No? Well, now you might want to.
Let me explain.
IT'S BLOG ACTION DAY!
This is it! Today is Blog Action Day. Blog Action day is about 14,000 bloggers reaching 12,000,000 people to raise awareness about one issue: the environment.
Now that the digital format is commonplace, I started thinking how much this industry has changed in the past few years and how television is "turning green." (Leaving aside for a rainy day the amount of electronics being produced.)
For years, the television industry relied on physical tapes and films to view programs. Just think about the costs associated for every single production created:
- Gather raw materials.
- Ship raw materials to manufacturer.
- Manufacture the videotapes.
- Ship the videotapes to distributors.
- Ship the videotapes to customers.
When television programs were finally duplicated onto tape, they were again shipped to their destinations. Talk about leaving a carbon footprint!
THE FOUR R's OF "GREEN" VIDEO
The video landscape is "turning green" through the help of what I call, The Four R's:
1. Reduce, 2. Reignite, 3. Recycle, 4. Regional.
Reduce
The video production industry today uses considerably less materials than years before. If weight matters, then we're heading in the right direction. Most productions still use tape to capture footage but we are seeing an increasing amount of digital cameras capturing images on hard drives, eventually eliminating tape, and discs, altogether.
Distributing finished programs digitally through the web has literally wiped out any traces of tape...a huge step for Planet Earth.
Reignite
It's time to reignite television. Remember, TELEVISION = communicating visions over distances. TELE (over distances) + VISION (the ability to plan the future with imagination and wisdom).
I believe television has an obligation and duty to educate, inform and enlighten. The proliferation of "reality television" programs is actually taking us further away from "reality." At a very subconscious level, these programs empower major studios with the ability to weaken and corrode our discriminative skills.
On the other hand, we do have much to celebrate. The enormous number of documentaries, including the sudden spike in environmental videos, and education channels is inviting audiences to see the world from a different point of view. Ultimately, this impact is about raising one's consciousness to create a better world.
One of my heroes, Journalist Edward R. Murrow, said it best:
"This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful." RTNDA Convention, Chicago, October 15, 1958
Recycle
Most productions require "work tapes." These tapes are used for reference or backing up shows temporarily and can easily be recycled for future programs. Often times, we can reuse work tapes thereby avoiding using more raw resources.
Regional
Tight Budgets = Local Crews. When video productions require travel, hiring as many local crew members not only saves production dollars but drastically reduces the total output of green house gases.
The future is clear. Zeros and ones not only change how we interact with each other, they just might help save the planet.
Pretty powerful stuff for "wires and lights in a box."
---Tom
