EMA Green Seal for Students Spotlight: Jenna May Bourque
The Green Film School Alliance continues to grow. Last year, over 20 projects earned the EMA Green Seal for Students. Like our EMA Green Seal for Productions, student films that achieve a minimum of sustainable production goals as identified in the GFSA's Production Environmental Actions Checklist (PEACHy) receive a Green Seal.
2023 continues to see students interested in mitigating the environmental impact of their films, a vital skill to develop before entering the industry. Today, we showcase Vancouver Film School student Jenna May Bourque, who received our EMA Green Seal for her recent short film.
What inspired you and the rest of the crew to commit to achieving the Seal?
Thank you so much for awarding our Short Film with the EMA Green Seal for Students; it means a lot to all of us. Getting our EMA Green Seal was necessary for the professional fulfillment of our short film and the emotional. As soon as our instructor brought it up, I decided before the end of the lecture that I wanted to go for this. I was already planning to get the team to consider the environment beforehand. After class, before I had a chance to talk with all the crew members, my director approached me and said she wanted to get this, and I was excited.
I have long been an advocate for sustainability and the environment. I've gone on a few conservations and missed those while I've been busy with school these last few years. It was nice to participate in a program that promotes sustainability within film.
What was a sustainability standard that was surprisingly easy to achieve, and what was one that proved difficult?
I was worried most about the lighting package and being energy efficient because there are few options for energy-efficient lighting at the school. The only choice we had was the Kino's. However, we managed to get locations with large windows, so using only the LED lights and the natural light through those windows worked -- limiting the amount of Arri's we would need. The large windows let us turn the lights off between shots without turning any other lights on.
This short was very Set Dec heavy; finding every sustainable thing we needed was challenging. However, our Production Designer was terrific and convinced some friends to lend a lot of the fabrics, and finding everything second-hand, reusing old items, and the edible sparkles look so much more magical in the potions.
How valuable is it for students to include sustainability in their filmmaking before heading into their careers?
Students must include sustainability in filmmaking because media shapes society and norms. We as a society are very disconnected from nature, and the film industry is still a massive concern with environmental issues. So much goes into making a film we sometimes forget where all of the disposable ends up and the impact a single movie could have.
We're the next generation of filmmakers, which gives us a huge responsibility to set an example, and it has to start somewhere. If it starts earlier in your career, following sustainable practices is easier.
What role do producers play on set regarding sustainability?
First and foremost, the producer's role is to be an example and hold passion for the team; if the producer falls short, the rest of the team could lose interest in caring about what they're trying to achieve.
It's great to keep reminders with every meeting and let all the crew members and cast know early on when they join the project what the intention is to ensure they're also on the same page and willing to keep standards up to attain these goals.
Finally, please share any projects you are working on and how our audience can stay connected.
Our next project, which I'm very excited about, is a Period drama called 'Epicedion'. In the grief of Georgia's father passing away, memories of the past and new discoveries define a new sense of freedom she has never known before. I'm already filling out the form again for our next EMA Green Seal! To stay connected and see what future project I'll be working on, you can follow @smallbirdinmay, and to support our upcoming film, people can follow @epicedionshortfilm.