The French organization Ecoprod has collaborated with post-production companies to develop a guide which explores 70 green actions to ensure environmentally friendly post-production.
Post-production accounts for 12% of the total carbon footprint of an audiovisual production. In digital post-production, creative and technical specialists—colorists, VFX artists, post-production technicians, and video technicians—at various stages of the workflow require powerful workstations to transfer video and audio files to network storage systems or for high resolution rendering. To coordinate and specify sustainable measures, the guide suggests appointing a post-production supervisor. Energy consumption can be reduced, for example, during data transmission: this requires an early-stage decision of data formats, resolutions, and compression rates. It is also necessary to determine the energy requirements and carbon footprint of post-production equipment. Upgraded or modernized devices save energy thanks to their longer lifespan. Workflows can be optimized by using local storage for large amounts of data, preferable to energy-intensive cloud-based solutions. The choice of digital tools and programs also impacts energy consumption. Open-source tools are recommended.
Rendering 3D models requires significant processing power and energy, which can be reduced by reusing models from previous projects. Using GPU-based engines reduces the energy consumption of the rendering process by lightening the load on the main processor. Dubbing, post-synchronization, Foley, and subtitling can be resource-intensive if sessions take place on different days. Remote solutions can help avoid unnecessary travel. At the start of each project, effective metadata management, indexing, and standardized naming conventions improve file searchability and reduce redundancy.
"There are many activities in post-production that can be examined to help reduce the industry's carbon footprint," Alissa Aubenque, project manager at Ecoprod, told Greenfilm Shooting magazine. "Our green guide shows the measures that can be taken to configure visual effects production, and the entire post-production pipeline, to reduce energy consumption and resource use."