You may have seen the video reconstructing the Normandy landings on TF1. At RTBF too, we chose a significant event from the Second World War. A challenge, because the Battle of the Bulge extends over a month and a half and concerns an entire region. With multiple viewing angles. “A host of battles, a lot of mythology, a lot of narrative, American heroization. And then the civilians. So we said to ourselves: that’s a challenge.” says Françoise Baré.
The first challenge is to find the thread of a concrete narrative with great clarity, which supports the image. The journalist looks back into the history books and quickly realizes how much she will have to prune.
“I said to myself ‘well friends, we’re already going to remove all the names of the army, all the names of colonels, commanders,…’ So as not to make it too heavy. We can’t, we have to dry it out so that it’s understandable for everyone, but not too much.” For inspiration, the journalist analyzes in detail the writing style used by the TF1 journalist in his own sequence. “I realized that it was simplified writing, subject-verb-complement.”
Lighten the writing, prune the subject, focus on a plot. A job accomplished in a small, multi-faceted team.
“We tell the story of a battle. We place ourselves at the level of the soldiers and at the level of the civilians. […] There are no anecdotes. Civilians, we talk about them as if all civilians had lived the same story.” continues Françoise Baré. Simplify as much as possible, while remaining fair: the text has also been rechecked by two historians. “It is atsif an experience in historical journalism as part of a news program. So the form is inseparable from the substance, but the substance is the general public. I’m not doing this for the re-enactors or for those who know exactly the unit number, but at the same time, they need to go Wow too!”
No anecdotes therefore but a desire for accuracy and attention to small details such as the color of the parachutes or the type of helmets worn by those who hid in the foxholes.
This writing and rewriting work is carried out in parallel with the first image creation by the graphic designer, via a storyboard which will serve as a reference throughout the production. Here is an excerpt. And yes, here we are almost at the cinema.
