News
News
One6th Animation Studio
Two Black Boys in Paradise
Sustainable Production
Overview
This page focuses on how the TBBIP production has helped to lower our carbon footprint. If you are a stop-motion artist, perhaps there are some things here that you can take onto your next production. And if any of you learn any tips from other productions or come up with ideas yourself, then please do let us know so that together we can all keep lowering the footprint of our industry.
Albert Stop-Motion Training
For those who don’t know, ALBERT now offers a sustainable workshop tailored towards stop-motion. Keep an eye out at the below link for the next dates. The next one will be on May 7th.
Click here for more info and to book onto the workshop. Link below to copy and paste if click doesn't work.
This is an interactive 90-minute online (Zoom) session for those at all levels in their career. With a collaborative approach, the workshop will feature active discussions about how to operate more sustainably when working on animations. You will be asked to bring real-world examples of sustainability challenges encountered in your roles to bring the discussion to life.
PRODUCTION
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Carbon Offsetting - Although we can’t rely solely on offsetting carbon, and strive to implement carbon reduction measures, carbon offsetting is still important to us.
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In 2022 and 2023 we offset 12 tonnes of carbon (a tonne a month) through carbon offsetting schemes.
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On top of this we have so far planted 176 trees on behalf of TBBIP crew as part of our carbon offsetting in 2024 and aim to plant more in 2025 as we celebrate our film making it’s way into the world.
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We have offset offset another 12 tonnes of carbon at the end of production.
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Meetings - The majority of our meetings are done remotely to avoid unnecessary travel, and we our use own kit and homes where possible to avoid unnecessary equipment and travel/location purchases.
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Paper - We used Adobe Sign for our contracts to avoid unnecessary printing and our call sheets were also digital.
PRODUCTION
-
Carbon Offsetting - Although we can’t rely solely on offsetting carbon, and strive to implement carbon reduction measures, carbon offsetting is still important to us.
-
In 2022 and 2023 we offset 12 tonnes of carbon (a tonne a month) through carbon offsetting schemes.
-
On top of this we have so far planted 176 trees on behalf of TBBIP crew as part of our carbon offsetting in 2024 and aim to plant more in 2025 as we celebrate our film making it’s way into the world.
-
We have offset offset another 12 tonnes of carbon at the end of production.
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Meetings - The majority of our meetings are done remotely to avoid unnecessary travel, and we our use own kit and homes where possible to avoid unnecessary equipment and travel/location purchases.
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Paper - We used Adobe Sign for our contracts to avoid unnecessary printing and our call sheets were also digital.
Lights, Camera, Action!
Our energy use is a big contributor to our carbon footprint, so we want to reduce our need for power as much as we can.
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Low Energy Lights - We bought several LED lights for filming, including our big key light, in addition to the softboxes which were also LED - to ensure energy use from lighting was as low as possible.
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Cyc Lights - These were made using LED strips in guttering.
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House Lights - We changed the fluorescent lights in the studio to LED ones, and installed separate switches for the 2 units so that we could turn off lights independently if a unit wasn’t in use.
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LED Practical Lights - We used LED strips for practical lighting on the market set.
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Second Hand Camera - One of our cameras was purchased second hand, doing our bit to reduce demand on buying brand new goods.
Sets and Props
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Wood - We only purchased FSC accredited wood and checked this with suppliers before ordering. Some wood offcuts were also donated by the Director from his home renovations, which were up-cycled, but we cannot guarantee if this was all FSC accredited.
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Underwater Set - although some mod rock and plaster was used, we mainly used up-cycled materials for the coral reefs. Other than the materials just mentioned, they were built using leftover chicken wire covered in old newspapers (Papier-mâché style), egg cartons and old plastic bottles. The actual coral was 3D printed using a plant based starch filament.
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Paradise Hills - The same Papier-mâché method as the coral reefs was used with some plaster for shaping. Cork granules were used for texturing the hills and were also used for the sand on the beach.
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Mountains and Buildings - The mountains in the paradise set and the buildings in the market set were laser cut, which reduces off-cut waste. Designs were laid out for printing in such a way as to use empty space (i.e. the gaps for windows) for building parts such as tiles or bricks.
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Trees - On the paradise set, the tree trunks were made from fallen twigs and small branches that we collected. We whittled them into the shapes we needed, then wrapped FSC certified crepe paper around them and dry brushed them with black paint, giving a to-scale bark effect.
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Paint - We used mainly Zero VOC, non toxic paint, purchased from Lakeland Paints. Their website is https://www.lakelandpaints.co.uk/ should you wish to find out more or purchase from them.
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Recycled / Up-cycled - We have already displayed some of the market stalls at the puppet masters conference at Waterside Arts at the end of last year and are in discussions with a number of organisations about further exhibitions involving our sets. We will post news of these on our socials once we have further details.
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Once set pieces reach the end of their exhibition lives we will either re-purpose for future projects or donate to a college for use in art / animation classes.
Puppets
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Fabrication - We aimed to up-cycle as much as possible for our puppets costumes and here is an overview of how we got on.
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Around 75% of all costumes were up-cycled by the lead puppet fabricator (this was all market scene characters including the 2 main boys - apart from the 2 policemen), mainly from baby clothes, charity shop finds, and an old easyJet uniform!
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The two policemen were fabricated using an old shirt from a charity shop for the trousers and vest. The vest and pockets were lined with sheet foam up-cycled from old packaging. Only the shirt was made from new shop bought fabric.
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Utilising Junk Casts - We gave junk casts of BG character heads some love (and filler) and used them for our market seller heads.