 Good evening everybody and welcome to NYC Film Green Office Hours. This is an initiative of the New York City Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. And my name is Shira Gans. I'm the Senior Executive Director of Policy and Programs here at the Mayor's Office. So tonight I'm really excited to welcome you to our Office Hours series. For those of you who are not familiar with our office, our office is the agency in New York City government that supports the creative industries. The industries here in New York City support over 500,000 jobs and $150 billion in economic activity. And we do this primarily the original reason for our office is to do film permitting for on location shooting so most of you have probably interacted with our office in one way or another. So we also have developed a suite of programs and initiatives to create access and opportunity across the creative industries ranging from theater to music to digital games. In addition to supporting permitting we also try to support sustainable film production in the city and we do that primarily through our NYC Film Green Program, which is designed to both reward productions that are already taking steps to reduce their environmental impact and also to create resources for those who want to take steps to further reduce their impact. So events like this are office hours as well as other programs we've created help reach those objectives. And so tonight without further ado I'm excited for our topic to talk to producers who are really bringing environmentally sustainable practices into their productions, and to have our partners in NYC Film Green and Earth Angel to moderate our discussion tonight. So enjoy the discussion and I look forward to seeing you at future office hours. All right. Thank you so much Chira. And thank you and welcome to everybody that that is joining us tonight for the producers roundtable this is our third office hours. In the last three months we've had discussions on different topics of sustainable production and we're really excited tonight to be talking about sustainable production from the producer perspective. So just a little bit more about the NYC Film Green Program as Chira mentioned office hours is part of the engagement and education part of the program but the kind of the meat of the program is really the tools that we are providing for productions that are filming in New York City. They are free to use they are on the mobile website and we'll also have this website up those on the slides a little bit later so you can really check it out and and get all the information but the tool is designed to really help productions that may not, you know, know how to really start with, you know, trying to green their set some really very helpful kind of very basic instructions for how to do this and how to tackle different problems regarding waste and energy. And it kind of goes through department by department, and is a really great tool there's also other resources on the website as well. I encourage you to check that out and let us know if you are interested in trying to, you know, use that film green certificate program to help integrate sustainable productions on your next project. So, I am really excited to introduce you our panelists for today. We were lucky to everybody's really busy but we are lucky enough to get three really amazing leaders in sustainable production to join us today to talk about some of the practices that they are integrating on their projects. Our first panelist is Stephanie Dawson and Stephanie is a producer a line producer and production manager for narrative unscripted and Brandon content with over 15 years of experience. She has been working on her projects in New York include down with the king in 2021, my and her love lover in 2020. Derek Delgado god deals in and of itself on Hulu great performances on PBS and house hunters international on HDTV. We have a live event such as fashion week and the Tom joiner family reunion in 2009 she was introduced to sustainable production on a commercial for major big box store, and then a production with glass I picks also implemented sustainability measures on set sparking synergy between her two loves filmmaking and the environment. Stephanie is pushed for eco processes on set wherever possible, and is a founding member of the nonprofit women independent producers co chair of the PGA green committee, and climate reality leader. She is currently a producer for the PBS series great performances with WNET group 13. So welcome Stephanie. Our next panelist is Damian Resnick is a 25 year veteran of the film and television industry. Damian came up working primarily in the locations department, including as a location manager for 16 years. And it's been producing production managing and producing for the past seven working mainly in scripted television and feature films. As an environmental science major in college Damian became keenly aware of systemic environmental issues within our society, and his work to apply best practices throughout his career in production. He was first part of a full production wide sustainability effort in 2009 on the film Morning Glory. Damian has known Emily O'Brien, founder of Earth Angel for over 10 years, when Earth Angel was just turned nickname and not her company. He is a worker and lives in Manhattan with his wife, three children and two dogs. Welcome Damian. And finally we have catty Johnston who has been working in the motion picture industry for over 35 years. She was raised in New York study theater at Northwestern University and film at Columbia College Chicago. After 10 years in the windy city as a starving artist. She began working in the indie commercial world. And many June snow storms convinced her to move back home to New York where she worked primarily as a location manager. When her children were small she was offered the opportunity to budget the short live series help and she spent several years and accounting for moving up to producer. She has produced works in almost every genre and over 400 hours of television including 12 years on the series law and order. The most recent credits include Netflix Daredevil and the series limitless and bowl for CBS and now the series East New York premiering this Sunday, October 2 at 10pm on CBS. Welcome catty and thank you again all for being here. This is going to be a great discussion because I love the hearing that so many of you have backgrounds from so many different departments and can kind of, you know, tell your story from not just the producer perspective but kind of the other perspectives which really I think always makes for such a, you know, a producer that has had experiences in all these different departments to really understand the kind of the intricacies and the challenges that are unique to all the departments in terms of sustainable production. So welcome everyone and I think we'll just dive right into some of the questions that we have for you. So we'll start off. How do you describe the current approach or mindset to powering a set and you know it could be for any genre of film let's take you know what you can just choose. So what are the main areas of, you know, that you focus on for energy, you know, for fuel those types of things. And, you know, maybe we'll start we'll just, we'll start with Stephanie and then we'll just kind of go, go through everybody. Yeah, I think it is great to see everybody's different levels of experience and kind of where they're coming from. So, interesting in terms of powering in like transportation energy all that good stuff. My background is mainly out of, you know, the very small kind of E&G crews, either for branded content or for, you know, small documentaries or even shows like House of the International which are done with very small crews. So we are battery power and then, you know, driving a vehicle onto a set. But my more recent role with great performances. We, you know, we will record an opera or the Philharmonic or the most recent production that we did where we were able to bring in Earth Angel was the Shakespeare in the park and Central Park. So those are more, you know, a television style, a live television style production. It was part of things we'll talk about later on to get them to adhere to the sustainability. We were able to move really toward waste management but energy they weren't so they weren't so able to do so because we needed to power these large trucks and we don't see the kind of generators that can produce that level of power at this point. You know, and we were trying to conserve as much in other areas and we did a lot of waste diversion there. So, you know, generally trying to reduce the number of people that you're bringing on to set, you know, reducing the, you know, going to LED lights as opposed to, you know, the old schools tungsten and then our crews are generally battery powered so we're really, you know, trying to connect to house powers as often as possible and then running off batteries for a lot of the smaller productions. You're on mute. I think you hit on a lot of the really, you know, important and most impactful practices regarding energy is, you know, especially with batteries LEDs and so that's great. Damian, what about you? What are, what are, you know, what are your, what is your kind of current approach and kind of some of the main things that you're tackling on your shows. Yeah, I think this aspect of production is one of the hardest ones to tackle because when you start affecting the amount of power or the type of power that you bring to a set, you're potentially affecting the lighting and that gets into the whole creative of what you're doing on your show, which is always an issue and so often comes up in conflict with maybe best environmental practices because sometimes the creative is the creative and, you know, we're of course all here to support it. And when you start dipping into best environmental practices if it goes against what a creative head like a cinematographer is going to want to do in terms of lighting, it can be a bridge that's hard to cross with them successfully. So, I would say that moving towards some of the best technology in lighting that is coming out now. LEDs are getting better and better using those lights as opposed to the older lights which are much less efficient is a huge help in reducing it. What was recently was on a set where the expectation going in from everyone was that we were going to have to have a generator and run power from there and all of that and it turned out we were able to use all LED lighting, and therefore we had enough power inside the building itself and we saved the generator, which was great for the environment and great for our budget to so it can, it can go well. So I would say that the tools and the ability to use those tools I think is a big help in the right direction to do best practices on set. Yes, absolutely. There's always that kind of creative tension there that we come across as well. When we're trying to support shows and, you know, the especially in the areas of, well, in all areas really but lighting is a big one because as you know Stephanie, you know, a lot of the technology that we're kind of looking at now in terms of battery. They're not really suitable or able to power some of the lights. Some of the LEDs are not really they don't always work for everybody, although there's a lot of variability now and there's a lot of, you know, really promising technologies with LEDs but yeah I agree like a big, big hurdle to go over sometimes. Coddy, what about you? What are you seeing? Well, I agree with the LED. I had a stage where we had a huge drop and we replaced the lights for the drop cut our electric bill in half, you know, to the tune of like $10,000 a month it was a lot of money. And I have, you know, I try to hire people who are forward thinking so in a lot of instances we're able to do LED lights and that cuts our energy usage to great deal. What I feel is sort of lacking in New York is the enormous number of vehicles that are still gas powered. I wish there were more down south there a little bit better about using solar technology for all the campers and things we don't do that as well up here. I think it last year I gave everybody a solar, I have a solar powered charger for my phone that allows me never to have to plug in and I was like, this is a great gift so it charges enough you just put it, park it out in the sun I kind of leave it in my dashboard but so a lot of the little things like that we're having people do but I don't think we've really mastered how to control or how to use sustainable energy in this industry yet. So I'd love to see more progress there, but we definitely have made huge strides with the lighting. Yeah, that that's great. Well, this is this topic of you know power has really become one that sort of risen to the top in terms of priority for for productions. You know, companies like Netflix, you know they've made very bold kind of goals that they've set for themselves in terms of reducing carbon. So there's kind of been the shift towards, you know, really looking at decarbonization which, you know, is is great. Because there's it's such a broad you know there's so many things that we're trying to do as sustainable production that may not always be the most carbon reducing practices so for example you know with waste management. It's a really huge one because there's so many materials and there's so much waste, but in terms from a carbon perspective it's not always at the top of the list so you know it's kind of like how do you decide. What what you're going to do. And, you know, yeah so that was I'm curious. I want you know you kind of all mentioned you know some of the people that you that you bring on I mean from a producer perspective I think it's really important. This is one of the reasons that you know we thought this would be a great, you know, topic to, or, you know, forum to to have is because the producer perspective is is really important. You know, the, the oftentimes the success of sustainable production strategy and implementation is based on, you know, a top down approach. So, you know, it's, we find that we're a lot more successful working with productions where we really have buy in from the producer the production manager and some of the, you know, you know, more above the line, folks that are the big decision makers. So how does that, you know, how do you share that view or do you find that you know you're looking when you're hiring people for your shows that you're looking for people with that kind of, you know, experience and people that prioritize sustainability. So I'll, I'll sort of take what you said and just add on to it in that as much as I think it's important that producers like us have this as a priority. We're relying on the studios that we're working for and representing to make this a priority for them, and to support directly, not just not just verbally, and not just sort of on on paper with a document, but putting in their time and their energy and most oftentimes their money into their show to support best practices. And for me it's an important conversation to have above me to the studio I'm working for and if there's other producers and executive producers and people like that that are the real decision makers on the show to have those conversations early with them just as much as I'm having the conversations early with crew and department heads that I may be responsible for hiring in terms of our priorities and what we can do, and what kind of support we need to do best practices on set. Yeah, that's great. Stephanie what about do you, what's your approach in terms of kind of team building. I think it's an interesting question I think it's great to have all our different perspectives because I again came up through a lot of smaller productions. So a lot of times I am the producer on set I'm also making sure lunch is ordered I'm also making sure we can order everything. So it's easier for me to have control over what you know what the power situation is what our food situation is, how many people were hiring locally versus how many people were traveling out so, you know, being able to not only have those decisions be, you know, managing the budget and being able to to essentially make sure that we're following through is I think a little easier when you have a production that's like less than 10 people. When we, my more current current role, you know, we had a crew of, I think, almost 200. And it was really important in this instance to have the executive producer and the line producer and the production manager all kind of buy in so while I'm saying hey I'd love to, you know, have our WNT is a is an affiliate for PBS generally so it is one of the largest kind of producers of television programming in this area and like for public television. And so it's a it's a Titanic you got to get to get to get that organization to move it's it's going to take a little time, but I was able like the executive producer totally was able to was willing and interested. It was great that Earth Angel provides like a kind of all in one solution so we just we had a few meetings with them they told us what they can provide we worked on a number. And so, you know, the higher ups are happy with the with the number, and then really having the buy in of the production manager, and our line producer work key so like all of the emails that went out to crew like hey we're going to this this production is going to be sustainable that we're we're asking you in your support these are the these are the measures that we're going to be doing. This is the support that's going to be on set. So really reinforcing that through not just the producers and executive producers but also the folks that they the crew interacts with on a regular basis the production managers the person they're going to every time they need something. And so to have the buy in of those individuals is also, I think, really key and really helpful on the larger productions. Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. One thing that you know we experienced quite regularly and I'm just curious how, you know, maybe from your perspective cutting maybe you can take this one what what do you do when you really get that kind of resistance. You know, it kind of happens at all levels and it's it's not really generally, you know, because people are stubborn or they don't want to do it. And a lot of times it comes down to the budget which is you know something that we're going to dive into in a second year but I'm just wondering how do you know what what's the conversation when you're when you're, you know, hearing resistance from either you know studio or even crew members or department heads, you slowly steadily persistently put pressure on until you win them over to your side. I tend to do, for whatever reason I tend to do these longer term projects so I kind of go after it for the long haul but it is with every project you do. You inherit some people you're hired by some people and then you get to choose your own people and so for everybody that I speak to that I hire directly, I bring it up as an issue to find out if they have any issues with it. So it kind of gets laid out on the table there but when like the job I'm on now I inherited 50% of the people, mostly from LA, and they do a lot of lip service but they're, you know, their practices are terrible they leave the lights on every night they don't throw trash and the problem is that receptacle and I'm talking about executive producers who are, they think that they're really good but they, they don't, you know, so you, it's a teaching process, no matter what level of resistance you have. And usually the first I do series and so first year of a series they don't. The studio might say that we're behind you, they might even have a division to help you but they don't give you the money and until you actually establish your show, and can prove that it doesn't mean it's very hard to take those steps. I'm fortunate in that I came off of another show where I stole all the recycling bins and basically got to reuse them, but I, we are, we are just starting up and we're far from where I left off on the other show but it is, you know, if you have an executive producer if you have an actor if somebody a key player of influence on your team is behind you it's a lot easier. So, when you have with a 400 person staff so there's a lot of people we have to cover but eventually win them over and then hopefully by the second if this is a second year you can have a really good echo coordinator who starts to inspire people and goes department and by department and we do we're doing some of that now but we don't have the staff that I'm hopeful we'll get. So, yeah, yeah. I think that's, you know, we, so we, you know, are trying to support productions in any way that we can. But it's, there are some times where, you know, we're just unfortunately the budget doesn't allow for to have somebody on the crew that's kind of overseeing the, you know, the sustainability efforts. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I don't want to interrupt but when we had COVID and all those COVID costs, we still have COVID but they kind of said this is separate and I sort of feel like that's what they should really do. Remove it from the package you're going to have X, Y and Z and that mandate in itself would go a long way towards making it, but unfortunately some studios might do that and others do not. So, yeah. Yeah, I think we're kind of trending to seeing more studios and more productions kind of, you know, making a point to have somebody that's overseeing that that, you know, all because it's a lot and even for one person and when we find you will have 400 extras on one day and it's really hard for one person to be, you know, manning everything else and on this holding area with with all those extra bodies so. Yeah. It's, it's, it's challenging in a lot of ways but I do think that definitely having somebody, you know, as part of their job to oversee even though it, we definitely 100% rely on other crew. I mean, it's, everybody's got lots of waste and it's really only a couple people that are dealing with everybody's waste, everybody's materials, all the, you know, the energy. So it's, it's, it's so much about collaborating with all the departments to to kind of support and help, you know, implement the strategy. So, yeah, so anyone else have any other, you know, kind of tips or advice about when, you know, we, you are experiencing any kind of pushback or resistance. I think another thing I would add is, especially on like features and television shows, if you can get the coordinator, the department coordinator on your side if they can be at the advocate. Because they can alleviate some of the challenges from either production or, you know, other departments that are trying to implement sustainable practices because they're buying the materials they're, you know, all the orders are coming into them and they're disseminating the thing so you know, and depending on what your office space is there in the same office so a lot of times you can really kind of pull the coordinator together if you got them on your side. And especially when it, when it comes to, when it comes to the material reduction and the waste management, those really can be some great advocates. And I, when I visited Katya's last show, I also loved how they had built a competition against the different departments. So it was, you know, and Katya you can speak more to it but I tell everybody that example people love contest they love, even like little party favors, and they also love to be competitive, like, you know, this department came up with a new innovative thing to do or we, this department diverted more waste than that last department and especially it, you know, when you're on a long running show you can build up, you know, people who don't have the practice of doing that. But I think, you know, getting an advocate, even if you don't have an eco manager necessarily, if you can get the coordinators of the department or, you know, the ad spokes that that are looked to as resources on the crew that are that are already invested kind of personally think that helps and then everybody likes a good competition. Yeah, it's, it's funny and kind of crazy how competitive people get with those because we actually encourage that type of, you know, like a green champion competition because it's really a great and fun way to engage the crew. So and so how do you've done that on your. Well, that's, you know, basically I've got some, it's amazing to me on this one how many people are really not recyclers and don't really understand the waste concept, even younger people I'm like really you don't do this at home. But we've got some, the people that came from my prior show already have their habits in place. You know what happened. I think that job somebody who is the eco coordinator and we always like we didn't leave them alone with 400 people we always staff up. We'd have big days like that but someone can bring the fun to it and make it be a challenge because every department has their own sort of specific needs and it's truly amazing what you know what can happen when people put their minds to it. The competition is really pretty good. It was a one week the whole office was emptying out all the. We had those caring things right so you can actually recycle them if you clean them, they cleaned them all out so we can recycle them. So I guess they want that week whatever that was echo challenge but yeah. You can make it a game and it's more fun that way. Oh yeah, definitely I've been. We've been really creative on on some shows you know having art departments like, you know, make some sort of like, you know, scepter or something that that they win and it's just how competitive they get you know they don't you know sometimes it comes along with a prize they know a gift card to a zero way store something like that but it's almost like they don't care about that they want the you know green scepter. The, the, you know, to be the champion of the week it's, it's pretty fun. Yeah bragging rights can be quite the motivator. That's right. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Did you have something else. Oh, sorry. Okay. So I was just, I'm curious now because, you know, probably the biggest challenge, I would say whenever we're working with a show really of any size is like I was saying before people really want to do the right thing but it's, it's, it's very difficult because they have not built sustainability costs into their budgets. So I'm wondering if you guys have any, you know, information that you are, you know, advice or practices that you can share with us about, you know, how do we, how do we pay for sustainability. And then you want to. I'd say, you know, early on in prep, you have your conversation with the studio whoever you're working for about, you know, what you'd like to do the importance of it. You find out if they have practices in place and what those are. And early on, on the, on the type of productions that I work on. There's a lot of back and forth with the budget when you're in prep, and you're working things out. So to make sustainability part of that, and to be able to get, you know, a line item in budgetary terms to be able to have for sustainability or an eco coordinator or a company like Earth Angel that can help facilitate best practices on set and and make them into reality is ideal. And I think that's the conversation you have early on with the studio. As you go, what I'll say, and I often come back to this phrase, my instincts as a producer go right in line and hand in hand with my instincts as somebody who wants to, you know, do as good for the environment as I can. And that's, I don't like waste. I don't like waste as a producer, I don't like waste as a person, and that's in my personal life, as well as my work life. So, I try to kind of go with all the crew I'm working with, and this includes our director that I want to give us what we need, but I don't want to give more. I don't want to have things just to have things I don't want to have every option on the table just in case somebody has a whim or changes their mind. I want to kind of know what we want and be able to get that. Use that as efficiently as we possibly can, and move on to the next. In practice that mantra that I keep in mind. I feel like it helps me be a better producer and I feel like it helps me be a better environmental steward at my work as well. Yeah, well that is really kind of the, you know, number one principle of, you know, waste management is really starting with reducing right like the best way to really reduce your impacts for in terms of waste overall is to reduce the purchasing in the first place because that means you just have that much less stuff to deal with at the end. So, you know, how he said to earlier, in terms of kind of it's a work in progress with the studio you're working for and the people you're, you're working with and I think there are ways as you go to demonstrate that. Okay, we don't have money maybe to hire an eco coordinator or a company, but they're environmentally responsible things that we can do that'll also save money. And that's a that's a win-win for everybody and oftentimes doesn't take a lot more effort it just takes a little more consciousness to be able to do it and I think that's an important thing to to just keep the conversation going with people and make it more like a front of a brain item for everyone, and not something that just becomes a desire that doesn't get implemented into reality. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But we've been thinking a lot so much about, you know how how can we probably one of the best ways that we can, you know, help productions with implementing sustainability is, is really making it, you know, having a better understanding of what what these costs are like really is there is there a premium for being sustainable on a show. So, you know, I think right now, the answer is probably yes. You know that you know if you're going to hire somebody an extra body to be the eco person that is a cost right so but there's other things like you were just mentioning Damian and maybe, you know, cutting or Stephanie you can help us with some examples of you know where we can possibly see some savings. One of the big things is the loss of if you can do digital distribution of paperwork. You can not that there's some paper you really do need and I found sometimes with accounting and kind of backfires but you can by going digital distribution we cut costs easily so everybody gets everything that way and only gets printed when requested or needed. The other thing you can do is take away their trash cans. We took everyone's trash can and but the recycling bins they're not that far away. We want to know where that was but now everybody gets up and they have to go to the bin. And that makes them decide where to put it and so things that might be you know paper will go in paper and recycling going recycling that makes a huge difference. So that's one of the things you can do that, that save you time and money and if you're, whatever your carter is whatever your trash disposal is if you can get them if they're a person that will recycle then you're, you're golden. So, yeah, definitely. A couple of things to add like, you know, when I think about, you know, one of the bane of my existence is the single use water bottles. And, you know, in New York and a lot of states is there's a deposit on the bottle so you're buying the bottles plus there's a deposit. A lot of times they don't get drunk all the way so they're half used or partially used or strewn all over the set. If you were just five gallon dispenser, and people bring their own water, that's a tremendous savings like you can provide you know you can, you can have more people drinking water less than wasted all those things and that that's a, it feels small but over the course of buying, you know, 20 $25, you know, packs of water we buy flats of water on lots of big shows so you know that that is a very real cost savings that that I think people show up. And the other, I think another kind of goodwill thing is not create like not having so much food, like do we need to have every possible delectable, you know, option in terms of food, we have like we have these massive buffets and I'm like is this a cruise ship like why we have so many different kinds of food if we just provide and again, I, you know, from in the indie film world, we get one thing like there's not like a dessert spread and a salad spread there's like everybody's getting the one thing. So, so keeping those those kind of possibilities down now of course you know you have to deal with allergies and specific dietary requirements, but having that, you know, is a big reduction. Again, working from smaller projects, instead of having trailers and trucks and things like we're, you know, we're loading people's dressing rooms and offices into the location so we're not getting you know external trailers we're utilizing the space and sometimes doubling up the space if somebody's there in the once they're out we clear it out and then we use that same space for a dressing room or, you know, arresting space so really thinking about what you need reducing your footprint reducing your overall requests, and being intentional about it, and I think it's not really a cost savings but I think it's a political and emotional savings of your crew when you can say that you're donating the food the food that we didn't need or we're donating you know clothing or things to people in need like those are also things that I think to, you know, it's kind of a morale boost for your crew, which helps with productivity so it's, you don't have a dollar figure for it but you when people feel good about what they're doing they feel good about the job that they're doing and the fact that they're you know doing some good in the world I think also kind of helps contribute to productivity which I think also can reflect on the bottom line even though it's not as easy to quantify. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's it's so interesting because all these things that you guys are saying you know single reducing single use water bottles, you know buying and both basically there's even there's a definite cost savings that we can see there as well as, you know, you know, kind of digitizing our workflow and our work process and you know reducing on that those paper purchases, as well as more accurate headcount so that we're not over making the food, because I've been, you know, I was a, you know, eco PA at one point and, and, you know, there was just tons of leftover food you know I mean I guess you don't want to run out of food but I think with a little bit more kind of planning and more accurate counting later that you can actually have, you know, not be making way too much food but again at the same time if you do have these leftovers. I think, you know, almost any production now that we're working with if we do have leftovers we have some sort of resource. We definitely have in New York City we work with rock and roll rock can roll. And in LA we have other, you know, other organizations that we work with that pick up that food and donate it. And, you know, it's, it's amazing what you're bringing like, you know, you know, slayman young to like this this resident and then you know residential place and they're just so can't they can't believe it you know these full cakes that haven't been touched or anything so it's, it's a really amazing way to to, you know, develop community ties and, and, and, you know, the organizations that we've worked with have been so so thankful and grateful for for those kinds of donations. Yeah, so just curious. I mean, you know, one of the biggest impacts, the biggest impact in terms of carbon on a production is really fuel. So we've got fuel that we're using in our generators to power sets and you know circus and trailers. And then we also have, you know, the fuel that we use in our vehicles and our trucks and, you know, the air travel. So wondering if you guys have any kind of approaches to fuel reduction. I was mentioning earlier, you know, some of the, the, the studios, particularly Netflix I would say are really focusing on those types of strategies for carbon reduction and term, you know, trying to get their fuel use down so do you have any experience with that either from, you know, implementing anything or seeing any savings from, you know, doing battery powered versus or or EVs versus, you know, paying for all that fuel. I mean, I'll just say it's one of the hardest things to do in my experience because you need transportation to do what we do. And this will again go back to something that I'll just, I try to use wherever I go and try to think about it in this way. If you can't do a lot if you can't do it all do what you can. And that's a big thing for me. We're not going to get rid of trailers anytime soon. We're not going to get rid of 18k lights anytime soon that require a ton of power to light up streets at night. It's not going to happen. So taking that as just a reality. What can we do. We can get hybrids or electric cars that helps. We can tie into locations whenever possible and try to encourage that wherever we go. We can do that. We can certainly make sure that we're turning off lights that we're making sure that our vehicles are not idling when they're not doing anything. We certainly can make sure that we are carpooling and transporting people together as opposed to exclusively without, without care of how many vehicles and we have those decisions which again you do need some studio support to that because you are stuck with an actor that has exclusive transportation just for themselves. It's not an ideal deal that they made, you're going to be stuck with having an extra vehicle just for that person. It's not ideal, but that's what you'll be with, and you do the best you can. Maybe that can be an EV. Well exactly. But at least if you get a hybrid car you're doing what you can in the situation that you've been handed. And that's something that I'll keep going back to in that regard and that's my attitude towards fuel reduction on set. You do everything you can to do the best you can in the situation that you're, that you're handed and you keep having the larger conversations about how to make it better in the long run and how to make it better for next time. Yeah, yeah. I have a budget issues on the show I have now and they weren't going to give me hybrids but I actually put on paper how it saved us money so that we were able to get some hybrids vehicles, but we're, the show is called East New York and we're based in Bushwood not very far from East New York and so we decided to make the decision to not actually to always use this as much as we can as the home base which means we're not driving vehicles at all or very minimally. It's been a little bit challenging but but I think one of the things you can do also is look at maybe your schedule has in it some opportunities to not bring everything all the time or to actually reduce the footprint where you're going and so I think we're looking at that here because it's one of the things we can do that they'll give us credit for because it allows us to lay off vehicles. But it's a difference you know if you're not driving places and the other thing to do is we text down the subway with some frequency. So, and it goes back to what we talked about before that budget and schedule efficiency is very oftentimes environmental efficiency too. So one can help each other hand in hand and they're not always opposed to oh if you do in best practices it therefore is more expensive that's not necessarily true it's not it's not true in a lot of cases. And one other thing I'll just say, going back to my point of you sort of do all the all the little things you can. There's certain things that I bring on a show even if I'm not working with a studio that's particularly putting their money where their mouth is in terms of best practices or I don't have the resources to bring on a company or PA. There's still certain things that I will do on my shows. Mandatory. It's not having disposable products in our office. It's not ordering from places that send packets of silverware every time you order food if they don't listen to us and say we don't want that stuff and sending it anyway. I tell my office don't order from that place in New York City there's hundreds of places we can order from. And we don't have bottled water on set I've switched a few years ago to only having aluminum aluminum canned water, you know and or refillable bottles for people to bring their own bottles and fill them up. And we try to donate our leftover food whenever possible. Those things at a minimum to me I think you can do doesn't really take any more effort, and it helps and that's the only thing you can do on a show. It's still something and I'd encourage everybody to do it. And just to piggyback on that also, you know, opt in opt out only of digital distribution of your scripture, your, your schedules and all those things. And for those people who do want them only double sided like we just make it to the copy or can only print double sided and it's a big, you know, it's a it's a harder thing to try to make it single sided. But I think the other thing is Damien mentioned like, there's so everything contributes to the problem. So one thing, one thing this time that that helps I think sometimes with the climate anxiety it's like, oh so much but if I do one thing this time, and then that becomes a best, you know that becomes a practice that I kind of bring in and then I'll do a different thing the second time or, you know, another thing that I try to do is also model the behavior so I can see and I we kind of traded suggestions around like, you know we already have the bottle like I have my own bottle but I also have my own silverware that I bring with me and I always bring, you know break out that silverware and people like oh that's interesting you have your own silverware like presenting that those options to individuals, I think helps in gender that I'm not just putting this on you. This is something I'm trying to live as well so kind of sharing that perspective I hope is making a difference across the set, but also the technology is getting better I've worked on some reality shows we a lot of vehicles and back in the day there weren't as many hybrids so now, you know, seeing the opportunity for more hybrids also some of the vendors that we go out to I think, you know, that's another point is if your vendor, your car vendor cannot provide enough hybrids and say well you need to find more hybrids or I'm going to go somewhere else, and that hopefully will encourage them to increase their fleet. Yeah, yeah, definitely I mean, I've seen such a huge uptake just in the last few years with shows that are renting EVs and hybrids because as you said catty, if you look at the numbers. Right, you look at how much it costs to run a nice vehicle versus a hybrid or an EV it's there's a little bit of a premium for the you know the more efficient cars, but then you throw on fuel costs and it's like a no brainer I mean you are, especially today you're saving your, it's obvious how much you can save in that regard but the challenge I think is really access to the vehicles, because I think everywhere in the world. There's a shortage of EVs and hybrids everybody's wanting to, you know, to purchase them and, and, you know, the rental companies have back orders and you know they're we're trying but again, it's that like technology and innovation and supply, keeping up with what we really want to do. We have great intentions but sometimes we just can't do it. So this is all so so great I just, I want to open it up for a couple questions. Sorry, my, my whole computer is frozen so I can't control anything so and allow if there are any questions, you can just go ahead and kind of interrupt me because I literally can't control my computer right now. So, if you if you if I think you said there there's a question. Yes, there is. Okay. And it's from Nan. So I'm going to allow Nan to speak right now, and they can pose their question it was more of a comment but. Okay, the floor is all yours man. Am I unmuted at this moment. Yes, you are. It really wasn't a question but I did a couple of things we gave more money if you had to drive outside the zone from your 30 miles. They gave the studio allowed us to give a little more money to people electric cars for rentals for their rentals. Like if they got 125 a week we were able to give people with evs 175 a week. It helped people go electric vehicles. If they worked a lot the other thing had a rented garbage truck on a show because lunch garbage is usually taken away by the caters unfortunately it falls on location departments in New York a lot. And then at the end of location shooting there's still a ton of garbage, and we rented we call it the pumpkin it was an orange truck and it would last about three days because it would squish the garbage, and it would go around to the locations that we shot at and we could just throw the bags in there. And then at the end of the week, or twice a week dump the garbage truck find the place that would take it. The other thing I did recently was vending machines that took no money. And in the vending machines I put mini sodas and mini waters and snacks. So you push the G for and you got your potato chips, the amount that people didn't bother when they weren't all just laying out there was amazing. They didn't sign want to set PAs like you see it getting lower just go refill it here's where all the stashes, and people didn't bother they were garbage cans after the cans garbage. They didn't bother taking as much and we didn't have to have coolers with ice all over the place and drag them around. They on stage especially they walked to the vending machines it saved a lot of food money and cans. That's great I you know I just love hearing about you know these kind of creative solutions. You know we have seen a lot of really amazing things, you know all the way from, you know, doing something like that I've never seen actually a vending machine but that's pretty cool. I hope it also weren't touching everything and we didn't have enough have to have an extra craft service person, we're like, you know, just kind of vending machine, and then we had gloves and hand sanitizer right there and they could get whatever they wanted. People love that too they didn't have to put money in. Right it was free. You just want to see from work free food yeah. And I think the psychology of it I mean just like taking away a garbage can if the garbage can is just right there. It's very easy to throw something in there. I also think relabeling the garbage cans as landfill is another thing that helps, you know, change behavior like if I'm just going to throw something in a can I don't know what happens to it, but but I know it's going to the landfill. That makes me take a pause so I think it's really the vending machine is interesting because if it's not if it's laying out there people tend to take and then they, they may not either eat it or they they'll you know they'll kind of hoard it, but if it's something you have to physically like go and get each individual one. It's like a self selection thing like I don't really need that thing so I don't feel like walking there right now. Yeah, so some of those behavior some of those like almost like psychological triggers. Just like the catering if it's plentiful and there's so much salad out there I'll have a little bit of this a little bit of that, but if it's a smaller kind of offering, I'm going to focus on what I'm buying so some of those things I think are also helpful. Yeah, absolutely. I don't I don't know if we had any comments or questions I didn't see any in the chat but I did want to ask, you know, just in particular to, you know, working in New York City, are there any, you know, any kind of resources or hacks or tricks or, or you know, where can we tie in anything particular to shooting in New York that we can you know share with others or sustainability secrets. The entire earth angel they're great the whole thing. There are no the, yeah look it's challenging New York is challenging in about every way you can think of as as most people probably on this panel know. But there are resources out there the resources that will take your leftover food the resources that will take your leftover set dressing in props and set walls. And it's always better to give them and pass them on to be reused and try to find ways for you to reuse things then just doing things from scratch and buying more stuff. It's a big pet peeve of mine in general and I think through the film office through earth angel and through colleagues such as us. There are resources out there just to help acquire lightly use stuff and to give away the stuff that has been used so that people can use it again, whether they're you know just colleagues or people who are less fortunate that could really use the free stuff. I think just ask for colleagues and and resources that you find here on the panel for for help to find those and they're out there. I was also going to say go local. And of course it depends on what your, you know, project isn't how long it is but wherever you're filming, see what you can find there, you know recycle locally. If you can also find a, if you can get your crew to compost if you can find a local farm that will take all the compost. That really works well, or if you're Carter, your trash hauler will do it for you, that will work too. But, but we found like a giving away wardrobe to like the local daycare center or we actually opened up on the street I just got rid of a bunch of stuff the show on the street and we said fill it back for 20 bucks. And then we got all the local agencies to come over and so we got rid of it all and basically two days it was great. So, you know, use your environment. Yeah, and I just, I would echo the go local in so many ways, when I'm working on like super indies we don't have the budget to bring all the entire department to wherever I do, you know, some of the films I've done that have been upstate or in the Berkshires or like in the local areas there's a tendency to want to bring everyone with you, but especially the one of the last films I did in the Berkshires is like we don't have money to be bringing people up from New York City and putting them up in the Berkshires, which is a, you know, a vacation destination so we had to find like Airbnb people like hire locally like there's there are people right there and there you can, if you're we're going to be taking from the local community let's, let's, let's, you know, use our imaginations we had a lot of people who who were from Shakespeare and company that worked on that film so so like our department was was pretty much provided their, you know, actors. There's a lot there's a rich kind of bed of creativity in terms of performance art, you know, folks in front of him behind the camera, there's also artisans like you know, you could buy off of Amazon and have it shipped or you can go to a local, you know, art store and have them, you know, provide the artwork for the, you know, the set dressing or, or, you know, buy local from local creators so I think the local piece is another way it reduces your transportation reduces your energy, you know, and you're being a good steward for the community that you're that you're working in. So, kind of, again, to what Damian was saying like it's also cost saving measures a lot of times are also inherently sustainable they're inherently more or less damaging because we can't buy all these things we're focusing and we're being very intentional about what we're selecting so you know each one of those decisions can help you both save money and be more sustainable. Yeah, definitely. I mean, that you know that local piece in so many ways is there there's so much connected to that in terms from a sustainability perspective not only from like a sourcing perspective but also like you were saying like the transportation and the shipping of everything I mean, I just went to this, this really cool talk the other day about sustainability and locations and how you know what we can all do, you know, they're in just from that kind of point. You know, a lot of location managers were just saying, you know, just being more local, you know, choosing more local places and also reducing the number of locations, as much as we can. You know, you take out one location and it's unbelievable the amount that you can actually reduce in terms of carbon and materials and, and everything so that's you know that's really big, you know, a big thing that we can start to think about. And I love the idea of scouting on the subway that's cool we don't have a subway I'm in Vancouver we don't well we have we have one but nobody would be very convenient to do scouting on the subway here. But anyways, I think we're we're just about at time I don't know if you guys had a few more minutes I would love to just ask one more question that I was curious about. And, and if he if is it okay do you guys have like a couple minutes. So I was just wondering, you know, if you if you could have, you know, a magic wand and you can just, you know, have one thing that would maybe kind of really push, you know, the sustainable production movement forward. What, what, what would that be. I have a lot of things that I can think of but I would like producer perspective like what would I would like every studio on every budget that I inherit for a show I work on to have. An environmental stewardship line item that we can use to to hire a company and or person to really implement best practices where that is that person's job. Period end of story that's their only job to be able to do it so that becomes the leader. And the one that implements best practices on on set because I think everyone on the ground wants to do the right thing. But it's very hard to when your everyday job has the pressure of delivering what you're hired to do in your job. And unfortunately I think environmental best practices gets too often pushed to the side where if there was somebody there to show them how to do it, and to take some of that pressure off them on making the best decisions possible. That doesn't get in the way of the time and energy they need to focus on their actual job. That's what I'd like. Awesome. You're absolutely right that's that's the thing to do. I was actually thinking that if everything could be solar powered and no more fuel. I was going higher than that. But if we could eliminate all the travel and all of the burning of fossil fuel that we do and lessen our electrical needs or at least make them from that nuclear reactor 93 million miles away instead of from. That's what I wish would happen. I wish there more because you know the US, unlike Canada, we don't have funding sources that support our industry so it's either coming from a studio or it's coming from a high net worth individual like these institutions these folks who are pretty steeped in the way things are so you know very capitalist very, you know, bottom line kind of vision and I would, I would love to provide more financial resources for productions of any size or, you know, or some of the the tax incentives or any kind of program to offset this cost I'd love for the technology to be there I'd love for for there to be mandates or, you know, eco stewards in each budget. I also think that we're not. I don't think we're going to change this whole bottom line mindset. You know, anytime soon so providing opportunities either at the, at the government level at the film festivals at, you know, studios at one of terms in terms of high net worth individuals can there be some kind of like equivalent of the 181 that if your production is sustainable you get an additional kickback or some additional funding. I think if something like that could exist. Because, you know, again we're so capital is mindset, anything that can contribute to the bottom line in terms of getting money back or savings. I think we'll, we'll also be kind of a boom to get us to make the changes we know we need to make. Absolutely. And we are starting to see that a little bit you know here and there we're starting to see more incentives beyond just the labor incentives in terms of, you know, making efforts to reduce fuel and be greener. And, you know, hopefully maybe in New York City, you can have that one day. Yeah, so this is kind of this has been amazing. And I really appreciate all the really amazing insights that that you've shared with us and it's really inspirational and hopefully, you know, people that are here or you know that that may be you know more like an independent filmmaker or not having as many resources and some of the, you know, other bigger productions can, you know, can take away some of these these ideas that you guys have shared with us. And as well, you know, really look to the New York City film green program for that guidance. Also, they, you know, beyond the kind of the helpful kind of practices. We also have obviously the office hours but we also, you know, have some resources in terms of like some of the places that you guys were talking about, you know, where you can source things where you can bring things. You know, who some of the leaders are in the New York City area that are supporting sustainable production like chatter prism who's, you know, renting the battery power generators. So that, you know, that's also a resource through New York City film green as well. So we're we now will kind of transition to the office hours portion of, of, you know, the office hours. I just wanted to see if there are any other questions or if you guys want to have any last parting, sharing last parting was done with us or insights. I would just say everyone should do whatever they can. It's all, it's all for the good and it all helps. Yeah. Yes, 100% you know we're not we're not going to get it perfectly and you know where there's there I went to a seminar today about, you know, kind of reporting on greenhouse gas emissions and one of the biggest takeaways from that was they were saying you know yeah it's really important to track and to measure. We have to simultaneously be taking action because these things really need to be done today. You know it's, it's, it's, it's really important for us to really be taking action in all industries and not just in our work but also, you know, in our personal lives like I know all of you are which is was just so inspiring. So yeah, I agree 100% you know we're not going to be able to do everything but let's everybody do something. And one more thing is also, we can also bring these stories on screen, because I think if we can share this, what is really a shared experience of climate change right now like we think we keep making these projects and act as if climate change doesn't exist. So if we can also bring some of that content into the stories themselves. I think that can also go a long way because you can, you can affect your, you know, five person crew your 100 person crew your 400 person crew, but if your story includes some level climate storytelling you're, you're going to affect millions of people you're affecting all the viewers as well to maybe encourage them to, you know, find out what with the source of some of their food is find out the energy where their energy is coming from find, find out all these kinds of things so you know do what you can learn as much thank you for everybody who came thank you for the mayor's office for hosting and earth angel and everyone and yeah just, I think also if you can add a little climate reality into your stories and the shows that you're making I think that can also make a difference. That's, that's a future office hours Stephanie. So maybe we can invite you back for that one. All right, well, if, if there was nothing, nothing else no other questions. I think we can transition and obviously you're all welcome to stay for the office hours part just to see if we have any other questions and, and, you know, we don't. Let's see do we have any other. I think, and allow or did you want to also talk about the next. The next office hours and maybe give a little bit of a summary and the data and that. Yeah. Thank you. Katty Stephanie Damian. Thank you so much for your participation your, your words, your insights were super valuable and I'm sure everyone participating or everyone listening in is scribbling away fiercely writing notes and storing all of that valuable insight. Our next office hours event will be on November 9. We'll be chatting over the midterm elections. So it'll be November 9, and it'll be on the sustainable costume department will be chatting about sustainable textiles will be chatting about sourcing second hand on how to recycle scrap fabrics. We'll be designing with circularity in mind, looking at life cycle analysis of fabrics and how imperative it is for the costume department to start looking at these concepts. So, yeah, we'll have a whole other panel panel of really insightful people who have worked in this department, or are working on the back end to recycle the fabrics. So definitely join us on November 9 also from 5 to 7pm. We'll be sending out information and registration links for that as well. And look out for our posts on our social media at Earth Angel. But yes, that is our next event. Yeah, yeah, and also for, you know, if you have anyone else, or you guys know anyone else, you know, either. So our panelists or our attendees that are interested in hearing what we had to, you know, share today. The mayor's office does, you know, we did record this so the this will be on the moment website that NYC film green so that you can go back and share it with with, you know, people that may have missed it. So that's that's another great resource through through NYC film great. So, if there was nothing else, I would love to move to office hours and see if we have any questions again and I'm sorry I cannot. I can't access anything because my, I'm, my, I can't my screen is completely frozen. Right. We haven't had any questions posted to the chat. So please speak up feel free to post something or just raise your hand and we can let you speak now. And if you have any questions for either the panelists or for Earth Angel. It can be about anything regarding sustainable production. Well, if, if, if we don't have any or we can you can just interrupt me. I do is, I can't even see do we still have all the panelists. Okay, thank you. Well, I just had a cure. I was curious if you know Stephanie you mentioned before, you know, kind of some of the fuel reduction strategies, including, you know, EVs and, and battery powered generators but you also mentioned tie ins. And this has become kind of something that we're really seeing a lot of other jurisdictions talking about. And, you know, they've even, you know, they've been talking about at the mayor's office as well like the possibility of that and the reality of that but do you or any of you have experienced with using tie ins at different locations. I want to say like when I first started this industry, we almost only did tie ins. And then because a lot of the buildings in New York were older, and because there was probably a circumstance of people electrocuting themselves they kind of emigrated to using generators with more frequency. So it's evolved over time now I think it's going back but I think the evaluation of a property is a, is a one we always try and do that. If we can tie in it tends to be the bigger newer buildings or something where they've had recent work where people feel more secure some places in New York where you just can't do it. So we always look to try and do it but it used to be standard practice. Yeah, that's so interesting. Outside of New York. I've had success pulling electricity from polls out on the street to utilize. It's not something that I don't think right now New York City would be open to doing but in smaller municipalities I've been able to do it. Now with the way that DOT works with the only way that you can control street lighting in New York City is you go through the license vendor for New York City with their permit to touch the lighting like you have to do for street lighting, maybe there's a conversation to be had, you know with the help of the mayor's office with, you know, can you hire that same type of vendor to pull electricity from the street to power things that normally would be done through generators on the street but now if you can tap in right to a light pole or another source that's readily available in the city, certainly a better environmental practice if the city would allow such a thing. I mean I think it you know obviously will it will vary in different places but yeah we've been successful I mean I've seen in other places you know with power drops. We've also seen, you know, in some places building those kind of temporary transformers. So that is another thing. And then, and something that we've seen here in Canada is is. We've been using these apps to actually kind of. They map where, you know, all these locations are and what their power needs are so when you go in, you know, a location, whatever look department will go in, and they've got this map app, and they just kind of put on there, like where all the locations are. And so what they've created is this kind of heat map of all the places where the power is in most most required. And what what they're doing is a building film industry specific kiosk in those places that are only used by the film industry. They come along they come with like parking you know and all kinds of different things that we have to consider when we have you know our big crew out there. So we're starting to see this in Vancouver and also in Toronto and I know they've been, you know, I know the mayor's office has talked to, to both of those offices about you know how they're doing that so it's possible that you know one day we might be able to see that but really just seeing just identifying it the first step like where where would this be you know most feasible and then possibly tying it in with some infrastructure for EV charging, you know things like that those are those are things that we're kind of trying to bring now from other places. I mean we need help from the cities and the governments within them to build out the infrastructure to make the, to make us have the ability to do better environmental practices. Electric vehicles in New York City is a big thing. It's, I've heard some resistance of I'd love to get an electric vehicle but I live in an apartment. I don't know where I charge it. I have a ton of resources with that in mind. So, yeah I think some, some help from the cities to improve their infrastructure for not only our industry but everyone that lives here to be able to do best practices would be a huge help. And I think that that's, that's a great point that you make Damien because also going into all these locations where we are filming and working with these communities and municipal offices. Every municipality, every, you know, everywhere we are, they all have climate action plans. So I, you know, I'm always thinking like, well how can we align and we're all trying to do the same thing and reduce, you know our reliance on fossil fuels so like how can we work together. And I think, you know, a lot of things can maybe, you know, be solved in, in, in kind of collaboration with cities and other offices. So I think there's, there's a lot of potential for really smart collaboration and everywhere basically. There's a business opportunity there too. I mean, you can set a business case and you can have entrepreneurs. And that's something that we'll talk to Sharon about in the past and, you know, we, I always say like when the, when the, when the film or television set rolls in we're like a traveling circus and we, you know, we need all these resources we need all the things that a city needs. So we need the businesses to support a lot of the, the needs of a, of a crew because we're coming in as the traveling circus. So, you know, creating more opportunity for entrepreneurs and businesses in the city also I think would, you know, be who the city to support that and an individual individuals, individual entrepreneurs. I also think another thing that that Shira has mentioned in the past is like, if we can have fewer vehicles out there idling or even just parked out on the streets, you know, and bring in these generators that are battery operated. It also brings down the noise. It's like all these, you know, all the, all of the different elements that we bring in when we're setting our footprint, we can reduce some of that if we, if we have some of the infrastructure in terms of the city so it can be that initial with the initial cost investment and then we have to, you know, let people know that it's not just right now so over time we're going to see cost savings and really benefit so. Yeah, yeah, absolutely I think that establishing that infrastructure maybe you know buy in from some of the studios that are operating in all these places, it just making it easier to be green, you know, I mean it's, it's really challenging to try to go in somewhere and they don't have, I mean we see this all the time, they don't compose they don't have any, they don't have any services so it's twice as hard for us to try to figure something out because it's not you know it's it's not provided for us there so building up these, you know, supporting these companies, these waste companies, the you know, building the infrastructure in all these places and I think, like you're saying Stephanie I think this is really it would, you know, it could be a potential, you know, economic impact because you're going somewhere you're going to be able to access, you know, tie-ins or power drops and and and you know that you're going to be able to, you know, compose and source second hand and you know have places that do deep deconstruction demolition. All that is already there so like, you know, going in and choosing that you know to be your your place where you're going to work is it just makes it easier and and we can see some cost savings as we've discussed. So, well again I just want to thank all of you so much for joining us today it's been so insightful, and we really appreciate you sharing all of your, all of your experience with us. Again, please join us for November 9 cost the sustainable costume department office hours. And I think we have some resources to share on the, you know, New York City film green website as well as Earth Angel website. I think we're putting up here I can't see my screen. But again, thanks so much. And yes, we'll hope to see you all in November. And I just want to thank Chira and the mayor's office for hosting another interesting office hours. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night everybody.