Paris
The Camera’s Parisian scenes are few and only two or three days will be spent filming here. Along the River Seine, we have a scene on and around one of Paris’ beautiful bridges. The Pont Alexandre III is an arch bridge that spans the Seine, connecting the Champs-Élysées quarter and the Invalides and Eiffel Tower quarter, widely regarded as the most ornate, extravagant bridge in Paris. Several motion pictures and music videos have been shot on this bridge and it would clearly be our first choice, with the Eiffel Tower looming in the background. Other landmarks that appear in the film are the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, the Gare de Lyon train station, the Louvre and a street in Paris’ Saint Germain district.
Our first three nights in France were spent in Paris, where we were picked up at the Charles De Gaulle Airport by the extremely helpful and affable Éric Chabassier of Froggie Production, a production services company that is high on the list of candidates we’re considering as a potential coordinator for the film. Éric became our Parisian guide and thoroughly explained the machinations and logistics of feature film production in France. Organizing a French shoot is Froggie’s business and they’ve been at it for several years, from finding locations and securing film permits, to the hiring of a local crew, including a Parisian casting director who would be responsible for casting the French actors in the film. We were in capable hands with Éric and my confidence soared as we occasionally stopped off at various bistros and cafés where he would say hello to proprietors that he knew from past productions.
While the Parisian segment of The Camera comprises only a few pages of the screenplay, Paris is a location that can be intimidating to outsiders. We should be able to get what the film requires here with a fairly trimmed down crew, that would then move into the countryside, shooting its way toward the story’s main village to join the film’s core crew, who by then will have prepared the area for our production. Beginning principal photography on the film in Paris seems a logical decision and I’m looking forward to The Camera’s return to this magnificent city.
