Good news for the professionals of the cinema : waiting for the reopening hypothetical meeting in July, the filming of movies and series will resume gradually in the next two weeks in the capital. According to the organization's Film Paris Region, Paris and Île-de-France harboured 5 465 days of shooting in 2019 and were still in January, 40 % of French films and 36 % of foreign films.
The recovery advance little by little in the respect of sanitary conditions. A lot of filming should resume with technical teams, reduced, outside, according to a protocol that is enshrined in the charter of good conduct defined by the ministry of Health. There are many constraints, in contrast to the solutions. According to the magazine Variety, Gaumont is scheduled to resume in September the filming of Arsene Lupin, the series to Netflix, with Omar Sy in the title role. According to some, the platform would provide advice to its technical teams and its players to submit upstream to a confinement of fourteen days. For its part, Amazon is going to start the production of Voltaire, mixed, the next French series, in mid-July in the south of the country.
The return of large film productions
Next film, a big production like Eiffel Martin Bourboulon, with Romain Duris in the role of the engineer and industrialist, must complete her last day of filming in mid-June, in Paris, after its discontinuation in mid-march. Ditto for Farewell Mr. Haffmann, the film by Fred Cavayé, with Daniel Auteuil, Sara Giraudeau, Gilles Lellouche, including a few sets installed at Montmartre were the buzz during the containment, to the point of also being vandalized.
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The producer Philippe Rousselet is hoping to resume on 1 June. The sets will be reassembled in the Eighteenth arrondissement and the technical teams are preparing to run for two weeks to complete the film in the best conditions.
" This recovery can only be done in strict compliance with the protocol, national health care, he says. This is not easy because we must find a way to play our players less than a meter, without a mask, obviously. It was a protocol being developed with the ministry of Health which requires us to comply with these measures in the best way possible. Therefore, we changed our scenario to comply with the rule of fifty people. Originally, there were scenes with one hundred and thirty extras in a street. Fred Cavayé has therefore rewritten the scene with seven extras. "More images of cabaret or in enclosed spaces. "All the directors, and scriptwriters are being forced to adapt, adds Philippe Rousselet. All the world rewrites the scenarios, that The Tuche, and the other current films. But, to the cinema, the scenes of intimacy or kissing, it is difficult to avoid. "
volunteer
For the rest, the hypothesis tests on the players and the technical team is difficult to apply. "Legally, we can't impose them, states the producer. We can recommend, facilitate them. Everything is done on a voluntary basis, this is what we are going to offer each and every one. On the plateau, there will be always a nurse to take a temperature twice a day and, of course, masks, gloves, the hydroalcoholic gel. More of a canteen, but food trays, avoiding the gatherings. It is a whole new logistics, more light to be put in place. Technicians must respect the distance of one meter. The director and the script have their own video monitor. "
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This gradual recovery of the filming is achieved through the creation of a compensation fund for temporary wanted by Emmanuel Macron. Launched and managed brilliantly by Dominique Boutonnat, the boss of the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC), and put in place from the 1st June, it must cover the risks associated with the Covid-19. This fund, with approximately € 50 million, will be funded by the State, insurance companies, local authorities, the banks, and allow the producer to limit the risks in the event of a problem on a shoot. For Goodbye Mr. Haffmann, film, historical costume, the budget is heavy, approximately 11 million euros.
More movies deferred
Two other movies produced by Philippe Rousselet are waiting. Arrested in mid-march, the film of Pascal Elbé It is to be understood, with Sandrine Kiberlain and François berléand with his, is set to resume on may 25. It is unknown, however, for the american remake of The Family – Ram with Marlee Matlin (Children of silence) in the lead role –, co-produced with Pathé to the tune of $ 20 million. Turning curly, but the post-production between Canada and Los Angeles is blocked while waiting for a recovery is likely in July. As to Small Countries, the film by Eric Barbier, Jean-Paul Rouve, which was released in theaters on march 18, Jerome Seydoux, the boss of Pathé Films, and Philippe Rousselet the postponed to August 28.
" Even if I think that the worst is behind us, emphasizes the latter, the real challenge will be to launch new big-budget blockbuster movies. It is a leap into the unknown. All the more that the sources of funding of the free tv channels are going to be lower, given their lower advertising revenues. Anyway, since the european directive SMA (audiovisual media Service), it is expected that negotiations with the platforms Netflix, Amazon and others to eventually enter in the system of financing of French cinema. This is an opportunity for them and for us, but the real question is whether they will really support our ecosystem and fit in our chronology of the media. For the rest, I am optimistic, I hope that the public squirts the way of rooms, if all goes well, in July, and provided that there are locomotives american shows, such as Mulan from Disney and Tenet of Christopher Nolan. Otherwise, this is not worth it to open. "
