Sustainability and the Finnish TV and film industry

From battery-powered equipment failing on Arctic shoots, to product durability, TVBEurope hears from three members of Audiovisual Producers Finland (APFI) about how technology vendors can help them meet sustainability requirements

By Jenny Priestley

Published: April 26, 2023 Updated: April 27, 2023

From battery-powered equipment failing on Arctic shoots, to product durability, TVBEurope hears from three members of Audiovisual Producers Finland (APFI) about how technology vendors can help them meet sustainability requirements

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Audiovisual Producers Finland (APFI) is the Finnish TV and film association, with members working across the production space, including film studios and rental sites.

As part of our focus on sustainability throughout April, TVBEurope spoke to three APFI members, Angel Film, which provides studios, equipment and crew; Fireframe, a studio facility based in Helsinki; and Valofirma which offers studios and rental sites as well as rental products.

What are you hearing from clients in terms of their sustainability requirements? Olli Korpiala, CEO, Angel Film (OK): Our clients are seeking greener ways to produce content all the time, it is now a permanent trend. The large international operators already have very sophisticated ecological requirements they wish their local partners to meet. Finnish production companies are also aware of the requirements of green filmmaking. Finnish material and local guides have been released during the last few years. In 2022, APFI launched albert's eco-production tool which has had a good impact in spreading awareness of sustainable requirements in audiovisual productions.

Minttu Viitanen, administrative lead at Fireframe (MV): Our clients are more and more pressing the importance of sustainability in productions and in fact, sustainability is often the decisive factor for choosing our ICVFX virtual production studio over a more traditional way of production. Cutting travelling and accommodation, and effectively carbon emissions, is most certainly seen as the way of the future. Minimising the carbon footprint by shooting in an LED studio seems to be the most important sustainability requirement for our clients but not the only one. They also have requirements to meet in efficient waste management, eliminating single-use plastic, catering offering vegetarian food options and minimising paper use in production office practices.

Anni Wessman, chief marketing officer at Valofirma - The Light House (AW): With the introduction of albert in Finland, it's clear production companies will more and more be requiring data from us to factor in on their carbon calculations for their projects. Our emissions mostly consist of electricity and logistics, and we can anticipate what data must be gathered and consequently provided. And since logistics usually accounts for the largest portion of a production's footprint, environmental sustainability has been incorporated into our operational planning. In addition to environmental sustainability, economic, social, and cultural sustainability are things clients are becoming more and more in tune to. It's very commonplace these days in client meetings to discuss things like accessibility and equality in addition to what environmentally friendly equipment options like battery-powered generators we have available.

How are you helping clients to meet those requirements? OK: Angel Films has an EcoCompass certificate for the environmental management system (EMS), which is under review every year. This system is based on environmental legislation and European ISO 14001 environment standard, and the programme is under continuous development. Listening to our customers is the key to successfully helping them in meeting their green objectives and we are happy to help by providing them with suitable recycling options and tools to measure their wastage etc. We are constantly looking for ways to encourage productions to make greener choices and offer tools for their green development. We strive to be aware of the green filmmaking innovations abroad and look for ways to offer them to our clients.

MV: Fireframe offers an ICVFX studio service in Helsinki for clients producing films, TV shows, commercials, still shoots, gaming event materials and other related materials. Fireframe Studios also produces original content which is always designed to be shot almost entirely in our IC-VFX studio with virtual surroundings and set pieces.

By shooting in a single studio location, we can significantly reduce travel and costs associated with it and thereby lessen the carbon footprint of a tentpole movie, as travelling and transporting crew and equipment accounts for about 50 per cent of total emissions (Albert's Screen New Deal Report).

Fireframe's LED studio Despite the high electricity consumption of LED volume, Fireframe Studios exclusively uses 100 per cent emission-free energy, which is certified by the European Guarantee of Origin system. Not only do we offer a sustainable way of shooting and using emission-free energy, but we also put a significant effort into waste management, recycling, eliminating single-use plastics, minimising paper use, heat collection and reuse, and using local subcontractors who share our green values.

Fireframe uses local subcontractors and sublets permanent office space and production areas for key partners to minimise travel and transportation. Our studio premises have a ventilation system with built-in heat collection and reuse to minimise energy waste. Fireframe has reduced its chemical use to a minimum and environmentally friendly cleaning products are always favoured.

In collaboration with Clonet Oy, we are in the process of conducting comprehensive and accurate carbon footprint calculations

LINK:	https://www.tvbeurope.com/production-post/sustainability-and-the-finni...
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