Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

How virtual production is helping TV and film become more sustainable

28/06/2022

Final Pixels Michael McKenna lays out the seven ways to reduce the impact of TV and film production on the environment

By Contributor

Published: June 28, 2022

Final Pixel's Michael McKenna lays out the seven ways to reduce the impact of TV and film production on the environment

target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>

The innovation of using virtual production techniques could make a significant impact in the race to net zero across broadcasters and production companies, with recent studies suggesting over a 90 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions.

However, I see it that VP needs to be considered as just one component of a suite of tools we can deploy to clean up our act on production.

For context, some of the numbers are staggering -

In 2019, one hour's worth of TV content produced 13 tonnes of carbon dioxide- with drama being the biggest culprit.

While this reduced dramatically in 2020 due to lockdowns and restrictions on air travel, its clear from the albert 2020 report that people transport is consistently the highest emitter of carbon per hour of TV.

This article sums up where we are on this journey, and how using virtual production is not only likely to be a greener choice, but also acts as a vanguard to place the responsibility and discussions around sustainable production central to the project in hand.

7 ways to reduce your impact on the environment: Complete a sustainability plan for your company, and champion it Work to develop your overall company plan with a forward thinking and supportive team of environmental experts, like the consultants at Creative Zero or with Green Shoot. This will help cement the actions you want to take to become part of day to day life.

To help inform the plan, I really recommend getting training it's the first step for production and editorial teams on the journey and offered free of charge by albert.

We at Final Pixel have recently launched our own sustainability plan for this year.

Use virtual production to reduce travel costs It's clear the TV industry has a lot to do, but the data is emerging that's beginning to show just how powerful choosing to use virtual production can be.

The use of LED walls and game engine technology to create in-camera VFX was pioneered on The Mandalorian, and has exploded as an industry since. Aside from the well documented benefits for both creatives and producers, it in increasingly being seen as a logical choice for companies looking to reduce emissions.

Anecdotal reports from a large international TV production business suggest if VP had been used to avoid travel or negated the need for a large scale set build, then the savings are potentially huge. A soon to be released snapshot analysis of an actual recent shoot, which replaced the need for an overseas second unit, showed a staggering reduction of over 95 per cent CO2 emissions.

Furthermore, a recent study overseen by Jeff Beverly of Commonwealth-McCann showed that for car shoots, the CO2 saving would also have been in the region of a huge 85%-90%. This could also be revolutionary for car manufacturers and advertising agencies seeking to reach net zero goals and lead the way in sustainability.

Measure measure measure Use a calculator! Everyone should be using albert by now to track emissions on TV productions.

There are many other forms of calculator available, some even come within a typical budgeting/scheduling template to make the whole process simpler for producers. A key point to note is that the calculators are not wholly consistent, so forging a path to a standard in calculating emissions makes a lot of sense to me.

A key factor in this calculator on our LED wall shoots is the power draw of the volume itself. What is exciting, is that we are hearing of more and more clever technology and software that can be deployed on virtual production shoots to actively manage the power draw - for example using AI to automatically dim the screen when it decides its not being used in anger. Technology that can be applied to all lighting sources in the studio - just because they are plugged in, doesn't mean they need to burn 100 per cent the whole time!

Use virtual production to replace real world set builds with virtual environments With virtual production using LED walls you can create any location in 3D. This is projected real-time onto the LED wall the parallax effect allows allows us to look around corners' when the camera moves.

Michael McKenna At Final Pixel, our Virtual Art Department typically starts work 6-8 weeks ahead of a shoot. As a fully remote team we do not have the infrastructure emissions associated with commercial property and are able to be flexible when we need to scale up and down at short notice.

Importantly, building and filming on a virtual environment also brings what I call a recurring sustainability dividend' every time the virtual set is re-used - eg for a returning series or say for pickup shots. Once built, the energy which went into making it is complete and it can simply be pulled off the shelf for future productions. Cumulatively over time this could build to be a huge carbon reduction.

If you do need to use physical sets - make sure they are green sets.

Have a green steward on set. This one is easy - hire a Green Steward on your next shoot.

The Green Steward will help ensure people are following best practices on set and act as a point of co-ordination, eg using reusable water bottles and saving plastic from recycling and landfill! They also manage the calculators.

You can read more about Green Stewards here.

Use real-time and virtual production to reduce the time in post On shoots with a high degree of VFX - requiring compositing and lots of fancy rendering - you can reduce the impact of render farms and the additional emissions an elong
LINK: https://www.tvbeurope.com/production-post/how-virtual-production-is-he...
See more stories from tvb

Europe Stories

03/06/2024

Dalet and Veritone Reach Agreement to Distribute, Transact and Monetize Media Archives

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...

19/03/2024

Barco announces collaboration with NVIDIA and SoftAcuity to add AI and data analytics applications to the operating room

Mar 18, 2024 Barco announces collaboration with NVIDIA and SoftAcuity to a...

18/03/2024

USC Basketball Star Juju Watkins on Fashion, Film, Friendship Bracelets, and More

Listeners turn to Spotify to connect with their favorites-from artists and album...

18/03/2024

Young professionals successfully complete vocational training at SGL's Meitingen site

Seven young professionals completed their vocational training at SGL Carbon in M...

18/03/2024

Vintage Allure

Released this past January, the music video for Ariana Grande's yes, and? brings a modern approach to vintage allure. The video was directed by Christian ...

18/03/2024

ST Engineering iDirect Unveils Intuition at SATELLITE 2024 Conference and Exhibition

Global satellite communications leader gives market a first look at its next-gen...

18/03/2024

Box to Box Films shares with MediaSilo

Box to Box Films Shares with MediaSilo Amy and Drive to Survive producer updates collaborators simply and securely Boston, MA, March 18, 2024 - Box to Box Fi...

18/03/2024

Logging and reviewing: Moving towards a sustainable workflow

Jane Sung, COO at Cinedeck, explains how broadcasters and content production companies can achieve the goal of moving towards creating a more sustainable, effic...

18/03/2024

Altice Media sold to French shipping tycoon for 1.55 billion

The deal includes BFM TV, one of the country's largest 24-hour news channels, as well as documentary channel RMC D couverte, and RMC Story By Jenny Priestl...

18/03/2024

Meet the CEO and founder

By TVBEurope Staff Published: March 18, 2024 Nick Franco tells TVBEurope how he went from being a master plasterer and refurbishing the ornate plasterwork ...

18/03/2024

Banglalink Gets Unified Licence to Deliver Superior Digital Services in Bangladesh

18 Mar 2024 Banglalink Gets Unified Licence to Deliver Superior Digital Service...

18/03/2024

Final sprint in the AS4 market communication

Final Sprint in the AS4 Market Communication: All Arvato Systems Customers Are Ready to Go Customers for market communication AS4-ready Arvato Systems is now...

18/03/2024

Thales to modernize Montreal Mtro blue Line,improving passengers' punctuality and train reliability

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Following a call for tenders, the Soci t de tra...

18/03/2024

Cyberani and Thales enter a strategic alliance to strengthen the Kingdom's cybersecurity

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Mr. Saeed Al Saeed, CEO of Cyberani, and Mr. Pie...

18/03/2024

Thales to equip Cibao International Airport in Dominican Republic with new Air Traffic Control Radar System

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instituto Dominicano de Aviaci n Civil (IDAC) se...

15/03/2024

Connecting and training Sudanese journalists-in-exile

To help empower Sudanese journalists living in exile amidst the ongoing conflict in their homeland, Thomson trainers have been delivering workshops designed to ...

15/03/2024

Meet the director of channel development

By TVBEurope Staff Published: March 15, 2024 Updated: March 18, 2024 Jenny Isaksson, director channel development at Vizrt, tells TVBEurope why she enjoy...

15/03/2024

Record number of EBU Members unite for new ABBA documentary

Record number of EBU Members unite for new ABBA documentary...

15/03/2024

Navigating the Future: Humanizing AI and Connecting Everything - Insights from MWC 2024

This year's annual telecoms jamboree in Barcelona attracted a record breakin...

15/03/2024

Pete Distad Named CEO of New Sports Streaming Service

Pete Distad Named CEO of New Sports Streaming Service Former Apple and Hulu Executive to Lead Joint Venture from ESPN, FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery March 15...

15/03/2024

Celebrate the Best of Irish Culture with RT this St Patrick's Weekend

The Late Late Show hosts a world record attempt for the largest c il band performance Irish weekend sporting action from Six Nations to Allianz League Dancin...

15/03/2024

Post-quantum cryptography: six French cyber players join forces to design the secure communication networks of tomorrow

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn The RESQUE consortium brings together six French...

14/03/2024

Women Making History, Part 3

The Women Making History interview series continues, with Panavision President and CEO Kim Snyder steering the conversation toward mentorship. Here, the partici...

14/03/2024

Spilling the tea: The challenges of live music for television

Ciaran Doran reports on a recent RTS Technology Centre event that heard about the challenge of getting sound on live TV events just right, including dealing wit...

14/03/2024

Case study: How post production house Blazing Griffin keeps complex file movement simple

Blazing Griffins technical operations manager Paul Martin explains how the compa...

14/03/2024

Meet the TPN ambassador

By TVBEurope Staff Published: March 14, 2024 Updated: March 15, 2024 Stephen Stewart, former network director at Channel 4, tells TVBEurope about his cur...

14/03/2024

Bitmovin and Yospace launch live streaming partnership for world-class advertising experience

Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, today announces ...

14/03/2024

VEON appoints PwC as 2023 auditors, provides updates on reporting timelines

14 Mar 2024 VEON appoints PwC as 2023 auditors, provides updates on reporting timelines Amsterdam, Netherlands, 14 March 2024, 17:00 CET: VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VE...

14/03/2024

Breaking Boundaries: Cisco and Telenor Elevate Collaboration to Champion Inclusivity and Sustainability

8 minute read Share alt=Alternative descriptive text class=lazyload main ...

14/03/2024

Cinegy Captures More with Cinegy Capture

Cinegy Capture 24.1 SL6031, NAB Show, Las Vegas, 14-17 April 2024: Cinegy, the premier provider of broadcast software technology, has added yet more power and ...

14/03/2024

Thales Alenia Space will develop the radar instrument for ESA's 10th Earth Explorer Harmony exciting new mission

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Thales Alenia Space has been selected by ESA to ...

14/03/2024

Shaping the future of ATC: Rohde & Schwarz at Airspace World 2024

Shaping the future of ATC: Rohde & Schwarz at Airspace World 2024 Rohde & Schwarz is actively shaping the future of air traffic control operations. At Airspace...

13/03/2024

Music Videos Rolling Out in Beta to Premium Spotify Users Across Select Markets

In the early neon-infused '80s, music videos burst onto TV screens, turning some of the most beloved songs into visual experiences that redefined the way fa...

13/03/2024

The Making of Ferrari

I like to work with directors that have a real distinct sense for what they want out of their film, says Erik Messerschmidt, ASC. This was certainly the case w...

13/03/2024

Brightcove adds web-based video editing capabilities to streaming technology platform

The update enables users to repurpose existing video content by editing recordin...

13/03/2024

Water, water everywhere

Vine FX blends practical and CGI elements for ITVs After the Flood, crafting immersive world-building crucial to the post-disaster thrillers authenticity, write...

13/03/2024

Slovak government proposals threaten media independence

Slovak government proposals threaten media independence...

13/03/2024

EBU welcomes the European Parliament's vote on the AI Act

EBU welcomes the European Parliament's vote on the AI Act...

13/03/2024

Coalition calls for effective implementation as the Parliament adopts the European Media Freedom Act

Coalition calls for effective implementation as the Parliament adopts the Europe...

13/03/2024

IEC welcomes KATS as first funding partner for Global Impact Fund

IEC's Global Impact Fund (IEC-GIF) took a step further in advancing the vision of a safer, more efficient world today with the signing of its first funding ...

13/03/2024

Harmonic to Showcase Fiber-Made-Simple Solutions at FTTH Conference 2024

SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 13, 2024 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced the company will showcase its versatile solutions for high-speed fiber broadband ser...

13/03/2024

Rodeo FX adds colour offering with Baselight

Creative company Rodeo FX opens new colour suite in its Toronto studio and welcomes Ana Escorse as senior colourist Rodeo FX, known for providing high-end VFX,...

13/03/2024

Cricket Australia Partners with Dalet for Groundbreaking Fan Experience

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced that Cricket Australia (CA) has chosen Dalet Flex to increase fan...

13/03/2024

2024-03-13

Founded in 2008, Symbiosis has been collecting, banking, and planting seeds from mother trees of various Brazilian native species since 2010. The mother tree r...

13/03/2024

RT SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2024 OPEN FOR ENTRIES

TELL US YOUR (SHORT) STORIES The 2024 RT Short Story Competition is now open for entries. The RT Short Story Competition was set up in 1986 to honour wr...

13/03/2024

Thales Partners with Neural Labs to Support AI-Powered Smart Cities

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Partnership spanning two decades expands to incorporate cloud licensing SaaS capabilities will enable Neural Labs to deploy an...

13/03/2024

Rohde & Schwarz hosts next edition of popular Oscilloscope Days event in April 2024

Rohde & Schwarz hosts next edition of popular Oscilloscope Days event in April 2...

12/03/2024

UKTV Ventures partners with Legacy of Lives in 1million airtime-for-equity deal

12th March 2024 - Award-winning broadcaster UKTV has today announced it has invested in the UKs first independent funeral-planning service, Legacy of Lives, usi...

12/03/2024

Five Years of Spotify in India: A Look Back at Our Greatest Hits

February marked Spotify's fifth year in India, and since our debut, we've focused on lifting up the country's creator community, localizing content ...