The Environmental Impact of Filmmaking: Using Star Wars to Improve Sector Sustainability Practices

电影制作对环境的影响：利用星球大战改善行业可持续发展实践

• 批准号: AH/W011115/1
• 负责人: Rebecca Harrison
• 金额: $ 25.61万
• 依托单位: The Open University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW011115%2F1
• 关键词: Environmental; Impact; Filmmaking; Using; Star

Responding to the urgency of activist movements and governmental talks to prevent climate change, screen sector practitioners are, at present, seeking solutions to the environmental harms caused by film production. For example, events run by the British Film Institute and Creative Scotland have discussed how the sector can become greener. However, as attested by Albert, BAFTA's industry-leading sustainability consultancy, industry initiatives to date have focused on carbon-offsetting on film shoots. While many filmmakers hope to achieve carbon neutrality, researchers and activists argue that 'net-zero' masks the effects of prolonged carbon use and fails to prevent climate change. This project, then, will turn attention to the hidden environmental impacts of prop and costume making, and provide practitioners with tools to help them reduce carbon emissions. In doing so, the project will collaborate with Albert to provide four sustainability calculators, each of which will estimate the carbon emissions produced by an object made for the Star Wars franchise. The calculators will also enable practitioners to input data to determine the sustainability of their past or future productions. The four case studies underpinning the calculators are: 1. Analogue (1980) and digital (2005) iterations of the droid Artoo Detoo 2. Queen Amidala's 'throne room' costume in The Phantom Menace (1999) 3. Stormtrooper helmets appearing across multiple films 4. An animatronic porg from The Last Jedi (2017).Star Wars is a useful point of departure in discussions about sustainability. For, from its inception to the present day, it has told stories about environmental change. In A New Hope (1977), a human-made weapon obliterates the planet Alderaan. The Phantom Menace addresses the effects of colonisation. And in Solo (2018), characters recognise the effects of war on different eco-systems. Emerging in the 1970s alongside the first mainstream public debates about climate change and other environmental issues, the Star Wars franchise has provided fascinating commentary on how humans change the natural world. Of course, planetary exploitation is not limited to its onscreen narratives. It can also be evidenced in the production and commoditising of Star Wars properties, which are all made from raw materials: stormtrooper helmets rely on thermoplastics derived from oil; silicon computer chips store digital characters. Through its extractive, manufacturing, and waste processes, the franchise harms ecosystems and contributes to global climate change by emitting carbon, among other pollutants. Yet many of the franchise's innovations in prop and costume making, which have emerged from English studios, have set standards across the sector for over four decades. Visually iconic Star Wars properties appear in fashion magazines (Vogue, 1977, 2002), are referenced by other media such as television shows (Ru Paul's Drag Race UK, 2021), and are crucial to Star Wars merchandising. Thus, the franchise will offer valuable insights into the environmental impact of prop and costume making that are relevant to the film industry and other design-oriented sectors. The project's findings and resources will be shared on a website, which will include written histories, short videos, and visual material. Furthermore, through a research network, industry focus group, and events (such as a lecture at the National Science and Media Museum's 'Widescreen Weekend' Film Festival), the project will prompt discussions about sustainability among academics, practitioners, and the public. The Environmental Impact of Filmmaking project, then, will demonstrate how props and costume making are vital to industry efforts to make filmmaking more sustainable. By equipping practitioners with tools to adopt greener processes and inspiring public conversations about industry practices, the project will have a lasting and positive impact on film production.

为了应对活动家运动和政府谈判的紧迫性，以防止气候变化，屏幕行业从业者目前正在寻求解决电影制作造成的环境危害的方法。例如，英国电影学院和创意苏格兰举办的活动讨论了该行业如何变得更加绿色。然而，正如BAFTA行业领先的可持续发展咨询公司Albert所证实的那样，迄今为止，行业倡议的重点是电影拍摄的碳抵消。虽然许多电影制片人希望实现碳中和，但研究人员和活动家认为，“净零”掩盖了长期使用碳的影响，无法防止气候变化。因此，该项目将关注道具和服装制作对环境的潜在影响，并为从业者提供工具，帮助他们减少碳排放。在此过程中，该项目将与阿尔伯特合作，提供四个可持续性计算器，每个计算器将估计为星星大战系列制作的物体产生的碳排放量。计算器还将使从业人员能够输入数据，以确定其过去或未来生产的可持续性。支撑计算器的四个案例研究是：1。机器人Artoo Detoo 2的Anterior（1980）和Digital（2005）迭代。《幽灵的威胁》（The Phantom Menace，1999）中阿米达拉女王的“王座室”服装。冲锋队头盔出现在多部电影4。《最后的绝地武士》（2017）中的一只电子动画猪。星星战争是讨论可持续性的一个有用的出发点。因为，从成立到现在，它讲述了关于环境变化的故事。在《新希望》（1977）中，一种人造武器毁灭了奥德朗星球。《幽灵的威胁》讲述了殖民化的影响。在《索罗》（2018）中，角色们认识到战争对不同生态系统的影响。20世纪70年代，随着第一次关于气候变化和其他环境问题的主流公众辩论的出现，《星星大战》系列电影为人类如何改变自然世界提供了引人入胜的评论。当然，对地球的开发并不局限于它的叙事。这也可以从星星大战财产的生产和商品化中得到证明，这些财产都是由原材料制成的：冲锋队头盔依赖于从石油中提取的热塑性塑料;硅电脑芯片存储数字字符。通过其采掘、制造和废物处理过程，特许经营权损害了生态系统，并通过排放碳和其他污染物加剧了全球气候变化。然而，该系列在道具和服装制作方面的许多创新都来自英国工作室，四十多年来一直为整个行业树立了标准。视觉上标志性的星星战争属性出现在时尚杂志（Vogue，1977年，2002年），被其他媒体引用，如电视节目（Ru Paul's Drag Race UK，2021年），并且对星星战争商品至关重要。因此，该特许经营权将为道具和服装制作对环境的影响提供有价值的见解，这些道具和服装制作与电影业和其他以设计为导向的部门有关。该项目的调查结果和资源将在一个网站上分享，其中包括书面历史、短视频和视觉材料。此外，通过研究网络、行业焦点小组和活动（如在国家科学和媒体博物馆的“宽屏周末”电影节上的演讲），该项目将在学者、从业者和公众之间引发关于可持续性的讨论。电影制作项目的环境影响，然后，将展示道具和服装制作是如何至关重要的行业努力，使电影制作更具可持续性。通过为从业者提供采用更环保流程的工具，并激发公众对行业实践的讨论，该项目将对电影制作产生持久和积极的影响。