Hollywood Is Ready For Its Close-up

The movie industry has certainly given the public great entertainment with blockbusters coming out almost every other week.  With the advanced use of computerization, the popularity of 3D, they can project on the screen images that were never possible a number of years ago.

In bringing a movie project to your local theater, millions of dollars are spent and thousands of people are employed from the actors, writers to the technical personnel behind the scenes. Whether they shoot on a movie studio back lot or go on location they have a small army of people that work on the project.

Although with image computerization the need to build elaborate sets has diminished somewhat, there still is the need to have a set built in a studio for the specific scene they are filming. Personnel have to be fed, and special effects have to be just right. In past years, Hollywood, in the business of movie making, has left a sizeable footprint with all its excesses in film production.

In this era of environmental consciousness, the Hollywood studios are trying to change their past indiscretions and have started to be more green in conducting their entertainment business.

According to an article form ABC News written by Kevin Chupka, one of the first studios to take a lead in being more environmentally conscious is Warner Brothers.  One of their green projects was to disassemble an old studio and constructed one that runs on solar power, recycled or reused about 90% of the old studio, used sustainable wood and used environmentally friendly cement made from fly ash that is a waste product of coal burning plants that normally would go into a land fill.

A building called The Mill, where sets were constructed for the past 70 years, was retrofitted with a solar roof and energy efficient lighting was installed. Mr. Chupka goes on to say that Warner Brothers is now looking on how to make films green by approaching the production to have a smaller environmental impact.

A recently produced film ‘Valentine’s Day” was one of the greenest productions to date. Trailers that house actors, wardrobe and makeup stations used hybrid energy (solar) to run their power generators that run all day saving 18 metric tons of CO2.

Whether they are on set or on location, the studios have become more aware of the carbon footprint and have hired environmental companies to guide them in becoming greener during production activities. They have instituted recycling programs encompassing a wide range of movie making functions from the construction materials they use in building sets, using alternative fuels to run their equipment to recycling plastic bottles the crews use while working.

Movie studios and television production companies alike are following the environmentally conscious lifestyles that their actors lead by producing entertainment that can be enjoyed by peoples around the world by a greener Hollywood.