following from our blog: ‘The UK & British Film Institute are green giants!‘, and ONLINE: ‘HOW TO GREEN YOUR FILM PRODUCTION (SO FAR)’ GUIDE