Michael Mattioli:
“Building Green” on PBS
If green building makes you think of scruffy hippies eschewing media rooms in favor of mud walls, think again. Better yet, check out the über-green digs of actor and environmentally conscious builder Kevin Contreras. The custom-built house in upscale Santa Barbara is as drool-worthy as the spreads in glossy shelter rags; amazingly, despite its load of creature comforts, it’s also super-friendly to the earth.
Now, Contreras and his friend, longtime neighbor and business partner Michael Mattioli, are sharing the lessons of the 18-month building process. Their upcoming 13-episode TV series, “Building Green,” offers a detailed account of the choices and steps involved in creating healthy, energy-efficient homes. “It’s kind of like ‘This Old House,’” says Mattioli. “But in our case it’s a hip, modern ‘This Green House.’”
The steel frame of Contreras’s home provides both earthquake safety and open living areas.
The friends, who share a lifelong passion for environmental practices, brought to the project a potent mix of pro skills and first-timer enthusiasms. Contreras, who learned the building trade from his father, draws on his years as a film and TV actor to infuse his host role with easy charisma. Mattioli is a composer, sound designer, and musician who not only scored “Building Green” but picked up Final Cut Pro to edit the series.
Straw Bales and Natural Paints
The home of Kevin and Mary Anne Contreras is greener than a leprechaun’s shamrock. A steel frame provides earthquake safety and appealingly open living areas. Straw bales form a permeable insulating barrier that maintains healthy interior air. The house sports both photovoltaic and hot water solar energy, radiant floor heating, and all-natural paints and plasters, with custom windows made from the recycled jarrah wood of Australian sheep barns. Says Mattioli, “It’s an incredible dream home.”
Although it’s snazzy to look at and smart to live in, the home is not just the exquisite refuge of one lucky family. Through their show, Contreras and Mattioli see it as both textbook and inspiration for others seeking a greener life. “More people are embracing sustainable living,” says Mattioli. “It’s not just a fringe thing any more.”
In that burgeoning interest Mattioli and Contreras envision a robust audience — and vital corporate sponsors — for their show. “Companies are seeing more benefit in ‘doing well by doing good,’” notes Mattioli. “Architects, builders, and manufacturers are becoming greener by the moment as they realize the market is demanding environmentally sound choices.”
How-to and Hands-on
“Building Green” guides viewers through the many green techniques and materials. It’s how-to and hands-on, suggesting real projects from a weekend apartment remodel to ground-up new home construction. “The greenest thing you can do is remodel the place you have,” emphasizes Mattioli. “So in every show we have an ‘Easy Steps’ segment. It might be as simple as removing carpeting, which uses lots of toxic materials and traps allergens and pollutants.”
Each episode is organized around the topics of family health, environmental impact, and cost. The shows include interviews with experts in such areas as wastewater collection and concrete recycling. Recurring segments include “Inside the Design,” “Building Health,” “$aving Green,” “Green Extreme,” and “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”
Organizing the quantity of footage accumulated during the year-and-a-half build might easily have brought novice TV producers to their knees. But Mattioli, an Apple devotee throughout his career as a musician, took advantage of his familiarity with the platform to jump-start his new duties as co-cameraman and editor.
The Luxury of Experimentation
“My experience using Macs for more than 20 years has been invaluable,” says Mattioli. “Being able to create and refine every element of the series on our Macs made this project possible. We didn’t have the money to hire a production staff, so we did the editing ourselves. And since we weren’t tied to some expensive edit suite, we had the luxury of experimenting. We did a number of edits to find our stride and figure out how to best complete our vision.”
The cost-effective Mac-based editing solution made it feasible for Contreras and Mattioli to conceive, create — and fund — the show themselves. Their production studio consisted of five Macs, Final Cut Pro, Digital Performer, and LiveType.
With more than one third of the episodes completed, Mattioli and Contreras are proud to show their baby to prospective corporate and non-profit sponsors. “It’s very gratifying because at this point the show speaks for itself,” says Mattioli. “The tools from Apple have let us make the series happen on our own terms.”
