SUSTAINABLE FILM STUDIO
Our Journey to Net Zero
The VECTAR Sustainability story.
Our vision was to offer sustainable studio facilities that give immediate carbon savings options BUT at no extra cost to our clients.
At a time when many productions have to make a conscious choice between costs and sustainability, VECTAR made a decision to invest heavily in new facilities and absorb these costs to support sustainable production.
Our sustainability journey began in 2019 with 6 key objectives.
- Reduce our studio energy consumption through LED Film lighting
- Installing an 11Kw solar power plant on the roof
- Where grid power is still needed, change to a green energy supplier
- Investment in Virtual Production
- Investment in remote technology, faster data transfer reducing the need for travel.
- Creating disruptive solutions such as VECTAR Sets ®.
Our Greener Future
Reduce our studio energy consumption through LED Film lighting
At a time when many productions have to make a conscious choice between costs and sustainability, VECTAR made a decision to invest heavily in new facilities and absorb these costs to support sustainable production.
As standard we have 10 2 x 1 Gimini panels and 5 Pro-Lite fresnels in our main studio and a 12 Astra 1×1 array in our smaller studio. All DMX colour wheel and colour temperature controllable.
Finally, replacing every light source in our offices and support areas with PIR controls in all areas to automatically switch off lights when not in use.
Installing an 11Kw solar power plant on the roof
The installation of our 11kW solar plant in 2019 instantly covered the daily film lighting power from around 50kW to less than 8kW. Even with an average of only 5 days sunlight per year in UK, the panels feed into additional electricity useage on the site giving considerable net savings.
Where grid power is still needed, change to a green energy supplier
Green energy suppliers. We use only Green renewable energy sources. 5 years ago there were little choice of renewable energy suppliers, however, we were committed to using only green approved renewable sources and where necessary absorbing premium charges to do it.
Investment in remote technology, faster data transfer reducing the need for travel.
Investment in Remote viewing and high-speed data transfer was possible through a £30,000 installation of a new fibre optic network throughout the building where line and distribution boxes installed in 2020 enabling up 10gb transfers speeds and greater use of near side DIT linked to remote post production houses.
This also enabled frame accurate remote viewing reducing the need for non-essential travel. During Covid when international travel and filming was severely disrupted, we were able to demonstrate the feasibility and convenience of frame accurate live remote viewing and as a consequence we were able to carry out filming with remote access for clients in EU and USA, saving travel, time and the carbon footprint this generates.
Investment in Virtual Production
Investment in Virtual Production – Whether using greenscreen, bluescreen, or LED Volume, both studios are equipped for Virtual Production enabling us to bring CGI virtual locations to us – saving valuable resources in making films.
Creating disruptive solutions such as VECTAR Sets ®.
New disruptive production solutions – We developed Vectar Sets ®, now a multi award winning sustainable set solution. Through our early work min Virtual production, we identified a specific need for physical props and set extensions that were much lighter and easier to get in and out of the Virtual environment. From this we realised that if constructed in a certain way, these paper based solutions could also be applied to conventional set building and replace wood as a building block.
Vectar sets® offers up to 90% lower carbon footprint and 100% recyclable alternative to wood and is widely used across the UK and abroad in other studios and locations.
Vectar Sets ® are to 90% lighter and allows other indirect costs and resource savings such as
- Smaller standby crew required for set changes, rig and derig
- Able to use of smaller studio spaces – sets can be moved around.
- Easier to modify and avoids the need for power pools and equipment.
How are we doing?
To date, we have saved over 100 metric tonnes of carbon. Our ambition is to continue to add to this and through further investment double our annual contribution and reach net zero well before 2030.
The future.
We continue to add more sustainable solutions. The solar plant we hope to expand by 400% and add new battery storage to fully cover the full electrical needs for the site.
Work is being done in reducing consumption in both physical and virtual Production and other areas where measurable differences can be made.
We are grateful for the support and interest shown by a number Industry sustainability bodies notable BAFTA Albert who featured our work in the 2021 UK Film Industry Sustainability report, and their continued work in implementing many of the Studio initiatives undertaken by Vectar from 2019 through the Studio Sustainability standards introduced in 2023.
We continue to work closely with a number of Sustainability bodies notably BAFTA Albert, Green Screen EU, and Greeneyes Production as well as many other international bodies who have been invaluable in supporting our mission. We are grateful for the support and recognition through awards given by The Ashden Trust and Film Industry Makers and Shakers awards in 2022.
We can change the world.. if first we change our own world.. sustainably.
