Research on the environmental impacts of screen-media production has typically concentrated on, and tried to mitigate, ecological harms caused by industry practices. This article contributes to ecocritical scholarship by examining a still underexplored facet of screen production: the practical and digital fabrication of on-screen assets such as props and costumes. Taking the Star Wars franchise as its main case study, the study is underpinned by original interviews with franchise crew and contractors, alongside archival research. First, the article traces how filmmakers practically built an aluminium Artoo-Detoo costume from mostly recycled materials for the 1977 film A New Hope . Next, the article uncovers the history of the droid’s first major computer-generated appearance in Attack of the Clones (2002). The article then introduces a new unit of measurement (CO2e per second of screen time) for comparing differently fabricated assets, and finds that making the digitally animated Artoo produced more greenhouse gas emissions than the practically built droid. Thus, the research reveals compelling new evidence that challenges the digital solutionism endemic in the screen industries specifically and Global North cultures more generally. Finally, the article proposes ecologically greener practices such as hybrid practical-digital fabrication and asset-commoning, before discussing the need for longer-term, more radical change that may be at odds with blockbuster-scale media making in its current form.
Harrison et al. (Thu,) studied this question.