Better life, after almost two months of stopping the filming of the new season of the hit series of France 3, the recordings of the new episodes will resume in a few days.
Forced to end the series during containment due to the pandemic, production heralds the upcoming resumption through Bibiane Godfroi, president of NEWEN, the company that owns the drama rights.
But let the fans not get too excited about this announcement because the problems subsist, and it will not be without difficulty that the new episodes will arrive on screens.
If with the announced gradual deconfinement, a glimmer of hope had appeared, there are still many unanswered questions and a lot of obstacles to overcome. First of all, the extraordinary measures which will have to reign in the studios of Belle-de-mai, seat of filming in the city of La Canebière. Among its measures, there is of course the obligation to maintain a safety distance between the actors themselves, but also with the technicians and all trades.
Thus, for example, to avoid contact, the actors will have to make up themselves and plastic partitions will have to be installed between the workstations. Another problem is the need to wear the mask that everyone will be obliged to wear, and that the actors can withdraw a maximum of fifteen minutes for the need of taken. It will also be necessary to trace markings on the ground in order to manage entries and exits, and to create a direction of circulation to avoid as much as possible the encounters and a possible propagation of the virus if someone was sick. Production does not tell us, however, if screening tests will be implemented.
But it is also the writers who will have to get back to work, and review their copies in order to design scenes and stories in which the heroes of the Mistral district get as close as possible to each other. Exit for example sequences with frank embraces and obviously no scene of kisses.
Will the Mistral’s bar be open or will the “Select” hotel welcome customers? A real Chinese puzzle for the imagination of screenwriters, who have the habit of always sticking as close to reality, and closest to events news.
And it is this proximity to real life that has made the series successful for years. Will the sauce take over and will all these constraints not harm the intrigue, and therefore affect program audiences?
It is too early today to say, because if these restrictive measures can have consequences on the lives of the characters, they will also have one on the delivery times. On average, between filming, editing and finalization, viewers can discover a new episode after more or less six weeks, but the production ad already that, if the recordings go without problem and if a new blockade does not come once again to stop production, the episodes filmed in May will not be available until at least September.
In an interview for Les Échos, the director announces: “We are working on a guide with other producers on how to shoot during a period of deconfinement”, and to specify, “We have to rewrite certain episodes and review the staged to comply with sanitary measures. There are still several practical details to be settled such as the transport of the teams and the regular disinfection of the premises among others ”.
Bibiane Godfroi, head of NEWEN, a company that produces “Plus belle la vie” via its subsidiary TelFrance, says that everything is being done to make the soap opera one of the first projects to quickly find the program schedule for France. 3, with unreleased episodes. The former journalist for RTBF, a Belgian television channel, is now at the head of this company which also produces programs for other French and European channels, and is very active for Netflix as well.
It is a safe bet that despite their many other activities, they are doing everything they can to put back on their feet “Plus belle la vie”, which is certainly one of their biggest success, with also the series “Tomorrow belongs to us” which success on TF1. The two series are also broadcast on the Belgian channel with which Bibiane Godfroi must obviously keep good relations and sell the French hit soap operas.
The date of May 26 was announced a few hours ago for the resumption of filming via Sophie Gigon, the director of fictional programs for France Televisions, and therefore confirms the necessary adaptations: “Plus belle la vie est une seronne très rooted in society. But we have to imagine how to stick to societal reality in future episodes that will be broadcast “and to add,” Or maybe move away from it a little at the start. “
Ultimately, the sky which had darkened seems somewhat to clear up for the French audiovisual landscape which would seem to be able to resume little by little its activities. There is one last unknown, namely, whether the insurance companies will cover productions for the risks inherent in the virus. In recent weeks, the debate seemed to be controversial and insurers reluctant to sign contracts with such policies. So we imagine that if the resumption is announced, it is that these problems have been raised and resolved between the lawyers of the various protagonists.
One can calmly think that the actors and the thousands of intermittents of the show will slowly resume their work, but without forgetting that if the television sets return to their activities, all the shows live or with the public are still subject to quarantine. Which means, still no audience for concert halls, no spectator in cinemas, no festival, and no audience either on TV sets.
Things are gradually returning to normal, but everything is far from being finally settled.
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