by Antoine Cayrol, published on 27.12.2010

Everything started in November 2009 when a reporter, a journalist for Point.fr whom I had first met 6 years previously at Paris’s Sorbonne University, visited us with a project for a transmedia documentary entitled “Paroles de conflits”.

“Paroles de conflits” is the tale of an unsuspecting French cyclist who strays into zones where war, bloody confrontation and interethnic violence has raged, sometimes months and sometimes years ago. These are places where, although still scarred by the experience, the inhabitants have been able to rekindle hope, even though the future often still remains uncertain and bleak.

It is the emotions of “real human beings” – some familiar, but most of them unknown people who have lived through the misery of war and conflict – that contribute to our understanding of History thanks to the subjective camera of an author who is both curious and without prejudice.

The aim? To present his journey and the events he has witnessed seen through different lenses which allow different interpretations and make it possible to view the content from different perspectives.

To do this, we intend to create a transmedia documentary which, at the end of the journey, will give rise to a documentary series of 8 episodes of 26 minutes each (one episode for each conflict-ravaged country he crosses), a Web documentary and an exhibition of photographs taken by the reporter.

Each of the media will be characterized by a different type of scripting and narrative. In the TV series, as is often the case in television documentaries, the viewers will be led “by the hand” by Raphaël. Using a framework that recurs throughout the various episodes, he will travel through the different countries and recount what he witnesses.

The Internet format will be interactive, vibrant, evolutive and will take full advantage of the unlimited resources offered by this medium: up-to-the-minute news from press agencies, photos published by the Internet community, Wikipedia articles revolving around an important date or key player… there is no end to the possibilities.

To further deepen the experience of each video episode, the latest resources available on the Web can then be synchronized, selected and overlaid to provide an additional real-time dimension which dovetails exactly with the content that is being viewed. This editorial use of selected external resources (as well as content created by our own production team: mixes etc.) will constantly give users a new, unique experience thanks to the relevant and evolving context.

At FatCat Films, we were won over by this project, which is simultaneously human and historical, at our very first meeting with the author.

We then spent 3 months redrafting and 2 months getting ready for his departure: finding partnerships for his bike, his GPS tracking system, all his equipment etc. Lafuma, Sierra Echo, Ecologieshop, Ortlieb and Cyfac all proved to be enthusiastic as soon as they learned about the project and did not hesitate to sponsor us.

At the production level, this project harboured one particular challenge.

The journalist, Raphaël Beaugrand, wanted to set off in March 2010 irrespective of any production-related considerations which were our responsibility.

For reasons of weather, he had to start his odyssey in March while, for personal reasons, he did not want to postpone his departure for another year.

We therefore had to draw on our own resources, at least in part, to enable this journey to go ahead…

Because given the time it would have taken to complete the production dossier, apply for the various scriptwriting grants and then find a broadcaster, Raphaël would never have been able to leave on his preferred date.

Convinced of the project’s qualities and confident of being able to find broadcasters and financial support during the coming months, we let Raphaël set off and we, too, set off with him on an adventure that would last more than a year – and here we are talking only of the journey and filming time.

Now Raphaël is at the end of his travels, in Japan.

Our dossiers have been completed, the episodes and the Web documentary have been written and the scriptwriting grants have been applied for. We have even put together the first episode which Raphaël will undoubtedly want to rework on his return before turning his attention to the others.

To cover a part of the costs of the travel, we had the idea of raising finance from Internet users. A mechanism that is gaining in popularity, crowdfunding has been attracting large numbers of participants over the last two years in France (more in the USA) and a number of projects are starting to be part-financed by the Web. We therefore placed our project on the crowdfunding site KissKissBankBank with the aim of raising 18,000 euros, a goal which we achieved almost two months ago.

Raphaël will be returning to France in just a few weeks and the editing and post-production work can start. I don’t think it would be unreasonable to say that he has 6 to 9 months of work waiting for him.

The same applies to our production activities. We now have to find broadcasters for the TV and Web material (for the photograph exhibition, we already have a preferred partner but since nothing has been signed, I’d rather not say anything just yet) who are interested in our project and a number of contacts have already had a favourable response…Insha’Allah…we’ll tell you more very soon

While waiting, you can find out more and keep in touch with our progress in real time on facebook

To see the trailer

Paroles de conflits TEASER
envoyé par FatCat_Films. – Découvrez de nouvelles destinations en vidéo.

Antoine Cayrol

Producteur Fatcat films