Meet Dr. Valerie Weiss: A Filmmaker for the Future
Dr. Valerie Weiss on set. Source: www.valerieheatherweiss.com
Award-winning director, producer, and scientist, Dr. Valerie Weiss is making movies for the future.
In addition to collaborating with Earth Angel on CBS’s Bull, Valerie Weiss has worked as a director on popular shows including Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Outer Banks. Behind the scenes, Dr. Weiss has earned a Ph.D. in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology from Harvard. Today, she serves on the advisory board at Scriptation and is a member of the Directors Guild on America’s Sustainable Future Committee.
We sat down with Valerie to talk about going paperless, climate storytelling, and boldly going where no one has gone before.
How did you become interested in sustainable production?
Preserving biodiversity speaks to my sensibility as a Ph.D.-trained scientist as well as my values. I was raised to leave the world a better place than I found it.
My initial entree into sustainable production was through the paperless script annotating app, Scriptation. Not only is it a powerful tool for film and television creatives, but it saves millions of sheets of paper on every show. During the pandemic, I started teaching webinars to help people use Scriptation. The COVID production pause was the perfect opportunity for people to have a paradigm shift because no one wanted to handle anything physical, including paper, if it wasn't necessary.
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) noticed the work I was doing and President Lesli Linka Glatter, with the endorsement of Co-chair Todd Holland, appointed me to be part of the guild's Sustainable Future Committee. As a member of our committee, I have moderated panels on being more sustainable on set and helped introduce a Pro-Tips memo that our members can send out to productions about how they can be more sustainable.
Additionally, along with my kids and community of friends around the world, we have raised over $25,000 for the World Wildlife Fund.
In your opinion, what role does Hollywood play in the climate crisis?
I'm sure it comes as no surprise that our carbon footprint is quite large but now that there is more awareness in our industry through the Hollywood Climate Summit, the Television Academy's Peer Group on Climate Change, NRDC Rewrite the Future, How Changers, Good Energy, and the Sustainable Future Committees that many guilds and unions now have, members of our industry are learning how they can do better by recycling sets, using LED lights, moving from diesel to electric power, etc.
We have a power that other industries don't – the power of storytelling. Whether it is a show like Extrapolations on AppleTV+ that is about climate change, or putting a smaller sustainability storyline into a show about something else, by making sustainability visible to viewers it can change behavior. Everyday on set, directors, writers and department heads can make decisions like showing solar panels on a house, having characters drive an electric car, and the choice to not feature any single-use plastic on screen. It's been satisfying to have made these decisions since my first Chicago Med episode in 2017 when I decided to have a character bring her reusable mug to the coffee cart instead of getting a disposable cup.
What was your experience like working with Earth Angel?
I worked with Earth Angel when I directed an episode of Bull for CBS in New York. It was the first time I had experienced a sustainable set and I was in heaven.
Our line producer, Kati Johnston, had been passionate about sustainability for decades and had hired Earth Angel to do the show. It was magnificent – there was a place to sort your trash into compost, landfill and recycling everywhere in the production office and on set. There were sustainability tips wherever you turned and perhaps most importantly, you felt supported when proposing earth-saving ideas. Our driving scenes were all done on a green screen set. Production also handed out Bull-branded reusable coffee mugs and water bottles to us on day one and they got used. I remember going to hear Greta Thunberg speak at the Climate Summit in Battery Park after we wrapped one Friday and feeling proud that I was working on a show that was at the forefront of change.
You can hear Kati speak about being sustainable and saving money here during our DGA Sustainable Future panel.
Do you have any fun stories about implementing sustainability on your sets?
When I recently went back to direct Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, they had a memo like our DGA Pro-Tips guide that they shared with all their cast and crew about how to be more sustainable. I loved their memo because it was written in the voice of the show asking us to boldly go where no one has gone before. It would be so fun if every show did this because it's important to keep a sense of humor and inspire others while doing this work.
What message would you like to send to fellow directors and producers who have yet to embrace sustainable practices on set?
You don't have to change everything at once. In fact, if you just start using Scriptation you will be making a huge impact with a small change. I would encourage everyone in the industry to visit the DGA Pro-Tips page (you don't need to be a member) and learn all the ways you can make change through both production and storytelling.
Try to post one sustainability success a week on social media to remind your colleagues that we are all in this together and we can truly make change.
What are your hopes for the future of the film & T.V. industry?
My hope is that we collectively reduce our carbonfootprint and reach the goals that many studios have put in place which is to be carbon-neutral by 2030.
There are carbon calculators that productions should be using at the start of their shows and films to make sure they are keeping those numbers as low as possible and offsetting them in other ways. I've been incredibly inspired by producers like Lydia Pilcher, Mari Jo Winkler, Kati Johnston and Clara George who have been working tirelessly in this arena for decades. They have laid so much groundwork that all we have to do now is follow it. I'd also love to see more entertaining and commercial films and television shows about how we combat the effects of climate change without feeling a sense of hopelessness that leads to inaction. And I'd love to see these works celebrated and amplified because there is nothing else that affects every single one of us on this earth like making sure it stays inhabitable.
Visit Dr. Valerie Weiss’ Website: www.valerieheatherweiss.com
Follow Dr. Valerie Weiss on Instagram: @valerie.weiss.director
