By Rameesh Kailasam & Tamseel Hussain

Amazon Prime’s latest “Poacher”, a fictional investigative crime series inspired by true events on ivory trafficking and conservation, was widely acclaimed at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. It covered the dark underbelly of ivory poaching besides delving into the complex relationship between humans and other species, making a bold statement about co-existence. The series also showcased the prowess of Indian storytelling on a global stage.

Another international series “Y: The Last Man” gained attention for a not-so-usual reason. It emphasised sustainability with the use of solar-powered trailers during shoots, segregated separate bins for compost and recycling, uneaten meals redirected to charities, costume department sourcing and donating secondhand clothes, and so on. 

These two shows– one from India (Global South) and another from the United States (Global North) – highlight how climate storytelling is moving forward– one where strong narratives drive home the urgency for action and another where the filmmaking in itself is charting a sustainable path.  For an industry where numbers mean either budgets or box-office collections, their actual worrisome numbers are their carbon footprint problem. 

In 2020, the British Film Institute came out with a landmark report that highlighted how blockbuster films with budgets of over $70 million produce an average of 2,840 tonnes of CO2 per production, a figure equivalent to the amount absorbed by 3,700 acres of forest in one year and now. While Streaming video content is a low-emission one, compared to driving to a movie theatre, the onus is on OTT platforms to further ensure that the environmental impact of streaming is further reduced through new technologies and efforts such as video compression, data centers and effective rendering.

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In 2021, the Sustainable Production Alliance, a consortium of film, TV and streaming companies dedicated to reducing the entertainment industry’s overall environmental impact, released their inaugural carbon footprint report, for the period 2016 to 2019. The report stated that each film production emits around 3,370 metric tonnes of CO2 for each day’s shoot, equivalent to over 7 million miles driven by a car for production with an average budget of $70 million, while smaller films emit about 400 metric tonnes, and one-hour scripted dramas had 77 metric tonnes of CO2 per episode.

Albert, a collaborative initiative involving BAFTA, broadcasters, and independent producers, states that the carbon footprint of an average hour’s filming is comparable to that of a return flight from London to New York and the fuel usage of an average tentpole film is equivalent to a car driving 3.4 million miles.

Entertainment narratives possess the potential to influence our perceptions of the world and motivate us toward action. The USC Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project conducted a research project examining 37,453 scripts and films from 2016 to 2020. The findings revealed that a mere 2.8 percent of these works addressed climate change, indicating its notable absence in scripted entertainment. In another report, it was found that since 2022, more than 200 million households around the world chose to watch at least one story on Netflix that helped audiences better understand climate issues. Clearly, audience expectations are evolving, and it would not be far away when viewers increasingly will be seeking content that aligns with sustainable values. 

While the entertainment industry globally grapples with its carbon footprint, filmmaking from the Global North and Global South are taking steps. In the developed world, the focus is on mitigating emissions from high-budget productions, with initiatives like ‘Y: The Last Man’ showcasing sustainability measures. However, challenges persist in addressing the carbon-intensive nature of blockbuster filmmaking. In contrast, the Global South, exemplified by India’s early efforts with the carbon-neutral film ‘Aisa Yeh Jahaan’ and now ‘Poacher’ reflects a proactive stance towards climate action. The number of Indian films that feature environment, wildlife or climate change in their messaging, is seeing an upward trend. More recently, the numbers have only gone up with films such as Lakadbaggha, Joram, the Jengaburu Curse (on OTT), etc. 

The makers of the movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ spent $200,000 to plant trees to help make up for the estimated 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions that they produced while filming. Way back in 2015, India had released its first carbon-neutral film ‘Aisa Yeh Jahaan’ which planted trees to offset emissions it created.  

The industry can take few preemptive measures and that’s where the decentralised storytelling ecosystem comes into play. Instead of a large studio helming every aspect of the project, this allows a collaborative and non-hierarchical process in various forms, including crowd-sourced content creation, user-generated content, or collaborative efforts amongst multiple creators. Start-ups like PlucTV are creating platforms that offer an ecosystem that involves creators from across the globe to collaborate and create, thereby reducing transportation costs. They offer virtual studios where submissions can happen without anyone having to travel or printing on paper. 

Decentralised storytelling involves localised productions that lead to reduced carbon footprint as compared to traditional large-scale centralised productions as it leverages technological innovations through virtual collaboration tools. 

By encouraging diverse perspectives and creativity, this approach aligns with the evolving preferences of audiences and contributes to a more sustainable and responsible entertainment industry. Investors are increasingly considering environmental impact in their evaluations, and industry talent is gravitating toward companies that prioritise climate-conscious practices. As climate storytelling becomes a universal language, this unified force in decentralised storytelling emerges as a powerful force in mobilising collective action for a better planet. 

(The Authors are CEO Indiatech.org and Founder Pluc.tv respectively, views expressed are personal and not necessarily those of financialexpress.com)