HOLLYWOOD EDITING OUT EMISSIONS

Ironically, two films that will forevermore be remembered as landmarks in Hollywood’s march toward carbon neutrality are about the oil industry. (“Syriana” and “There Will Be Blood”) Of course, an academy award-winner called "An Inconvenient Truth" might have had something to do with it, too.

Aiming for Films of High Quality and Low Ecological Damage
Joanne Kaufman, December 24, 2007 (NY Times via Yahoo Finance)

WHO
Paramount Vantage (Georgia Kacandes, executive vice president for physical and postproduction, and Elizabeth Kirkscey, associate production executive), Native Energy

One of the first carbon-neutral films, a film about the oil industry.

WHAT
All releases from this division of Paramount will now be carbon neutral. Whatever emissions may be created in production will be compensated with emissions reduction initiatives of an equal amount.

WHEN
- Kacandes and Kirkscey first worked together in 2006 on Warner Brothers’ “Syriana,” which had been made carbon neutral by its producers. It was a film about the oil industry.
- The next film on which Kacandes and Kirkscey will work to achieve carbon neutrality is “There Will Be Blood,” a film about the oil industry.

WHERE
The first film Kacandes and Kirkscey had worked together on to make carbon neutral was Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.”

WHY
- Paramount Vantage is a division of the studio aimed at the production of lower budget, higher minded projects.
- Carbon neutral releases: “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Babel,” “A Mighty Heart” and “There Will Be Blood.”
- Native Energy will calculate the carbon footprint of each production, accounting for emissions generated from travel, vehicles, gasoline, generators, heating, air-conditioning, shipping, etc., and use Paramount-provided funds to purchase offsets. Offsets are investments in sustainable projects that diminish emissions in an amount equal to those the productions generate.
- Special Effects used food coloring and thickening agent methylcellulose to create biodegradable “oil.”

One of the first Paramount Vantage carbon-neutral films, a film about the oil industry.

QUOTES
Kirkscey, Paramount: “[For the emissions the productions generate] we pay [Native Energy] a dollar amount to invest in projects that create sustainable energy, projects that wouldn’t have happened without our investment.”