Even confined, one can do business. In any case, this is the bet launched by France 2 from Monday April 13. The channel is adding "Affaire concluded", its afternoon star auction, to a new module produced remotely, Monday to Friday at 6 p.m. Exclusively, its organizer, Sophie Davant, explains the system to us, and tells of her “active” confinement.
Even confined, you resume the antenna on Monday?
SOPHIE DAVANT. Yes, from my house! It was a shame not to keep in touch with our viewers. And interesting to listen to them and to know how they live this confinement. We therefore decline our program in a different genre, with a more testimonial than mercantile aspect.
What do you offer exactly?
A new module of around 15 minutes, broadcast at 6 p.m. after the unpublished number of 5 p.m., and dubbed "Deal concluded at home". It will be live slightly delayed for technical reasons. I will welcome two families, an auctioneer and a buyer by interposed screens. Two objects will be appraised, then put up for sale. The idea is really to be in touch with families and to show that we are there. We will refine it day by day.
Technically, how will you do it?
Stakeholders and auctioneers will be on Skype, a director will coordinate everything from a control room, and I will have an automatic camera at home. I am alone in my Norman house, not because I fled the capital, but because I was there when the confinement was decreed and I could not return to Paris. I was a citizen and respectful.
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So would potential buyers buy the object remotely?
We will see it through screens. But the buyer will have the right to have it in person later before finalizing the sale. He will have the opportunity to withdraw if the object is not in the state in which he saw it from afar. The idea, again, is to maintain the connection and keep the spirit of the show. Maybe we will invite him later on set, that we will organize a hunt for objects.
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You indicated that if France 2 planned to launch a large solidarity show, you were up for it ...
Yes, they know that I am a good soldier! If they ask me, I will. In this period where I admire the medical staff and all those who take risks to work, we feel useless. France 2 has already done a good charity show, "Together with our caregivers". I have experience of the direct and the call for donations with the Telethon. If I can help, I will do it my way.
Have you started writing a book?
Yes ! My editor at Albin Michel called me from the start of confinement, saying to me: "This time, you can no longer invoke the lack of time! This is the first writing project that I am leading alone. I write three hours in the morning, three hours in the afternoon. And I realize that if I don't do these hours of work every day, I miss it. I'm already 135 pages long, and it's a real pleasure.
What lessons do you draw from this confinement?
It is a time of withdrawal which allows you to reflect during your life, to have different links with your own. It is a chance for the planet which regains its rights. In this terrible health crisis, one measures the extraordinary French health system, even if one wonders, for example on the absence of reserves of masks.
Loneliness doesn't weigh you down?
It doesn't scare me. I am used to these times of withdrawal. I need it. I walk, within the authorized perimeter and time, I play sports at home. I watch the television news and I try not to be stupid with the news channels because the situation is very anxiety-provoking. I saw, on the advice of my son, a masterpiece on Netflix, the Turkish film "7. Kogustaki Mucize". I read "Human Things" by Karine Tuil. I am sad not to see my children (Editor's note: Nicolas 26 and Valentine 24, born of his union with the journalist Pierre Sled), but happy for them to know them well where they are, with a garden. We call each other on video.
Where is your series project, in which you would have a role?
It's still in the planning stage, at the writing stage. I hope that we will come out of confinement in not too long, and that we will resume filming the shows on hats!