Meeting for a very special 101st session, in the distressing context that we know, the board of directors of Wallimage, meeting in Mons in the large Gothic room of the Maison Communale (distancing obliges), has made its choice on eight projects for a total investment exceeding 1.3 million euros. The selection is dominated by two animation series that will generate a total of more than 13,000 working days in Wallonia. That’s over 35 years of work, seven days a week, for one person, just to give you an idea of the impact of this work.
Anna and friends was proposed to us by Digital Graphics Animation. It is a pre-school animation series with 78 episodes of 7 minutes, co-produced by Superprod in France and Atmosphere Media in Germany. The entire Belgian part of the production will be done in Alleur at Digital Graphics Studio, which will take care of the storyboards for 26 episodes, but also (for the specialists) the props modelling/texturing/rigging as well as the 3D layouts for the 78 episodes, the animation of 11 episodes and finally the rendering and lighting for the whole series. And that’s not all : the soundtrack will be composed by Michel Duprez and the sound services will be provided by Dame Blanche in Genval.
Monster Loving Maniacs has nothing to envy to this first remarkable project. Presented by Belvision, this series initiated in Denmark was much commented at the Cartoon forum of Toulouse in 2019. For Dreamwall, this is a very interesting opportunity to show its know-how to Scandinavian professionals. The Carolo studio has elaborated the pipe of this 2D project and will take care of all the rigs as well as the animation of 44 episodes out of 52. A team of 38 people will be at work for a year and a half for a total of 9,518 man-days. A new record for Wallimage.
A series of projects selected at this session are 100% Belgian initiatives. In a wide range of fields, they seemed to us to be indispensable.
C’est de famille will be the first feature film of Élodie Lélu who signs here, with Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem and Gladys Marciano, a magnificent scenario in an impressive economy of means. A few well-drawn characters, a situation exploited with humor, tenderness and emotion, incessant twists and turns that have nothing artificial about them… We rarely have the chance to read texts of this quality. Iota will produce this film shot in Wallonia with a very Walloon cast composed of Fantine Harduin and Bouli Lanners alongside Hélène Vincent who we are eagerly awaiting in the role of a feminist grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. 47 regions including 6 station managers will work on this project, but we also note obviously the rental of equipment, sets, costumes, vehicles while the assembly will be done in Genval les Dames.
In a completely different genre, 1985 is a Belgian series initiated in Flanders by Eyeworks. The eight 50-minute episodes co-produced by RTBF and VRT will shed light on the dark side of Belgium during the 1980s for a well-documented story that will shake up many preconceived ideas. Information gathered and verified over a period of almost nine years has enabled the authors to put together a gripping puzzle, the heart of which is obviously the bloody odyssey of the Brabant killers. Many scenes take place in Wallonia and part of the cast will be Walloon. 19 regions including six postmasters will participate in this adventure while Benuts will focus on making the shootings credible and will try to accentuate the spirit of the time by removing visual anachronisms. The sound effects will take place at Sonhouse, in Seneffe.
A small documentary project in terms of expenses, but striking in its subject matter and treatment, Des corps et des batailles immerses us in the fight against Covid-19 at the University Hospital of Liege during the month of April 2020. Christophe Hermans, who had to leave the post-production of his feature film La Ruche, embarked on this exhausting adventure with an ultra small team, supported by the ASBL Dérives, the WIP and Frakas. The director, as well as the cinematographer, the composer, the soundman or the production manager are Walloons. The image editing was done at Waooh!, the sound equipment was rented from Yvolu while the color grading and mastering will be done at Charbon.
In another documentary register, Iota brought us a superb project by Julie Gavras entitled Cherchez la femme (Search for the Woman ), which retraces in thirty two-and-a-half minute episodes the destiny of thirty exceptional women who have been forgotten or erased from history books. All of this in animation with a caustic humor and a lot of impertinence. The Walloon expenditures are almost exclusively for the salaries of Walloon technicians. Dreamwall will take care of compositing and motion design specific to stop motion animation techniques while Dame Blanche will take care of sound editing, sound effects and mixing. In Genval, of course.
The last two projects selected by the Board of Directors are feature films in minority co-production, but their aspirations and budgets are dissimilar, to say the least.
In spite of very complicated conditions linked to Covid and to French measures very favorable to the national industry, Umedia succeeded in bringing back to Belgium part of the production of Couleurs de l’incendie, the second part of the trilogy Les enfants du désastre (Children of the Disaster), adapted from the novels of Pierre Lemaître. After Albert Dupontel for Au-revoir Là-haut, it is Clovis Cornillac who will direct this big Gaumont production bringing together on screen Léa Drucker and Benoit Poelvoorde in a dramatic role. Even if there is no shooting in Wallonia, Bardaf will take care of the sound editing in Liège while the COB studio will take care of the sound reconstruction. Benuts will do a large part of the VFX to recreate the Paris of the interwar period.
More intimate, Perhaps is a Belgian-Bulgarian-Macedonian co-production (an unprecedented scheme as far as we know) directed here by Griselda Gonzalez Gentile (Be Revolution Pictures) that Wallimage Coproductions is supporting for the very first time. The filming of this very dark little thriller about a scam run by two women in a very patriarchal mafia environment will make a seven-day stop in Wallonia with a team of 31 people, including 16 station managers. On the technical side, we note the renting at EyeLite and KGS, the color grading and the sound mixing at L’Équipe Wallonie (in Bierges, therefore). The icing on the cake, the soundtrack will be signed by the Walloon Simon Fransquet (Nous Quatre, Au temps où les Arabes dansaient).
