I just saw the movie 'Away We Go' with John Krasinski (of "The Office") and Maya Rudolph (of "Saturday Night Live") are expectant parents who go in search of the perfect place to start their family in this low-key comedy from director/producer Sam Mendes ("American Beauty" & "Road to Perdition)". I thought it was a really good movie and I would recommend to every adult. It is rated R for a reason; especially the opening scene. You'll see what I mean. The cast also includes Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton. The story and the actors caught my eye, but also the Special Features of the DVD. It mentioned the eco-friendly things that Sam Mendes did on the set of the film.
From the FilmInFocus website:
Away We Go’s achievements can be broken down into four main areas: energy, transportation, catering/craft/water, and waste. Specific achievements include:
* For energy, biodiesel fuel was integrated into generators, using blends ranging from B-5 to B-99, resulting in substantial emissions reductions at point of combustion as well as through life-cycle analysis.
* For transportation, hybrid vehicles were driven 45% of the total miles driven during the production, and also reduced carbon emissions through their reduced idling policy and charter flight avoidance policy.
* For catering/craft/water, the production shifted its sourcing to local and organic sources for more than 50% of their meals and craft services, and eliminated plastic water bottles from their set.
* For waste, the production redirected 49% of its waste from landfills into recycling and composting.
Other achievements included consolidating shooting locations so as to reduce travel miles, adopting sustainable habits in the production office, and eliminating all those wasteful little plastic water bottles. The production switched to branded reusable bottles and, when it came to dinnerware, served with corn and sugar-based utensils.
Filmmaking while being eco-friendly is possible. Let's hope that other directors and producers get onboard and become more eco-friendly. With all of the movies that are made these days, that could make a huge impact. If you don't see this movie, I urge you to see a movie soon. Movies are a great 2 hour escape. And don't we all need escapes?
