MNN - Mother Nature Network

Back in May, I mentioned a company called Pure Power Distribution had been called upon to provide solar-powered generators to the set of Christopher Nolan's "Inception". With that film now in theaters, more about how that element of green was added to the production has been revealed, courtesy of one Leonardo DiCaprio.

 

“A lot of this movie (‘Inception’) was made with solar power,” the 35-year-old said in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “It’s the first movie I got to do with solar power. I had a conversation about it with Alan Horn, who’s the head of Warner Bros. The generators that we had on the set were all powered by solar energy. It’s going to be a big conversion to do stuff like that every day, not just in making movies but everything in the world.” 

 

The generators, which output 600 amps/72,000 watts of “pure sine wave power with no noise, and no emissions”, were used to power the base camp for "Inception". According to Pure Power Distribution's Christopher Smith, the base camp "requires (depending on the film) about 10-20 percent of the power that the set requires."

 

OK, so film sets still have a bit to go before solar is part of the mix — but in terms of powering other aspects of the production, renewable energy can be a leading actor now. In fact, "Inception" was one of five feature films that Pure Power Distribution helped power using the sun. In addition, they've provided solar generators to some television series, as well as the Teen Choice Awards, ESPY Awards, LA Marathon, and various music festivals.

 

“We do a lot of things in the world that are wasteful,” Leo added in the interview. “We keep talking about this all the time. Hopefully, fingers crossed, with these small steps, we’ll make that transition on a much larger scale in the future.”

 

C'mon studios — someone make these generators a premanent aspect of every production.