Seeing green turning as an opportunity

Sustainability plays a relevant role for the mother of three. And as a producer, she has regularly received the Green Shooting Card (now Green Filming Badge) for the films she has produced, the award for sustainable filming from MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein: for example, for the feature film "Goliath 96" starring Katja Riemann in 2019, as well as for the feature film debut "Goth" by Nils Loof (2017) and the short film "Nicole's Cage" by Josef Brandl (2017). When the Executive Producer and founder of Skalar Film had to postpone her latest feature film project "Wir bleiben in der Nähe" until further notice last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, she did not want to remain idle. She trained as a green consultant with green film & TV expert Philip Gassmann at the Munich Chamber of Industry and Commerce. "I wanted to build up a second mainstay and be able to work on a project-by-project basis."

She is currently supervising two Documentary productions. One is the cinema film "Heaven can't wait" by Sven Halfar, a production of Hamburg's Heimathafen Film, and the TV commissioned production for MDR "Wenn der Wald stirbt", which is being produced by Bremedia. Rike Steyer has already produced Sven Halfar's feature film debut "DeaD" and is now advising him on the production, which is being realised exclusively in Hamburg. The film, which is being funded in Hamburg, must fulfil the requirements of the MOIN Film Fund. "Heaven can't wait" tells the story of an elderly choir of over 70-year-old members who still practice and perform with great passion. But their rehearsals are jeopardised by the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic. "A lot of this production is shot spontaneously. This makes it difficult to plan sustainable measures in advance," says Steyer. Corona is also a problem for environmentally friendly measures when it comes to catering on set.

In the case of the TV documentary, it is the client, MDR, who intended a green production method. The broadcaster wanted to take part in the "100 Green Productions" initiative of the Green Shooting working group, which has set itself the goal of 100 TV and film productions being shot green in 2021. As the Documentary production is scheduled to run for five years, this was not achievable - but the production took the criteria as a benchmark.

It is an advantage if Green Consultants come on board a film project as early as possible: "The earlier the consulting can begin, the better the course can be set," says Steyer. Green consulting starts with the script, and for documentaries with the concept. Once Rike Steyer has been engaged, she organises a basic kick-off workshop with the departments to get the team in tune with all aspects of resource-saving filming and reducing emissions. "At the kick-off workshop, I go on a short emissions journey and explain why and how we want to work sustainably. For a feature film, it's the individual heads of department; for a documentary, it's a rather small team consisting of camera, Directors and production." For the documentary "When the forest dies", there are a number of challenges to overcome, even though a small documentary film production does not initially leave such a large carbon footprint as larger feature film productions. Nevertheless, the film requires a lot of travelling and longer periods of filming directly in nature. "The question here is how small the equipment can be kept, whether to travel by train and only rent a car on location and, of course, how the energy supply is realised on location." Bremedia has a CNG vehicle that is fuelled with natural gas. CNG has the best CO2 balance of all fossil fuels, and natural gas-powered vehicles also cause up to 95 per cent less air pollution. During the filming days in the forest, however, there is also the question of accommodation, such as whether it is possible to camp on site, as well as the power supply: "The equipment was put together in such a way that it is small and handy, so that Director of Photography Jan-Ole Sieg can travel to the forest by car and be completely self-sufficient," reports Steyer. "We save on overnight stays in hotels and the batteries for the camera and drone are charged using a solar panel."

Some things fail in practice

Every project poses different and new challenges, but in principle there are enough starting points for all productions to make them more sustainable: "Not everything you set out to do can be realised because it reaches its limits in practice," says Steyer. The greatest savings potential can be achieved in transport and energy without the teams having to make any major sacrifices. One experience, however, is that some alternatives are currently still failing due to real-life conditions. "CNG and electric vehicles are still in short supply among car hire companies. Although lighting equipment such as energy-efficient LED lights are sufficiently available, they are still three times as expensive in some cases. This quickly reaches budget limits." Similarly, the range of low-emission diesel generators is currently still too limited. A pioneer in the industry is the hybrid solar generator from Cologne-based film equipment rental company Maier Bros, which is equipped with a battery and solar cells as well as mains and gas operation for different load requirements. However, there is currently only one of these and everyone wants one.

In addition to the workshop, consultation and conceptual preparation of the shoot, Rike Steyer accompanies the production until the end. At the end, a CO2 balance has to be drawn up, for which she uses a CO2 calculator that has to be constantly fed with data. "The earlier the team can be involved and the data can be entered during production, the better." However, Steyer reckons it will take two days after the end of filming to enter the data into the computer.

Minimum ecological standards in the FFG

Green Consultants do not always meet with an open door, as there are sometimes reservations and sometimes just a lack of interest. However, the framework conditions provided by funding programmes such as MOIN Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein specify green measures; the amended Film Funding Act, which comes into force on 1 January 2022, also links federal funding to minimum ecological standards. And the MFG Baden-Württemberg subsidises the costs of sustainability and green consulting with 5000 euros, which is paid on top of the Fundings.

The costs of green filming and the use of Green Consultants on set can be calculated in any case, but whether they can be fully offset by savings ultimately depends on when the Green Consultants join the production and what influence they can exert. "There are certainly still some who see the use of Green Consultants as a necessary evil rather than as support. I always say that green filming should be seen as an opportunity, because this is how film productions position themselves for the future," says Steyer. The green consultant also counters the widespread view that green measures make productions more expensive: "It doesn't necessarily become more expensive just because a production is sustainable. Production becomes more efficient and saves energy and costs. With a wider range of more efficient and energy-saving equipment, prices also fall."