Our 2019 report drew the attention of the profession to a rather unexpected phenomenon: the number of projects intended for television that were supported last year by Wallimage was almost equivalent to the number of films designed for theatrical release. 49% on one side, 51% on the other. This is a surprise since, the previous year, the ratio between the two media was clearly in favor of the cinema (78/22). Was it a flash in the pan ? This is unlikely, as this trend radically increases in the first funding session of this year, 2020, the 20th of the fund.
More than half of the projects submitted for this session were for television, and ofthe five projects selected by the Board of Directors, four are intended for television as their main channel. In two years, the balance between the media seems to have been completely reversed.
Who says television says series and these are the queens of this early 2020.
Produced by Artemis and supported by the RTBF and Wallonia-Brussels Federation series fund, Pandora tells the story of a judge who, while investigating a vast corruption, sees the name of her father, an influential politician, appear. Will an ambitious young wolf take the opportunity to try to take over his party ?
Great satisfaction, Pandora is written by a trio of very talented women. Savina Dellicour and Vania Leturq will direct it while Anne Coesens will play the main character alongside Laurent Capelutto and Salomé Richard.
The filming will last 9 days in Wallonia while 11 Walloons will be part of the team. The canteen, the making of the credits, the subtitling at Babel sub, the post-synch and the final mix at Bardaf represent some of the excellent Walloon expenses of this file.
Mini-series in three episodes of 50 minutes which will be first broadcasted by Arte, The Rope is based on such a great pitch that intriguing: while the scientific station in which they work, has just received the credits that it waits for years, several of its persons in charge put themselves in head to follow a mysterious rope which gets lost in the forest and seems to have no end.
While this metaphysical thriller takes place in the north of Norway, its shooting will be 100% Walloon. Once again, it is the station of Lessive which attracted the French production which will invest it during more than one month to make its principal decoration. The rest of the action will be filmed mainly in the woods, in the Rochefort area.
The actors (Grégory Gadebois, Dominique Blanc…) will be for the most part French, but 38 Walloons, including 8 postmasters, will support them on the set. The rental of the equipment will be done at TSF.be, ALVM and Macadamcar while the SFX Meteo will be signed by Level 9, a new company established in Charleroi by technicians who were working around Olivier de Laveleye. Part of the sound post-production will be done at Bardaf and Dame Blanche. All this thanks to Versus who, after Fertile Crescent, is back in the same niche with a new concrete file.
Belga, whose cinematographic DNA is no longer in question, has also brought us a French series. The opera is supposed to take place in Paris, but it will be filmed mainly in the castle of Ollignies which will be the backstage of the famous establishment. The ballets will be filmed at the Opera of Liège.
20 Walloons will take part in this shooting, forming in particular a decoration team already at work for two months. The canteen at Anne and Fred Catering plus the VFX and the credits at Benuts complete the Walloon expenses.
The series, intended for OCS which finances it in large part, will bring together Arianne Labed, Raphaël Personnaz and Suzy Bemba to narrate the ambitions, deceptions, intrigues and manipulations that populate the backstage of the Opera, a world apart, definitely.
When we say television, we also say documentaries, and we know that Les films de La Passerelle are, in Wallonia, the great specialists of this genre. Les Yeux Ouverts will be signed by Agnès Lejeune and Gaëlle Hardy, the duo that gave us Au bonheur des dames. The two directors tackle here an extremely complicated subject since they follow people who want to be euthanized in their dealings with doctors and the discussions that follow between practitioners. The first images we have seen promise an extraordinary document that will be a landmark on a societal issue at the heart of many passionate debates.
As usual with La Passerelle, most of the expenses will be Walloon with 16 people on deck and technical interventions from Aware, Cetemi, Stand up, Eye-Lite and Babel Sub.
The only feature film selected by the Wallimage Board of Directors during this session is The Deep House, which will nicely reinforce our catalog of genre films, Fantastic Wallonia. Co-produced by Umedia, it will be shot almost entirely in the Lites water studio in Vilvoorde. A very daring bet, initiated by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, directors of Kandisha (another film co-financed by Wallimage).
We will follow a couple of divers passionate about urbex, who decide to explore a sunken house at the bottom of a lake. A bad idea, because the impressive mansion will soon prove to be a very inhospitable place to play.
Four days of filming are planned in Wallonia on location in the Gombe quarry, while a team of 14 people, including 5 station managers, will be on location. TSF, Pile Poil and Macadam car will be solicited for the rental, A toutes faims utiles for the catering, Bardaf for the sound postprod, la Baraque à film for the image editing and Dame Blanche Genval for the color grading, the rushes, the conformation and the subtitling.
It should be noted that for the first time in a long time, the Wallimage Board of Directors has decided not to invest all the money available for the session. The next four deadlines will therefore be richer, which is undoubtedly excellent news for producers who have projects to submit in March, June, September or November.
The two pictures published on this site are taken from the Pandora pilot – copyright Artemis
