Real Green
The fact that the 79th Academy Awards were the “greenest” in history generated a fair amount of commentary, but a remarkable environmental advance that the whole film industry had achieved was barely noted.
Barely noted, except by the Academy itself. At its Scientific and Technical Awards dinner in February 2007, two weeks prior to the televised show, the Academy honored 12 people with a special Award of Commendation “for their contributions to the environmentally responsible industry conversion from silver-based to cyan analog dye soundtracks.” The honorees, shown in the photo above, were Ioan Allen (at the podium), and behind him, from left: J. Wayne Anderson, Mary Ann Anderson, Dr. Alan Masson, Frank Ricotta, Colin Mossman, Richard C. Sehlin, Martin Richards, Ted Costas, Shawn Jones and Paul R. Goldberg. One honoree, Thomas Kuhn, was not at the awards ceremony.
While it is rare for 12 people to share any award, the size of the group is indicative of the scope of the achievement – one that cuts across several industry boundaries and marks a complete shift in industry practice. “The accomplishment was a genuine, quantifiable gain for the environment, and it resulted from an altruistic and industry-wide attack on a problem,” said Academy Executive Director Bruce Davis.
For over half a century, or more specifically, since the introduction of color film, analog soundtracks had been laid onto release prints using a separate silver application or “redevelopment” process. In the early ’90s, however, the Environmental Protection Agency began to consider tighter restrictions on film stock because of its silver content. A hazardous waste classification would greatly complicate the disposal of more than 10 billion feet of film stock each year, as well as add to the long recognized costs – both financial and environmental – of having prints rejected because of redevelopment flaws, using redevelopment solutions that contained ten chemicals on the EPA watchlist, and in North America alone, consuming enough water in the print-washing process to meet the drinking water needs of 200,000 people.
In 1996 a group of intrepid engineers, sound experts and other industry veterans launched an effort to convert the industry from silver-applicated soundtracks to cyan analog dye soundtracks. Their work was based on a technology that Dolby Laboratories patented and then donated to the cause. Because cyan was already one of the three dye layers that comprised the film image, cyan soundtracks would make redevelopment unnecessary – and eliminate the silver, hazardous chemicals and quality control issues that went along with it.
The benefits were obvious, but converting an entire industry would be no easy task. It would require significant changes at production companies, film labs, and especially theaters, where conventional tungsten lamps in projector sound heads would have to be replaced by red light-emitting diode assemblies (“red light readers”) for the cyan soundtracks to be played at the proper levels, without distortion and without excessive background noise.
Representatives from such companies and organizations as Dolby, Kodak, Agfa, Fuji, Technicolor, Deluxe, FotoKem, NT Audio and the National Association of Theater Owners got involved. They tackled technical and logistical problems, one by one, through a combination of research, testing, interim solutions and advocacy. By 2006 virtually all theaters in the United States had converted to red light readers, and today 100 percent of the films released by the six major Hollywood distributors carry cyan analog dye soundtracks. The technology has become a de facto worldwide standard.
In accepting the award on behalf of his fellow honorees, Ioan Allen rejoiced. “We’re saving about 40 million gallons of water in a year! We are not using 1,750 tons of chemicals in a year! The film industry is thought of as an entertainment engine with laughter, tears and profit being the main parameters in the equation. Well, we’ve shown that the environment is also an issue high up there. With no legislation, and totally internally driven, studios and theaters have worked together, and our industry has achieved something significant for the good of the earth. We did well. Be proud.”
