"You can sit and stand on it": Meet the UK company making TV and film sets out of cardboard
Chris Gilmour of Vectar Sets creates paper-based sets for film and TV that contain up to 90 per cent lower carbon than normal set materials.
A shorter version of this article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
Manchester-based Vectar Sets, established in 2022 by Chris Gilmour, creates paper-based sets for film and TV that contain up to 90 per cent lower carbon than normal set materials, and are 90 per cent lighter and 100 per cent recyclable.
He’s worked on Coronation Street, Newsround, Alien: Romulus and pre-school series Treehouse, which was filmed at RD Studios, a fully sustainable production facility. Here he tells RT how he got into it, and why it matters.
PAPER ARTIST I did a course called Art in Social Context at the University of Bristol. I was doing workshops with kids and mental health groups and that’s where working with cardboard started. It’s a very friendly, accessible material. I lived in Italy for a long time and was a fine art sculptor working with galleries and museums around the world. I used to do a lot of mechanical sculpture, and I was using cardboard to make prototypes – then I just started using cardboard for all of it!
I’ve made life-sized motorcycles, bikes, cars…. I moved back to the UK in 2016, and after one Covid lockdown, I was asked to do an Old Spice advert. There was a shortage of wood in the UK, so we were trying to find a solution that was quick and cheap. I’m currently doing my PhD on how you can use paper materials to make film sets.
ALL ABOARD There’s obviously a lot of interest in sustainability in film and TV, but it tends to be on lighting, power, transport, and reusable cups, and then it kind of ends there. Most film and TV sets are made from MDF (medium density fibre board) or plywood.
MDF is made of a wood pulp, and it's got formaldehyde and resins in it, and it's completely unrecyclable. The dust is toxic and it's really heavy, but it's cheap. After filming, the sets are smashed up and put in a skip. There’s at least a tonne of set waste for a one-day advert, and for big TV shows and films, that’s 700 or 800 tonnes. A manufacturer in Sweden makes what we have now branded as Vectar board. It comes from timber waste. It’s really tough – the furniture in our office is made of it! You can sit and stand on it.
FLAT PACK We'll start with a digital design, then make a model. Then it goes to specialist machines where it's printed and cut out. Assembly involves hot glue guns and craft knives, and the glue is biodegradable. When it's exposed to UV light, it breaks down, but when it's stuck inside something, there's no light on it, so it stays intact. We work with scenic painters, but any additions are ideally water-based so they’re recyclable. Rust effects are normally done with iron filings, but we mix cinnamon into the paint to give it a fleck-y, dusty look!
Ultimately, it needs to look good on screen. We can also make it waterproof and fire retardant, and we've been developing things like printed tiles. Afterwards, you can cut the set into bits and put it in the paper recycling. Or, we’ll take it back, and if it’s still worth using, we’ll try to re-home it with film schools, theatres or community groups.
PAPER WEIGHT Our initial focus was on short shoots where it'd have the most impact, but the sets can last for years, be repainted and tidied up. We also do a lot of outside broadcast desks, such as for the Premier League. Some of them have a Perspex top and have LED lights in. It’s useful for locations where you don't want to damage the walls or the floors. It fits well into existing sets, and if you have a part you need to move, it weighs nothing at all! I think the Sky Sports Super Sunday desk weighs about 130kg, and you need four or five people to pick it up, whereas ours weighs about 30kg.
A GREENER FUTURE We've had a lot of help from the sustainability departments at ITV and BBC, and we’ve had loads of repeat customers. The only real push back we've had is from some of the traditional trades, where it could conceivably be seen as a threat. If you’ve got a carpentry company that's invested thousands of pounds in saws and drills, and have 20 carpenters working four days, you could actually have 10 people in two days. They’re reluctant to adopt it, but I think it’s an extra tool they can use. Now, we’re looking at what we could replace polystyrene with.
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Treehouse airs Saturday and Sunday at 7:05am on 5's Milkshake!.
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Authors
Laura Rutkowski is a Commissioning Editor at Radio Times magazine, where she looks after the View From My Sofa slot, and the "What it's like to…" column, which spotlights behind-the-scenes roles within the TV and film industry. She loves finding out how productions are made and enjoys covering a wide variety of genres. Laura is half-American and half-British and joined Radio Times in 2022. She has a degree in Psychology and a Master's in Magazine Journalism.
