Monday November 18, the feature film team Meteors, directed by Hubert Charuel – who grew up in Droyes – and produced by Domino Films, filmed in the JHM bragarde agency. From the arrival of the teams in the morning to the sequences in the afternoon, we tell you behind the scenes of this day.
Saint-Dizier along, wide and across, but also the towns of the agglomeration. The filming of Meteorsa feature film directed by Hubert Charuel (read the box) and produced by Domino Films, gives pride of place to northern Haut-Marne: “We arrived on October 18. We are on the 18th day of filming, and there are still 18 to go after that,” explains the director who grew up in Droyes, who won a César in 2018 for his first film, Little Peasant.
While filming locations are multiplying, it is in the JHM bragarde agency that the cameras are landing, Monday November 18. Hence the exceptional closure to the public, so that the team “of around 35 people”, according to production director Claire Langmann, can shoot a journalistic scene.
Installation
Amélie Supau is the first to enter our office. It’s 10 a.m. and the general manager comes to take stock of the situation, like any other citizen before receiving the keys to their home. Two weeks earlier, the team had already come to scout locations, to find out where exactly to shoot the scene and assess the relevance of the decoration. Everything is good, “they will arrive around 11:15 a.m.,” she explains. They are the technicians, the assistants and of course the director. Three heavy goods vehicles then parked on rue Gambetta, loaded with the equipment necessary for filming. Camera, trailers, cables, poles, lights… Then begins an hour of installation, in the four corners of the agency as well as outside, before the lunch break.
In the parking lot behind the Gambetta nursery school, it smells like food. This is where Nathalie and her team work on the daily specials: “We are a film canteen. As a service provider, we support the film crew to offer a different menu every lunchtime,” explains the chef. Starter, main course of your choice and dessert, one hour to enjoy, before returning to service.
Sequences
Back at the agency, it’s time for the final preparations for the first rehearsal. Hubert Charuel exchanges with Lionel. This original Drômois, who dreamed when he was younger of “becoming a sports journalist and watching all the football matches”, will partly realize it by playing the agency head. Opposite him, Paul, one of the main actors, present at the Ciné-Quai this Tuesday evening (read opposite), is the freelancer. In the preamble, he described his character: “I freelance about two times a month, and the rest of the time, I work at Burger King.”
“Sequence 61/1, take 1. Motor, action!” » For almost two hours, the two protagonists will replay the same scene around fifteen times, to obtain a sequence of around 2 minutes, with three different shots. The freelancer, rather happy with his previous article, arrives with the ambition of tackling another subject: the “trashing” of the region. Not very excited about the lack of news, the agency head instead offered to cover the sharing of compost in Frampas, or the meal on November 11 in Planrupt. Enough to leave the young freelancer speechless. Text, intonation, atmosphere, gestures… the scenes shot are all slightly different. The afternoon ends with a three-minute ambient shot, of the sound that we usually hear from the agency (excluding verbal exchanges).
It’s 4 p.m., the team is packing up the equipment. But the day is not over yet: head to Planrupt to act out an accident scene, on the public highway. Journalists at heart to the end.
Louis Vanthornout
A return to basics for Hubert Charuel
Born in Vitry-le-François, it was in Droyes, near Montier-en-Der, that Hubert Charuel grew up. Obviously, the filming of Meteorsessentially Haut-Marne, is a real return to basics. “I meet people again that I knew when I was younger in high school,” confides with a smile the man who shot his very first short film in the Bragarde city, in 2011, entitled Diagonal of the void.
It has been five years since this new feature film was initiated, with “four years of writing and a year of casting, including eight months to find the trio of friends”. Fortunately, knowing the territory allowed the director to “save time.” The film was written with existing locations in mind. I imagined shooting such a sequence in such and such a location,” he says.
A slight regret that Hubert Charuel lets shine through – without saying it, a slight regret: that of having to shoot a few scenes outside the territory: “Troyes for example, it is very different from Saint-Dizier. But you have to adapt, and make sure that you don’t notice it on screen,” concludes the director. As for the meaning of the title Meteors, See you in a few months in cinemas to find out.
