< Back to all posts

Mastering Sustainable Video Production: Strategies for Eco-Friendly Filmmaking

Posted by Deb Nicharot on May 3, 2024

How ambitious is your corporate video strategy? Keeping up with the competition increasingly means scaling up your productions, adding visual flair through tactics like filming on location and using custom B-roll.

However, embarking on outdoor video shoots demands a follow-up question: How can you incorporate globe-trotting on-location shots into your video content while still remaining earth-friendly and environmentally conscious?

If you’ve positioned your brand as a champion of ecological values, it’s important to stay principled about your own operations’ environmental impact. This includes your corporate video productions. Fortunately, with the right tactics, you can boost the quality of your videos while embracing sustainable filmmaking practices.

What Defines an Eco-Conscious Video Production Process?

Consumers today have a wealth of information about the companies they deal with every day. They can make sure their values align with a business’s practices before making a purchase, and may only throw their long-term loyalty behind socially responsible organizations.

Explicitly shaping your business to be more earth-friendly and combat climate change is a way to prove to your audience that you stand for something. This general commitment to green operations can take several different forms when applied to your video production efforts.

You can target multiple climate and environment-related goals simultaneously when deciding how to manage your on-location video shoots. These include:

• Waste production: How much unnecessary waste is created by your video crew? This can mean more than just creating trash on the shoot: Unnecessary hotel stays also lead to excess waste generation compared to talent or crew members going home after filming.
• CO2 emissions: Travel can be a major contributor to carbon emissions. This is why airplane flights are often a focal point of conservation efforts. The less your crew and gear have to fly, the more reasonable your shoot’s carbon footprint will be.
• Impact on nature: Shooting B-roll in impressive natural locations is a great way to raise the visual appeal of your content — but it’s important to remember to treat those locations respectfully. Treating local flora and fauna with respect should be a sustainable filmmaking priority.

How Can You Make Your Video Shoot More Eco-Friendly?

Your company’s success or failure in reaching its sustainable production goals will come down to the planning and execution of each shoot. When you work with an expert video crew, you can draw on the experience and knowledge of your production team members to conduct the shoot in a responsible way.

Some approaches you and your video production services partners can use include:

• Implementing emissions tracking: To make strategic decisions around sustainability, you should be aware of your production’s environmental footprint. Top video production crews can provide a clear look at the impact of various activities, helping you make adjustments to be more green.
• Keeping the production local: Rather than transporting people and gear to the location of your next outdoor video shoot, it can pay to work with locals. Crews based in the area don’t have to travel or stay in hotels, cutting down on emissions and waste. Furthermore, these regional crews can either use their own gear or rent equipment in the area.
• Shooting some content remotely: Working with remote producing and remote directing technology is a promising way to capture footage of your stakeholders using their own devices’ cameras. This method removes the need for wasteful travel while still allowing a professional director to oversee the shoot.

It’s possible to bring your video production in on time and under budget while still taking common-sense steps that will mitigate the environmental impact of the shoot.

Learn more about the different steps of an expert-led video production and what they cost.

Ready to Launch a Sustainable Video Production?

If you’re committed to shooting compelling video content while still maintaining an ecologically sound production strategy, you can get started right away. Considering the environmental angle from the earliest stages of planning can help you ensure you maximize your green potential.

Choosing Crews Control as your expert video production company is a great way to tap into a sustainable film production approach. Our crews are based around the world, ensuring there are experts near you with less travel and a reduced carbon emission footprint. These teams can also monitor environmental impact and advise you to adopt greener practices.

Crews Control is a member of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Sustainability Committee, meaning we’re serious about adopting more eco-friendly and sustainable production practices throughout the corporate media landscape.

Read our eBook to learn more about the ways on-location video shooting and environmental consciousness can coexist.