the essential
The Ecolejohn is a Revel association which celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2024. For a year, apart from musical teaching, they have also offered video services for documentaries, fiction, advertisements… or video clips with Amandine Bourgeois!
When Jonathan Teysseyré, head of the Ecolejohn de Revel, met Amandine Bourgeois, they were both teenagers. At the time, the young artist had not yet made Nouvelle Star. “She played with my uncle’s group in Revel. I met her a few times,” he remembers.
And then, their lives follow different trajectories, until they cross paths again. “A year ago, she called me with the idea of shooting a music video,” explains Jonathan Teysseyré. If the Ecolejohn has been providing music teaching for 15 years, since last year there has been an entire branch dedicated exclusively to video productions. Obviously, the singer had heard about it.
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This is where the collaboration begins: Jonathan Teysseyré and Amandine Bourgeois will co-direct the singer’s latest music video. “Je cri la vie” is taken from his album “MEUF (A Thousand and One Woman)”, released this year.
The ordeal by fire
“It was a crazy experience, and an opportunity to make yourself known,” confides the co-director. “There were five of us from the Ecolejohn, managing sets of up to 80 people. We had to take care of staff and security. It was a bit of a trial by fire.”
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The entire “John” team worked on the project for weeks to prepare for filming. “We had to film in a church in Toulouse, with a choir of 80 children. We learned 24 hours before that the place could no longer accommodate us,” says Jonathan Teysseyré. Fortunately, the singer had a plan B, in the gardens of the slaughterhouses of Toulouse. “It completely deconstructed the artistic project. With the teams, we took stock in the car at 6:30 a.m., on the journey, to know what to do on site.”
Another scary moment, during filming in an abandoned coal washhouse, in Carmaux: “I held the cameraman’s hips, so he wouldn’t fall into a hole while he was filming,” smiles the co-director. “All of this reflects the reality of what happens during filming. There are always unexpected things and you have to deal with them. It was an incredible experience for everyone.” Since the release of the clip, the team is proud to see the positive feedback. The clip completes a pretty business card.
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“The video center is 100% autonomous. There are around ten of us, with all the trades, high-level equipment. We are really improving our skills.” They already have other projects: filming fiction, documentaries… and are looking for new ones, to continue to develop.
