The Sustainability of Virtual Sets

By Maria Neis

February 28, 2020

Making a film takes a lot of time, money, and most importantly, resources. A set that requires custom pieces will often throw them out once they wrap production. Landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States, and these single-use set pieces contribute to expanding them. One way to reduce the carbon footprint of a production is to use a virtual environment. No lumber or plastic will be wasted in the process of creating a virtual set. The virtual set has no physical boundaries that it has to conform to; a production can be more creative while simultaneously not generating waste.

Another huge cause of carbon emissions is travel. Planes produce over 900 million tons of carbon dioxide worldwide and cars produce over 1.5 billions tons of carbon dioxide in the USA alone. Using a virtual set does not only save money due to travel costs, it reduces the carbon emissions of a production. If a production does not have to continuously transport cameras, equipment, set pieces, and crew and cast members to new locations, their carbon emissions are lessened. A virtual environment can put a person anywhere--Stonehenge, the Egyptian Pyramids, or Jupiter. A film’s creativity does not have to be stifled because it does not have the money to travel, or because it has the wish to reduce its carbon footprint.

A virtual set has countless advantages, but one of the largest perks is its sustainability. Whether a production can save money on travel or set building, ultimately the smaller carbon footprint gives hope to the future of the planet and to film-making.

Additional resources: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3kxjvk/behind-every-film-production-is-a-mess-of-environmental-wreckage