In the new movie Fair Game, undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) is exposed when her name is leaked to the media in a politically motivated vendetta. While investigating the claim of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Valerie’s diplomat husband Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) publishes an editorial in the New York Times, sparking political fallout and controversy forever linked to George W. Bush’s administration.
Controversy makes for great headlines and great movie plots, but controversy over reducing, reusing and recycling our waste in film/television production is a silly battle. Producer Mari Jo Winkler has been spearheading sustainability and the greening of the sets on all of her films for the past six years.
There are certain things in life that are undeniably good. Love, friendship, 24-hour supermarkets; these are good things.
A three-inch D-ring binder costs about fifteen smackaroos these days. Ten years ago they cost even more; about $30 each, if I recall. In 2001 I wrapped an MTV production after 5 seasons and 170 episodes. It was a scripted daily show, and over the years we had accumulated a giant storage unit full of electronics, office supplies, random props, countless tapes and about 350 D-ring binders of various sizes. That’s a lot of binders.
One aspect of going green on a budget that we have had some trouble with on Cooper is making sure the cast and crew are using the recycle bins.
When it comes to production not everything goes as planned. That adage also applies when taking a production green on a budget. One day out from our first day of principle photography on Cooper we get an email from the company supplying our cast and crew with reusable aluminum water bottles, saying there is a problem and we will not be receiving the order today as expected due to an inventory mix-up. They apologize and say they will have our bottles to us within forty-eight hours. The only problem, that leaves us with no water bottles for our first day on set. 