Member in Focus:
Amelia Price

Sustainability in film and television has never been more talked about. But talking about it and actually making it happen on a production are two very different things — and Amelia Price has spent the last decade doing the latter. Co-founder of Sustainable Film alongside Jimmy Keeping, co-founder of The Generator Project, member of the Production Guild's own Sustainability Committee and a tireless advocate across working groups and industry bodies, Amelia has built a career at the very intersection of production expertise and environmental action. Her credits span Secret Invasion, The Devil's Hour, Mammals and Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man — and her latest credit is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Marvel's most anticipated production in years. We sat down with Amelia to find out what it really takes to embed sustainability into the fabric of a major production, why she believes boots on the ground will always matter more than frameworks on paper, and what she hopes the industry looks like a decade from now.

Congratulations on the release of Spider-ManTM: Brand New Day! It’s one of the biggest productionsSony andMarvel have ever mounted — how does it feel to be part of a film of this scale, and what does landing a credit like this mean for the visibility of sustainability as a genuine production discipline?

I’d previously worked on Spider-Man: Far From Home when I was a Location Coordinator, so I knew what scale we were getting ourselves into! Thankfully, on these larger projects the sustainability department is seen as normal now, we no longer have to explain to crew why we’re there or what we’re doing, we can concentrate on actually making a difference on each production.

You spent your first decade in the production office and locations department before making a pivot into sustainability. What prompted that shift — and was there a single moment that crystallised it for you?

In short yes, it was actually one specific production that crystallised it, but that production will remain nameless! In the locations department you’re the bridge between the production and the ‘real world’, you see first-hand how a project affects it local environment and residents. I’d grown up in a very eco conscious family, where nothing was wasted, and I suddenly realised I was working on huge tent pole productions that didn’t really fit with my own values. So rather than just being the hippy in the location team, I retrained in Environmental Management and decided to do something about it.

You co-founded Sustainable Film with Jimmy Keeping and also co-founded The Generator Project. You also sit on working groups and committees including our own Production Guild Sustainability Committee. That's an extraordinary breadth of advocacy work alongside your consultancy practice. How do those different strands connect for you, and do you see them as all part of the same mission?

We’re really proud of the other work we do alongside the productions, but it’s all very much connected. We interact with every department, and many of the suppliers on a production, so it’s important to us that we use our voice and ensure all the right people are talking to each other. So often in sustainability people are doing some really great work, but they might not be aware of another complimentary project, we see it as our job to help connect the dots throughout the industry.

The conversation around sustainability in film and television has genuinely shifted over the last fifteen years — with the introduction of BAFTA albert, the Green Production Guide, Sustainable Production Alliance, and many others. But there's a difference between frameworks and what actually happens on a production. Your work is very much boots on the ground — hired by productions to make it happen in practice. What does that look like day to day, and where does the gap most often exist between good intentions and good outcomes?

We’re finding one of the biggest shifts is the crew’s attitude, there’s obviously still a few people who struggle with different ways of working, but overall, most crew in the UK are really supportive of our department and working with us to improve things. We thankfully rarely have to talk about waste anymore, as it’s such a small part of a production’s footprint (although it is very visible when it’s not done correctly!) and there’s much better understanding of where a productions impact lies, so the conversations around power and transport are much more proactive and meaningful than they used to be, with some real changes started to take place.

When in a production's lifecycle is the right time to bring in a Sustainability Consultant — and does it happen early enough? On a production as complex and fast-moving as Sony Pictures’Spider-Man: Brand New Day, how do you manage the full scope of your services — from carbon footprint monitoring and supplier engagement to crew training and stakeholder reporting — alongside the sheer pace of a major studio shoot?

This is definitely where we’ve seen the biggest change over the last few years, long gone are the days where a production gives us 3 weeks prep. Everyone now understands that for real change to happen, we have to get in early to support the crew, so that they can use us as a resource whilst they're making those key decisions in prep.

We have a really experienced team who all have different areas of expertise, so we ensure there’s good communication from the start, and then the crew know who they need to call if they need advice or a supplier suggestion. But we’re affected by the schedule as much as any other department, and I’m sure we’d all love to see a few less last-minute script and schedule changes on all productions, that would definitely help the footprint of the industry.

You've worked across both high-end television and feature film — including returning series like The Devil's Hour and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. How does the approach to sustainability differ between the two formats — and does working on a returning series give you more opportunity to embed lasting change?

Absolutely, that really is the main advantage the TV has over feature films, and its something that the industry is getting much better at. If there’s adequate storage, then so much can be saved and re-used on a returning series. Its obviously driven by budget saving, but there are so many areas that you can re-use sets, props and costume across multiple series and make a huge difference to your footprint.

Sustainable Film has audited both BAFTA albert's Sustainable Suppliers Directory and Filming in England's Green Supplier's Directory — positioning the company at the very centre of how the industry accredits and evaluates its supply chain. How important is the supplier side of sustainability, and is it an area you think the industry still underestimates?

Its hugely important, almost more so that the productions themselves! We put so much pressure on our suppliers to deliver to our tight deadlines, and we’re now increasingly asking more and more of them from a sustainability perspective. We want the latest technology, and more efficient tools to make our productions more sustainable, so we’re demanding to be supported by sustainable businesses. 

We identified that there’s a lack of support for those suppliers, so we’re developing our own sustainable business training platform, which will be released in the Autumn. Trellis will guide them through the process of embedding more resilient working practices into their own business.

What do you wish productions understood about sustainability before you arrived on day one — and what is the single most common misconception you encounter?

Sadly, there are still a few people who think we’re the bins and water people…

On a lighter note — after years of encouraging productions to reduce waste and consume more responsibly, what is your own non-negotiable on a long shoot day?

Tea! It’s a very British response, but I really do drink a lot of it. (Loose leaf so no bag waste of course!)

Finally — what would you say to a production professional considering sustainability as a career path, and what has kept you so passionate about this work?

Every day is different; I absolutely love it. Not only do we still get the buzz of helping seeing a major production come together, but we also get to seek out new technologies and materials and innovative ways of doing things. I really enjoy discovering something sustainable happening in another industry and then working out how we can make it work in film and TV.