Why Our Film Set Might Smell Like Onion Rings

We’ve been doing our best to follow ‘The Code,’ most recently researching the possibility of using biodiesel to run our on-set generators and possibly our vehicles (like those nifty Patagonia surfers). But it sure is trickier than we thought. First of all, biodiesel is made a few different ways: directly from vegetables (virgin oil), recycled from used restaurant grease (recycled oil), or from a combination of restaurant grease and rendered animal fat (yellow oil). Now, any diesel engine can run on biodiesel, however special modifications would be needed if we were to take it a step greener, by enabling our engines to run directly on the used (unfiltered) restaurant grease. Of course, these modifications are expensive (anywhere from $900-$2500), but the combined long-term benefits of saving money on fuel and relieving stress on the environment by recycling used restaurant grease may be well worth it. Those prices are for a professional kit, however for Jacks and Janes-of-all-trades out there, you can convert your own engine following some do-it-yourself videos we found. Heck, if these guys can do it, maybe we can too. Hmm. First we need access to diesel vehicles. More on that to come!


For more information on recycled biodiesel production in the area, check out Black Gold Biofuels and Tri-State Biodiesel.

Musicians Who Care

It’s easy to forget that film and music have similarities. Many musicians have started their careers in film and vice versa. There’s a common thread, the understanding of a time-keeping beat. Telling a joke in a scene is the same as keeping a tune in 4/4; the only difference is in what it inevitably creates. With that knowledge, I gave myself a question: What could I learn from environmentally conscious musicians outside of this common vernacular and then apply it to the film set?

Let's start things off with Piebald. Piebald is a band I’d seen a few times in college. Though one of their albums, If It Weren’t for Venetian Blinds, It’d Be Curtains for Us All, is still in my top ten albums of all time, I really hadn’t followed them as I’d gotten older. When I did an initial search of bands going green, they were the one that first jumped out at me. Surprised, I navigated to their site, where I learned about their RV, which they had converted to run on waste vegetable oil. They have a great video that helps introduce the viewer on how an engine like that works (which is very similar to that of a diesel system). The Grease Not Gas website can further educate you as well.

As we are going to be traveling to shoot the film, this seems like an affordable way to transport our equipment to the shooting locations. Not only would it be safer for the environment, but it could save us money, a major plus when shooting an independent film. Unfortunately, Piebald recently broke up. You should still check them out though, they’re music is still awesome!

Someone else that took me by surprise were The Roots. A local hip-hop group, The Roots have their hands in many organizations, most notably with PETA. But while I couldn’t find much on their causes outside of a few, small articles tied in with their new album (which I haven't heard, but apparently has songs about the environment), I did get to stumble across this really cool site called Global Inheritance.

What’s great about Global Inheritance is they are presenting new ways to tackle activism, something I’ve lamented to a few people about recently. With times changing, a lot of the old methods of protest just don’t seem to have the same power. This site seems to realize that, offering various alternatives that get the message across while still feeling cutting edge and without condescension. While it seems to be more west coast-based, I’m hoping to hear more out of this collective, especially with their partnership with Planet Green, the new Discovery Channel which should launch in two weeks.

Fields of Fuel

At the base of the Wasatch Mountain Range in Utah is a 5000 acre environmental meeting ground for “world leaders, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, Academy Award-winning actors and directors, innovative scientists and accomplished corporate leaders.” It's called The Sundance Preserve. This year, Robert Redford decided to open his film festival there, with a screening of Josh Tickell’s biodiesel documentary Fields of Fuel, which received standing ovations and went on to win the Audience Award. The film will go on the road starting in New York City, and will follow the presidential campaign nationwide, in an attempt to "make green energy the #1 issue in the 2008 presidential elections."

Josh first discovered biodiesel in 1996, while studying abroad on an organic farm in East Germany. He applied what he learned there to his chemistry and engineering education, designing a portable machine that made fuel out of used cooking oil. He then toured the country for two years, towing his "Green Grease Machine" behind his Veggie Van, an unmodified, diesel engine Winnebago fueled by used fryer grease from fast food restaurants. He has written two books, and in 2005, Bill Clinton selected him to be part of his Global Initiative on Climate Change, helping to finance his biodiesel powered "relief ships" that provided much-needed food and supplies to Hurricane Katrina survivors. Fields of Fuel is his latest effort to mobilize Americans to ditch their foreign oil dependence for a more sustainable fuel future.

Biofuels have gotten a lot of bad press lately, so Josh is eager to explain that biodiesel is not corn ethanol. Unlike ethanol, which gets both its food and its fuel from the starch of the corn kernel, biodiesel can be made from over 1,100 species of oilseed crops, including soybeans, where the food comes from the protein, and the fuel from the oil. This eliminates competition between food and fuel needs, a huge drawback to ethanol production. And there is even a company in Massachusetts, GreenFuel, that uses algae as both a source for biodiesel, and a way to capture carbon emissions from power plants!

Biodiesel also has other advantages. It significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions, and can be used to replace sulfur, a lubricating agent in standard diesel fuel that produces sulfur dioxide, the major component in acid rain. In addition to its environmental benefits, the American Lung Association hosted a forum recently that focused on biodiesel's lower toxic compound emissions and particulate pollution.

These benefits to public health are significant even in the 5-20% mixtures that currently dominate the market, but 100% biodiesel is the future Josh is shooting for, so until Fields of Fuel is released in our area, check out his website, biodieselamerica.org.

Going Green In Film Initiative

Films made in this region may be heading in a greener direction. The New York Production Alliance, the Producers Guild of America, and the non-profit Earthmark are hosting a series of events designed to give the entertainment production community the information and tools necessary to “reduce waste, carbon emissions, and encourage recycling and reusing materials.” They plan to cover everything from paint/construction waste to the fuel used in their trucks. Union carpenters, painters, electricians, riggers, etc. that work on large budget films in the Philadelphia area are members of the larger locals of New York, so the changes this series is recommending could impact productions throughout this region.

Last weeks’ topic was biodiesel, with a presentation by Brent Baker of Tri-State Biodiesel (featured in Fields of Fuel). He gave an overview of the biodiesel industry, then highlighted his company’s use of 100% recycled waste fat from New York City restaurants. The New York City Parks Department uses biodiesel for its fleet, as does the Department of Sanitation, and the state has a 5% home heating biofuel mandate by 2012. Private companies are starting to come on board as well, and Tri-State Biodiesel now supplies biodiesel to Whole Foods Markets, and Fresh Direct, an online grocery delivery service.

Setting their sights on the film business, his company also teamed up with CAT Entertainment Services to fuel the Tribecca Film Festival in 2007, and there was a great deal of discussion at the event about running CAT equipment on biodiesel in future film productions. Haddad, an east coast company that provides trailers and trucks to the film industry, has also used biodiesel. And last year, the television show 24 began using biodiesel fuels to power their generators and production vehicles. Hopefully, this trend will continue, and getting the word out through this green film initiative was a great place to start.

Greasy Diesel, We're Lovin' It!

Don't lump biodiesel in with the other biofuels Kemper mentioned in his blog on ethanols. As you'll be reading in Karyn's blogs tomorrow, biodiesel is a fuel of a different breed.

The following facts have been reprinted from the website of Fry-O-Diesel, a plant in north Philadelphia that not only produces biodiesel from waste greases, but has also invented patent-pending technology to turn trap-grease (a sludgy amalgam of fats trapped in the sewer) into pure fuel.

• Biodiesel is a clean-burning, renewable fuel made from animal or vegetable fats, greases, and oils. Biodiesel can be used in most conventional diesel engines with NO modification.

• Since biodiesel is produced from oil and grease feedstocks, it can be produced on a long-term, renewable basis.

• With even 2% biodiesel added, fuel burns more efficiently and even improves the efficiency of retrofit technologies like diesel oxidation catalysts and particulate filters by inhibiting the accumulation of ash.

• Biodiesel is significantly less toxic than petroleum diesel, and is more biodegradable than petrodiesel, reducing the negative impacts of spills.

• Biodiesel is four times as efficient as diesel fuel in utilizing fossil energy. Biodiesel yields around 3.2 units of fuel for every unit of fossil energy consumed in the lifecycle. By contrast, petroleum diesels life cycle yields on only 0.83 units of fuel product per unit of fossil energy consumed –Biodiesel Lifecycle Inventory Study, DOE & USDA, 1998

• An estimated 6 million gallons of yellow grease are generated each year by restaurants and food service companies in the Philadelphia area.

• An estimated 10 million gallons of trap grease are generated each year in the Philadelphia area. Trap grease does not have a value in the market place – it is incinerated or dumped in landfills.

• Restaurants must pay for both yellow grease and trap grease removal. Some refuse to comply with city codes and dispose of the waste illegally, in dumpsters and down sewer lines.