After the filming Adentro made remotely during the pandemic, the post-production house Dinamita Post got involved in how to film while minimizing polluting emissions, discovering that virtual production is key in savings, not only of economic resources, but also in terms of daily carbon emissions; Therefore, its CEO, Paulo Carballar, pointed out that the paradigm on pollution must shift, and that it’s a pressing need.
“We did Adentro with this remote model due to health protocols, we solved it creatively and technologically. Is an endearing script with few characters and uses Sony technology to operate cameras remotely. Later, when researching virtual production, we realized the implications it could have, and after reading an article about young people in England who measured their emissions after making their short film, we began to make a series of hypotheses to evaluate how much we would save in CO₂ emissions. Our project not only aims to learn about virtual production but to implement it in Mexico. We must learn how to do it, therefore we are testing,” he commented.
Faced with the question of how to produce more, and pollute less, he said: “We find that virtual production presents us with options to reduce these emissions since among other things it would reduce the use of fossil fuels; The film industry has always prioritized the creative needs of the project over the environment and this cannot continue, the creative needs must be aligned with the needs of the planet.”
With this goal in mind, the company is implementing a multidisciplinary project by creating, alliances with specialists, with a methodology that they considered disruptive in innovation, working hand in hand with the Postgraduate in Energy Efficiency of TESE Ecatepec, with whom they are using this technique to compare pollution versus that generated during traditional production, “achieving encouraging results.”
They’ve completed two tests that will soon be announced: “One was in a cave and the other on the beach, in the first we saved 32.5% of emissions, and in the second 86%. We are excited about all that we can achieve. Now we are preparing the next test, some running shots, and then in alliance with an OTT with which we will create some scenes of a series in order to have a level of comparison of results. The fifth experiment will be a short film produced by us, using virtual production at its best and with its different implementations.”
Carballar said that they already have proposals to hire this service; however, “we are not ready yet, but we do see that it is an area that opens many opportunities. In our case, as a post house with experience in VFX and the knowledge of how to trick the eye, it is our obligation to try to help, because, in addition to being a great business idea, it is an opportunity to contribute to society.”
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View Earth Day Special: LatAm grows in sustainable productions.