On March 19th professional filmmakers, executive producers & location managers gathered at pllek, in Amsterdam to attend the workshop ‘Sustainable Production in Practice’. Els Rientjes (Sustainability Manager to the Dutch Film industry) hosted the workshop to harness a new way of thinking & working for production professionals: “If we do not participate in the sustainability shift now, we will soon loose our relevancy” said Rientjes. Best practises identified during the workshop include: detailed planning & communication of the sustainability strategy in pre-production, introducing a broader definition of work for location managers (since location managers best know the capacities of a site), strategic waste management, & the introduction of a Sustainable Coordinator as a permanent crew member on set.
Location manager Tijn Heerkens (LocatieGoed), producer Marc Bary (IJswater Films), producer Trent (OAK Motion Pictures) & Remko Zuidema, the founder of BRIQS, were all on hand to share their working experiences with sustainable production. The main topic of discussion: waste. And in a broader perspective: How do you manage the location you’re running, and how do you leave it behind? What do you do with the huge amounts of waste and material which you no longer need after production? One of the main take-aways presented by Els, was a reframing of the professional production approach; from the context of a linear economy on-set, to that of a circular economy. If we think this way, going green can also save ‘green’ for sets. See photos from the event here, or get the full Dutch recap of the workshop here.