Set designer organises huge donation of clothes and bedding

One of our contacts, Amy, just organised a fantastic donation for us through her job as a set designer. When she is working on a production for a film or TV show there are purchases of all sorts of things to decorate a set and provide props and costumes for the actors. Around 70% of the props are hired in, but the rest needs to be bought and are then ‘going spare’ at the end of filming.

In December Amy and the team finished filming a TV series she has been working on for a year, and she didn’t have very long to sort out all the leftover purchases. Normally they would donate them to a local children’s charity or hospice, but because of the pandemic this wasn’t possible. Amy used a Facebook group called ‘set swap recycle’ which is used by film and TV crews to try and recycle big set pieces and all sorts of weird stuff that end up being made or bought. She got a really fantastic response and that’s how she was recommended Care4Calais and the rest is history!

The film industry is improving in terms of sustainability however time and money restraints often end up with corners being cut and so there is still a massive problem with waste in the film industry. Amy said “It’s a great feeling – I’m so pleased we were able to find Care4Calais because it’s such a worthy cause, especially at this time of year and especially during a pandemic. We need to look out for each other and be kind and generous, showing even more love and respect than normal. I hope this will inspire people to think twice about everything we purchase and to remember that these things end up somewhere in the world, we just have to make sure they go somewhere useful”.