TV and movie stars filming at Bristol’s Bottle Yard Studios will be chauffeured to and from the centre under a new partnership with eco-friendly firm Studio Cars.
The firm is the latest to open a base at highly-successful studio complex in Hengrove, where filming has taken place for productions ranging from the BBC’s current Tudor drama Wolf Hall to Channel 4’s Deal or No Deal gameshow and the Sky 1 comedy series Trollied.
The ‘green transport’ partnership with Studio Cars means that productions filming in Bristol will now be able to hire an environmentally-friendly chauffeur service to transport cast and production staff during their time at the studios. It also underpins The Bottle Yard’s support for Bristol’s year as European Green Capital.
Studio Cars will use its fleet of high-quality, low-emission executive Mercedes Benz vehicles to transport industry professionals around the city, across the West and further afield across the UK.
The firm is also expanding its fleet to include a number of top-of-the-range electric cars, which will be charged at charging points on-site at the studios, providing completely emission-free transport.
Studio Cars is the 14th new tenant to join the Studios’ growing business community. Last year sustainable film/TV set-clearance company Drèsd opened its first regional branch at The Bottle Yard, offering productions a cost effective alternative to sending set waste to landfill, by clearing sets, then repurposing, recycling and reselling salvaged materials to production houses, event companies, interior designers and charities.
Last month Location One, which supplies TV and film productions such as Downton Abbey with everything from lighting and power generators to pop-up changing rooms and gaffer tape, opened on the site – a former wine warehouse and distribution depot.
Other recent additions include Emmy-award winning music and sound design company Radium Audio and Filmscape Media, a leading supplier of film and television equipment in the UK.
The Bottle Yard site director Fiona Francombe said: “We’re hugely excited to launch this new partnership, for a number of reasons. On a practical level it enables us to officially offer for the very first time our own dedicated transport for industry professionals based with us.
“More importantly, it gives the productions based with us the chance to make a real difference to their carbon footprint. By using Studio Cars they achieve the highest quality of transport for their cast, crew and VIPs, safe in the knowledge that they are lowering the harmful emissions generated throughout a typical shoot. They are also being driven by highly experienced unit drivers who have worked extensively in the region for a number of years.
“Transport is known to be a significant contributor to the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere as a direct result of making film and TV. Here at The Bottle Yard we’ve been keen for some time to find new ways to reduce our studio emissions, and this unique ‘green’ initiative is a big step forward in achieving this. We are pleased to be able to launch this now, especially as Bristol takes on the title of European Green Capital 2015.”
Studio Cars founder Nick Kenyon added: “We’re delighted to be embarking upon this partnership with The Bottle Yard Studios. Myself and my fellow seasoned drivers have been behind the wheel driving together for high profile film and TV clients for almost 12 years now.
“Coming together as Studio Cars, we have created a company with a wealth of experience and an environmental friendly ethos at its heart. We run 12 cars with modern low emission diesel engines, and are expanding our fleet to include the latest electric vehicles on the market, including the Mitsubishi PHEV, which will be charged at dedicated on-site charging points. We look forward to getting this partnership on the road this year, to support film and TV productions at The Bottle Yard whilst helping to make Bristol’s air cleaner.”
Sustainability in the film and television industry has been placed firmly on the agenda by industry leaders in recent years. The 2009 Green Screen report estimated that the screen industry in London alone generates 125,000 tonnes of emissions per year; 40% caused by studio emissions, 28% by film/TV production activities, 17% by locations shoots and 15% post production emissions. A new British Standard for sustainability in film, BS 8909, was announced in 2011, and in 2010 the BBC and BAFTA introduced Albert, a carbon calculator designed especially for the TV industry, which benchmarks the carbon emissions on TV productions.
To view a full list of The Bottle Yard Studios’ business tenants, visit http://www.thebottleyard.com/creative-hub/our-onsite-tenants.
Pictured: Studio Cars founder Nick Kenyon with The Bottle Yard site director Fiona Francombe
