Lin Mengdi/Mandy
Dr. Marquardt
ENG1300
Oct.12/14
1134
What happens when filming may
cause pollution?
Film
market is becoming more and more prosperity recent years. If Chinese films have
the intention to become someone who is outstanding in the world, they have to
pay more attention to the gorgeous scenery, excellent staff, advanced
photography equipment and so on.
However,
in the developing process of Chinese films, there are more and more environment
pollutions being exposed. Unlike American film market owns mature and tacit
environmental protection measures, China has the urgent to standardize film
market. I have found some cases to compare China and other countries in dealing
with environmental pollution when filming. Wish I can find the answers.
《The Promise》(2005,China) directed by Chen Kaige, China
Introduction:
The promise is a
2005 Chinese epic fantasy film. This film is based on the wuxia romance The
Kunlun Slave, written by Pei Xing at the time of Tang Dynasty. Even though this
film gained a lot of office box earnings in different countries, but received
many criticism voices from different area as well. One of the important reasons
is damage to vegetation. Because of quantities of staff in this crew, there
must be much garbage. Besides, the staff there is lack of environmental
awareness. What’s the worst, to build the background and pave, the film crew
damaged the alpine meadow in Shangri-La, Yunnan Province. After the fact
published by some reporters then warned by environmental government, the crew
was under pressure having to clean their garbage out, but the vegetation almost
couldn’t be recovered.
Quote:“Sometimes a
negative example can serve as a warning.”（Reiters,2006）
Explanation:
As a famous a Chinese director in the world, there
is no doubt that Chen Kaige has great influence. So his behavior will be
closely watched. Since he has showed a bad example to people all over the world,
there were quantities of people expressing their anger. However, what surprised
people was the news that Chen Kaige was nominated for a “Green Chinese” award
for raising environmental awareness. In most people’s opinion, this news was
ridiculous and unbelievable, but it was true. So far, there is no use talking
about this negative example. We just hope that this award could warn all the
directors and people – don’t do damage to environment, please.
《Three
Kingdoms》(2010,China)
directed by Gao Xixi , China
Introduction:
Three
Kingdoms is a Chinese television series based on the events in the late Eastern
Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. The series was well received both
domestically and internationally, earning an estimated 800 million yuan in
total as of May. As one of four classics in China,《Three
Kingdom》occupied an important position from ancient times. So this series
crew cost a lot of money to invite excellent actors, hire workers, furnished
studio and so on. However, what shocked the local people was the crew caused
the water pollution terribly. Apart from the stacked plastic boxes, there were
many drinking bottles even stool floating on water surface of the Yangxi
reservoir. What shocked us was that dealing the problem was not the
environmental but the reservoir management. Until Apr.18th,2009, all
the garbage was cleaned out completely, the film scene was restored as before.
Quote:” Bear In Mind,
water to get bull dozed, 30 million having to do with clean water legal rights
becoming broken.”
(sgtsbhtrh, 2009)
Explanation:
The author use this number “30 million” showing the
bad effects more clearly. As we all know, water is the source of life. Without
water, human race cannot exist on earth. So we can imagine now the bad
situations the local people suffered at that time. It’s unfair. Film makers
profit from shooting movies. Even though as filming locations, Yangxi reservoir
management can take advantage of tourism stimulating economic in a way. But
compared with the high quality of life, nobody will choose the short-term
benefits, I believe.
《Pearl Harbor》(2001,America) directed by Michael Bay, America
Introduction：
Pearl
Harbor is a 2001 American epic war film with romance and action elements
directed by Michael Bay. It is a dramatic reimagining of the Blitz, the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Doolittle Raid. This film was also a
environmental protection case. To reappear the scene at that time realistically,
not only the crew chose scene where is the Pearl Harbor’s wreck located, but
also blew up 17 vessels. In the shooting process, the film crew was overseen by
many environmentalists. And they hired some professional divers. Before filming
the explosion scene, these divers would drive turtles and fishes that were
accidental injured possibly.
Quote： "The agency said the contamination cleanup process involves the Environmental Protection Agency and the Navy, and is beyond the scope of its jurisdiction." (TenBruggencate, 2006)
Explanation：Because of the strong government support, explosion pollutants could
be nearly cleaned out effectively. From this detail, we can see the complete
environmental system and agency coordination and efficient operation in
America. This make us marveled and admired. Quality of a country shows not only
in economy but also environment, culture and politics.
* * *
Beautiful nature landscape or wonderful
movie making, which one will you choose? For different country, there will be
different choices to be made. It’s not only determined by various attitudes
towards film makers in different countries (developed countries or developing
countries), but also depend on the film development degree, in another word,
the movie history in different countries.
For developing countries:
As we all know, China is a developing
country. And the speed of development is becoming faster and faster in many
ways. Though I’m a Chinese, there are some true words I want to say. Chinese
film makers may pay more attention to the film which there are gorgeous special
effects, famous actors and so on. Even they want to compete with Hollywood
blockbusters, so it’s easy to explain the reason why they ignore the importance
of environment protection：Chinese film production levels is behind other developed countries
and many Chinese film makers are lack of awareness of environmental protection.
(This kind of phenomenon can be seen easily in developing countries.)
For developed countries:
Because of the more perfect environmental
protection system and the higher environmental protection consciousness in
public, the processes of making films are environmental and safe in America. It
seems that take notice of staying away from the destruction of the natural
landscape is becoming a unwritten rule. This is wise and should be kept up and
spread all over the world.
In a word, no matter you’re developed
country or developing country, you should take the responsibility to protect natural
landscape. It’s not an advice but an order, because you’re the one of freemen
on earth.
References:
