Sustainable production and set design

During the production of the Hollywood action movie Fast & Furious 7 which grossed worldwide more than a billion dollar in only two and a half weeks, 230 cars were wrecked. As the picture car coordinator Dennis McCarthy told the Washington Post probably more than 40 vehicles were destroyed for a sequence that was filmed on a mountainous highway pass in Colorado. But even film and TV productions that don’t have big action scenes often require a lot of material for the set design. When the production wraps, tons of material are wasted which produces additional costs.

But there are better ways to handle this issue. In a three-hour workshop on Production and Set Design that the Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (FFHSH) hosts on May 8 at the Hanseatische Materialverwaltung, Philip Gassmann will discuss how sustainable set design can be planned and produced.  The writer/ director and expert for eco-friendly film production is going to explain what green set design means and which parameters need to be considered. "It in not enough to act eco-friendly on location, we also have to take into account further factors such as logistics, transport as well as the workflows within the production."

When it comes to set decoration there are also some eco-friendly possibilities. "In some case it can even be more sustainable to shoot in a studio", says Philip Gassmann. A key subject of the workshop will be dedicated to green set construction which means to use eco-friendy material, methods and tools. In order to implement such kind of measures in production, Philip Gassmann will point out how to enthuse teams and investors for a more sustainable production method.

The workshop takes place on May 8 at 2 pm at the Hanseatische Materialverwaltung, Stockmeyerstraße 41 – 43, 20457 Hamburg. Please register here.