Hollywood works to prevent sets and props from going to landfill: NPR

For decades, it has been standard practice in Hollywood for art departments to build sets for films and TV shows from scratch, then dismantle them at the end of production and take the pieces to a landfill.

“Trash cans are lined up at the end of the show,” Karen Steward, a veteran Hollywood artistic director, said of several productions she has worked on, starting with the 1988 high school comedy. Johnny be goodto the 2013 political thriller Olympus has fallen. “And there’s no talking about it, because it’s time to get off the soundstage.”

Steward is part of a group of like-minded Arts Directors Guild members who have been pushing for more sustainable practices for years, along with other allies. She said that at first it was difficult to get a lot of attention. “All we care about is not wasting time, being quick, getting things done, and time is money.”

But things are getting easier, Steward said, as the industry gradually begins to come to grips with its impact on human-caused climate change. Steward helped found the Arts Directors Guild’s Green Committee to share best practices and educate others on topics such as reducing waste and sourcing more sustainable building materials.

“Finding a true circular solution, a true zero waste idea, is what we are working towards,” she said.

Circular solutions

According to Earth Angel, an agency that helps productions in the United States and around the world reduce carbon emissions, the average TV show or movie in 2022 will produce about 240 tons of waste, with roughly half of that coming from prop disposal. And groups.

“There are definitely more innovative and effective ways of working,” said Emily O’Brien, founder and CEO of Earth Angel. “We often don’t give people the space and breathing room to uncover those solutions.”

One such solution is to reuse old collections instead of always building new ones.

Beachwood Services, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, rents out sets and props for reuse that were originally designed for their own productions. Located in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, its warehouses are filled with scenic gems, like the helicopter from the 2001 war movie The black hawk has fallen. It has since been reused Terminator 4, Suicide squad And team a, Among other movies and TV shows.

Art directors sometimes resist the idea of ​​reusing old sets, because they want to realize their own creative vision. But Sondra Garcia, Beachwood’s director of scenic operations, said the service allows them to change what they rent to fit their needs.

“We tell people, ‘You’re going to put your own spin on it. You’re going to paint it. You’re going to reshape it. And after that, this is your design,'” Garcia said. “The most important thing to remember is to recycle things because it is less wasteful, and producers like it because it saves money.”

When these sets become too old to be rented out for big-budget productions, they often end up at places like EcoSet.

The Los Angeles-based company’s production company pays for the removal of its sets, props and unwanted building materials. Instead of going to landfills, these treasures are donated to anyone who wants them.

“I think this place is very friendly for students who don’t have a lot of funding and support,” said film student Oyster Liao. She was pushing a metal shopping cart stacked with paint containers around the EcoSet warehouse. “And I like that we don’t have to waste so much.”

Solutions only go so far

But these solutions to Hollywood’s chronic waste problem go no further.

Ecoset owners don’t know what happens to all the free stuff the company gives away — whether it gets recycled again or thrown away. In addition, many warehouses around the region that used to hold older sets and props in circulation — Sony’s Beachwood Services previously had five warehouses and now there are two — have downsized or closed in the past two years, due to rising real estate costs. . (“We were able to find new homes for almost everything,” said Beachwood’s Garcia. “A lot of it was liquidated, so at least a lot of it didn’t have to be thrown in the trash.”)

“I don’t think anyone in our industry would shy away from taking on really tough challenges or we wouldn’t be in our industry,” he said. Everything everywhere at once Producer and sustainability champion Jonathan Wang. “But I think it’s difficult.”

Despite people’s best intentions, a lot of material still gets thrown away in the rush to meet hectic production deadlines – including his own sets, Wang said.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge that we’re all figuring this out,” Wang said. “We’re trying to do it better.”

Wang said producers should plan to reduce their environmental impact in the same way they handled the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic — when they allocated 4 or 5% of their budget to cover things like health and safety officials and testing.

“We adapted to the emergency situation that was needed on set. We are currently in an emergency situation, and we are consuming resources faster than they can be replenished,” Wang said. “We need to look at this as an emergency and allocate a proportion of our budgets to innovation towards sustainability.”

This story was produced for broadcast by Isabella Gomez Sarmientoand edited by Jennifer Vanasco For digital and air. He was a photo editor Emily Bogle.

NPR would like to thank Art Directors Guild Green Committee Co-Chair Amelia Brock for her assistance with this story.