Celebrating Green Crew Heroes! Magdalena Staneva, Petra Trendafilova, and Tihomira Temelkova of Solent Films, Bulgaria.
Green The Bid Crew Heroes is a series that highlights individuals who bring sustainable practices to any area of the production process, and seek to inspire others to do the same. Production can’t happen without all crew-members (both on set and off), and the same is true of their support of Green The Bid.
This week Green The Bid’s Jessie Nagel spoke with Magdalena Staneva, Petra Trendafilova, and Tihomira Temelkova of Solent Films, Bulgaria, about providing electric transport on set, making the most of resources, and the Bulgarians that inspire them to do more!
J.N. Where are you based and how does that impact your view on sustainability?
M.S. Solent Film is based in Sofia, the largest city and capital of Bulgaria. Sofia is slowly becoming one of the most vibrant cities in Europe, constantly aiming at becoming more innovative in respect to a greener lifestyle. However, we still have a long way to go, especially in regards to air pollution and recycling. Even though the public is largely encouraged to utilize public transport and electric vehicles, the logistics are still not so well developed, preventing the majority of people to take full advantage. Recycling has gained wide popularity in recent years. However, the city is still in the process of establishing recycling patterns to make it accessible and easy to the general public.
J.N. At Solent, you’ve been able to implement a lot of best practices over the last few years, what are some key ideas you’d like to share?
P.T. As the work in the industry is rather fast-paced, one of the best practices, I believe, is that we talk to each other, we share ideas with each other.
I will give an example of some of the things we do at the office as well as on set:
Having our runner using an electric car as it is the one vehicle always in action
Have branded reusable water bottles which we use on set
Combined travel whenever possible
Ecover detergents
Minimum printing with recycled printing paper
Reusing stationary
Reusing costumes, props from the art department which are kept in a warehouse so whenever we need to blow off the steam at work it has become a wonderful source of inspiration for pranks
We donate to charities
M.S. We are really proud with our electric vehicle – our runner’s car, one of the most used cars in production. It has definitely turned to be one of the most effective practices we have implemented, a really great example and we definitely intend to keep working in this direction. As mentioned above, air pollution is one of our city’s main struggles and it is our hope to contribute as much as we can for a healthier future. Our next step is implementing electric vehicles as much as we can in the daily production life, especially passenger vans for our clients & partners.
J.N. What areas do you feel the Bulgarian film industry needs to work on as a whole?
T.T. We’re living in a digital world, and fundamental steps in reducing the film production footprint should be the substitution of the printing materials. Rather than printing paper, a digital copy would be just as compelling and preferred alternative for most cast and crew.
M.S. Also we, as an industry, need to keep pushing for recycling on set and making this an accessible practice for everyone. At the moment, we invest both finances, time and resources to make this possible, while it should be a given right to everyone.
J.N. As a service company, how do you communicate your sustainability goals with your production, agency and brand partners?
T.T. Sometimes some of our partners have very strict and defined requirements and protocols that we must follow when organizing the filming process so we can reduce the impact of the production. Sometimes we’re working together so we can find the balance and the best solution for the given production process.
P.T. We have noticed that most of our clients are already thinking in that direction so it is rarely the case that we have to be explicit on the subject. But, I believe, we mainly communicate by example. We have signs in the kitchen which explain the way we handle recycling, we always use recycling paper, we reuse whenever possible and people are really involved and understanding about it.
J.N. Why did you decide to join Green The Bid?
P.T. Our founder, Alex Momchev saw Green the Bid’s logo at another production company’s website and then made a research. It was obvious that joining this network is our next step.
T.T. Also, Green the Bid gives an opportunity to be part of a community and people thinking and working in one direction. Each participant success story, idea or step taken serves as an inspiration and motivation contributing to the common goal and mission - sustainable productions. (Sharing is caring) It gives the feeling that we are part of one big community where we can all make the difference.
J.N. Do you have a hero — who are they and why and how do they inspire you?
M.S. I am greatly inspired by a local initiative that started several years ago, “Caps for the Future”. It is now one of the most popular charity initiatives in Bulgaria, supported by an overwhelming amount of people all around the country. The idea is collecting plastic caps to raise funds for purchasing and donating baby incubators to smaller municipal hospitals in need. Behind the idea are Martina Yordanova and Lazar Radkov. I believe the simplicity of the task to collect plastic caps, as easy as it sounds, is such a genius approach that has reached a vast amount of people, which at the end of the day is the greatest achievement.
P.T. Vilyana Karushkova. She is a Bulgarian fashion designer who works only with recycled material.Her clothes are aesthetically pleasing, super comfortable to wear, made with only recycable or recycled silk, cotton or wool.
T.T. Anyone who strives to take care of our planet can be a hero.
Sometimes the zero-waste living can be really difficult to achieve and thus even demotivating. In this line of thinking, one of my personal heroes is Aware Animals - an initiative of a young graphic designer and illustrator from Sofia, who works on a comic strip of two animals who live in the big city and face the everyday life problems that we do. It’s very fun and positive way to learn and share about zero waste philosophy, free of guild, and spread the message that we can all be part of the change and inspire it in others , sometimes even with the smallest actions.
----- Are you a crew hero or do you know one? We want to hear from you!
