Sarah Newman
October 31, 2008 | 3:12 pm EST
While many stars make no secret of championing their environmental efforts, the film and television industry as a whole has lagged behind and still maintains a massive carbon footprint. And while many production companies are working hard to reduce waste and energy consumption at their studios and offices, the biggest waste tends to take place on location. Film and TV producer Judith James writes about the excesses in Traction, an online publication for women in Hollywood:
Consider how much fuel we use. Generators, night shoots, ‘distant locations,’ trucks per shoot, idling trucks, moving cranes, moving everything, people, wardrobe, grip equipment, out to the set and back, move locations, fly crews and helicopters.
In 2007 major studios, including Fox, Disney, Paramount, NBC, and CBS redirected 20,862 tons of studio sets and other solid waste that would have gone to landfills, and instead reused and recycled the materials, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. This combined reduction of waste eliminated
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Whether you’re dressed as a zombie John McCain, an Exxon Mobil executive drowning in dollars or a devil (which could look quite similar to a certain Tina Fey character), everyone seems to love to eat candy on Halloween. And, I don’t want to rain on your parade, but Halloween provides yet another opportunity for the Social Action snapshot to promote one more cause for you to consider. A large percentage of commercially sold chocolate (think Nestle, Mars and Hersheys) is made from cacao beans harvested in West Africa by child labor. These kids work under harsh, unethical conditions for very little money. However, consumers can make an easy choice today by buying from only the sweetest chocolate companies (sweet, that is, to labor rights).
takepart Click here for this chocolate list so that you can avoid the most bitter companies and have a truly sweet Halloween!
The recent “Iran” TV spot from Billionaire T. Boone Pickens that had been rejected by NBC was approved by the network yesterday after T. Boone complained. The commercial, part of Pickens Plan for American energy independence, had been canned by the network for being “unproven”. The advertisement states that Iran is converting its cars to natural gas in an effort to fully capitalize on high oil prices by not needing to keep oil for their domestic market. It goes on to say “and we’re doing nothing here” which is apparently the part NBC had taken issue with, asking for proof that nothing indeed was being done in the US to convert cars to run on natural gas. None of the other major networks had any problems with the spot (seen below).
We get it, he’s good… Credit: WENN
I’ve always liked the Olympics, especially watching the strange events, the events that don’t get the headlines. Unfortunately, if you only get regular NBC (like I do) that means that you probably aren’t going to see any of those events. And unfortunately this year, it also means you probably aren’t going to see even some of the more normal events (unless you stay up till 3 in the morning), especially if there isn’t an American up for a medal.
Whenever I turn on the Olympics this year, I feel like I keep seeing the same sports and I feel like I’ve missed many of my favorites that I remember watching growing up (when we still only had regular NBC). Ugh
This frustration has inspired the following list - the Top 5 Over-broadcast Olympic Sports and 5 Alternatives
What’s your fav Olympic event?
1) Over-broadcast Sport : Water Polo - Every time I turn on the television, especially during the day, water polo is on. Which besides the lack of variety, is just kinda boring. You can’t really tell what is happening and thus far it hasn’t been very intense. They just keep scoring. Maybe is there were more underwater shots?
Alternative : Any track and field event that isn’t running - I’ve yet to see any discus, high-jump, pole vault, long-jump etc.. And this sucks! Those events showcase strength, skill and are just plain fun to watch. Apparently there are no US Men in the long jump and high jump finals, which is probably why it hasn’t been talked about or shown very much… Ugh. Long jump and high jump videos after the jump.
Olympic fever is in the air. All around the world folks will be gathering in front of television screens to watch this year’s Olympic games, cheer on their athletes and exhibit their national pride. One of my favorite things about the Olympic is getting to hear all the different National Anthems when different countries win medals. There’s actually a lot behind anthems, did you know for example that
there are basically two categories of national anthems the hymn, which usually has to do with “God save our country, or our ruler,” and a type that’s more martial and combative. [NPR]
China and France’s anthem as it turns out are of the violent variety.
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The 2008 Olympics are here! And what better way to celebrate than by watching movies that celebrate the Olympics. Below are the Top 10 Olympic Movies - the connection may be big or small, but each of the films below either embrace the Olympic spirit, explore an actual Olympic event or celebrate the people and sports behind the games. So when you need a break from the actual Beijing Olympic games, pop one of these flicks into your DVD player!
And as always let me know if I missed your favorite film and be sure to takepart with Team Darfur, a group of Olympic Athletes standing up against genocide.
10) The Cutting Edge - Love and ice skating, a little cheesy but all in good fun. The film begins with Olympic failure but proves that we must persevere. Also, keep an eye out for an early appearance from Lost’s John Locke!
Fellow TakePart blogger Gina alerted us about Stand Up to Cancer back when the news broke, but as the date approaches here’s more. Stand Up to Cancer, The Show, will be coming to a television near you the evening of Friday, September 5th. Major television networks ABC, CBS and NBC will all be running this hour long history-making, interactive special, uniting the country against the deadly disease.
The broadcast will include over fifty of the biggest stars from film, television, music & sports manning the phone bank to take viewer donations. Segments from celebrity-journalists such as Brian Williams, Katie Couric and Charles Gibson will inform the viewing public about cancer and the current state of research. Stand Up to Cancer also plans to auction off video chats with celebrities with all proceeds going toward cancer research.
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After being “caught” on NBC’s Dateline: To Catch a Predator show, William Conradt Jr. killed himself and now Conradt’s sister has successfully filed a lawsuit against NBC blaming the TV show for her brothers death.
The suit was brought by the sister of William Conradt Jr., an assistant district attorney in Rockland County, Texas, who shot himself in the head after a local police SWAT team, accompanied by a Dateline crew, surrounded his house and moved in to arrest him in November 2006.Conradt’s suicide was at the center of an ABC News 20/20 investigation looking into troubling questions for both law enforcement and the news media raised by the popular Dateline series.
Tim Russert, award-winning NBC political news anchor, died of a heart attack Friday.
Russert, 58, was a political operative before he was a journalist. He joined NBC a quarter century ago and ended up as the longest-tenured host of the Sunday talk show “Meet the Press.”He was an election-night fixture, with his whiteboard and scribbled figures, and was moderator for numerous political debates. He wrote two best-selling books, including the much-loved “Big Russ and Me” about his relationship with his father. Russert was also a senior vice president at NBC, and this year Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. [Associated Press]
Friends and fans share thier thoughts on Russert in this video from the Associated Press.
Nerve.com has assembled fifty of the best commercial parodies for you. Unfortunately, many of SNL’s most infamous are no longer available online, due to NBC’s copyright-enforcing blitz a while back. However the folks at Nerve did muster up lots of classics and plenty of favorites from Chappelle’s Show, MADtv, In Living Color and SCTV. Enjoy Nerve’s #4 pick ( and one of my favorites) Buhweet sings:
Funny Cartoons at JibJab
And after you enjoy Nerve’s 50 takepart and check out mediamatters.org. Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
