In a Haussmannian building, opposite the Saint-Lazare train station in Paris, a golden plaque discreetly signals the entrance to Digital District, one of the major French special effects studios.
The bourgeois apartment, converted into offices and decorated in shades of green and gray, hides its secrets well.
Only a few trophies in a display case and screens seen through a half-open door arouse curiosity.
You have to go upstairs to discover the rooms where computer graphics artists, animators, modelers, supervisors, producers and “flamists” are active, named after Flame, the software used to finalize the special effects.
Nothing spectacular: the manufacturing secrets are mainly technical.
Everything is digital, created on a computer.
The tornado of gifts on the giant Christmas tree in the final sequence of "Santa & Cie", Alain Chabat's film, was produced on these screens.
Much like the spectacular night chase on Christ in Corcovado, Brazil in "OSS 117: Rio No Responds" or the fully digitally recreated JFK assassination in the American film "Jackie".
Hollywood remains the undisputed master of special effects.
The enchantment of discovering "ET", the famous alien, soaring in the air on his bike, with the Moon in the background, the magic of believing without restraint in the powers of Harry Potter, the pleasure of jumping in front of the creature of "Alien" ... Many of our cinematic memories would not exist without this industry.
But the French do not have to be ashamed.
Pioneers twenty years ago, they retain talents and expertise that are always in demand.
At Digital District in Paris, graphic designers and “flamists” at work./LP/Arnaud Dumontier
For Nicolas Lacroix, post-producer at Digital District, a spectator must be able to link an American film and a French film with special effects without seeing any difference.
Knowing that the budget of the first is ten times greater than that of the second.
Among the great pride of the studio, “The Promise of the Dawn” (2017), by Eric Barbier, whose aerial sequence was quite a challenge.
On the big screen, the scene, between crossfire, bombardments and Pierre Niney's landing, seems very real.
But everything was done in synthetic images, without any stunts or plane flights.
Yet we believe it: a successful special effect is one that goes unnoticed.
The computer-generated images of pioneer Pierre Buffin
With his company BUF, Pierre Buffin is one of those who paved the way.
When this French pioneer set out in 1984, the special effects had nothing to do with those of today.
It was then a lot of DIY and ingenuity, models, puppets and collage on film.
A freshly graduated architect, Pierre Buffin dreamed of extraordinary buildings, but came up against an environment that he considered too conservative.
It is the computer-generated images, still confined to laboratories, which will offer him the worlds he imagines.
He will be the builder of digital special effects where everything has to be designed.
With an engineer friend, he works day and night in a cellar with computers less powerful than our phones today.
Recognition came a few years later, thanks to the tandem Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro and to the singular universe of “The City of Lost Children” (1993).
The film, considered a UFO, is a great success in the United States.
All the major American studios - Warner, Universal - flocked to Paris to discover BUF, this young company which signed the special effects of the film, in particular the CG animation of erect circus chips.
A hell of an innovation for such small animals.
Bullet time, an innovation from our region
While there were only a dozen in a small office, BUF was offered a project called “Matrix” at the end of the 1990s.
Already monopolized by "Batman & Robin", the studio declines the offer, but explains to them how it conceived, for a clip of Rolling Stones directed by Michel Gondry, a visual artefact which will become famous, the bullet time.
This famous visual effect popularized by the Wachowski movie where comedian Keanu Reeves seems to freeze in the air with the camera spinning around.
Canadian director Denis Villeneuve called on BUF for the special effects of "Blade Runner 2049", a sequel to the 1982 classic ./Collection Christophel
From “Fight Club” to “Avatar” or “Blade Runner 2049”, BUF develops prestigious collaborations.
“Several companies work together on big films,” says Pierre Buffin.
We are called upon for specific sequences where we have to do research, dream sequences.
We do not intervene on a lot of plans, but on those who require little lace, something very specific.
"
In 2020, the Oscar rewards a French
This French know-how is built in our schools, such as Les Gobelins, MoPA, ArtFX, Esma or Rubika, recognized among the best in the world.
There is no big international production without a former student of the Gobelins credited in the credits, according to Moïra Marguin, head of the animation film department of the famous school for ten years.
The French are popular in terms of creativity and their autonomy is a great added value, they know how to manage everything.
For lack of large-scale projects in France, many of them went into exile in Los Angeles and in the new strongholds of the profession, such as London, Vancouver, Canada, or Wellington, New Zealand, where the studio co-founded by director Peter Jackson.
In February Dominic Tuohy, Frenchman Guillaume Rocheron and Greg Butler won the Oscar for visual effects for "1917" by Sam Mendes.
/ Dan MacMedan / Redux-REA
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Behind Dobby, the house elf with big eyes and floppy ears in "Harry Potter", there is Mathieu Vig, a former Gobelins, supervisor at ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), the company created by George Lucas.
For the mantle of levitation of "Doctor Strange" or the characters of Rocket Raccoon, the raccoon, and Groot, the extraterrestrial tree, in "The Guardians of the Galaxy", it is also a French at the helm, Stéphane Ceretti, visual effects supervisor at Marvel.
At the Oscars last February, our know-how was well represented, with two French vying for the best visual effects, Stéphane Grabli for “The Irishman”, by Martin Scorsese, and Guillaume Rocheron, who won the trophy for “1917” , the film by Sam Mendes, against other productions as important as "Avengers: Endgame" or "Star Wars, episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker".
Prohibition to speak French on the set!
This is the “Star Wars” dream that Margaux Durand-Rival lived in London, where special effects production companies have multiplied.
Falling into the very small pot, after watching “Toy Story” and “Matrix”, the 35-year-old woman specialized in previewing, a kind of 3D storyboard that allows the director to already have the film in mind before shooting and anticipating camera movements, lighting or character animation.
This is how she worked for a year and a half on "Rogue One", a film from the Star Wars franchise.
Collaborating on such a project means meeting the best special effects supervisors, accessing a legendary saga.
It is also knowing how to hold your tongue for a very long time, especially at pub parties, where everyone is trying to get you to tell how your day went!
For this shot of “Santa & Cie”, by Alain Chabat, Golshifteh Farahani played in front of a blue background, before the synthetic images were integrated. / Digital District
Kept in secrecy and permanently monitored on the set, Margaux Durand-Rival, like the entire team on the set, was warned by lawyers that the slightest leak could cost him dearly.
She wasn't the only Frenchie working in London.
There were so many French people that English speakers had become paranoid: a memo forbidding speaking French on the set would have even circulated!
After five years in England, Margaux returned to France.
She regrets the diversity of the City, where many expatriates from all over the world find themselves, unlike Paris, very Franco-French.
She regrets much less the pace of work and overtime on weekends and in the evening, in an environment where they are not counted, especially when a project is late ...
The game is changing with streaming platforms
Heir to the director Georges Méliès, considered the inventor of special effects, France has recognized know-how, an artistic outlook, renowned training and sought-after talents.
Competed and left behind by the very incentive tax policy of countries such as England or Canada, French studios are back in the race thanks to a new competitive tax credit.
Meeting each year at the Paris Images Digital Summit, an event dedicated to this growing market, animation companies are in good health.
On all screens, there are more and more visual effects, from the most discreet to the most impressive.
French director and illusionist Georges Méliès is the forerunner of special effects in cinema, as evidenced by his “Voyage dans la Lune” (1902) ./ Apic / Getty
Series, with the development of streaming platforms, also open up new perspectives.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet signed with Netflix and is already filming.
But France lacks directors with large-scale projects for an international audience.
Things seem to be moving, however, thanks to films like "The Forgotten Prince" by Michel Hazanavicius, the biggest budget of 2019, in which Digital District collaborated.
Today, the studio is working on "The Deep House", a horror film that takes place in a house submerged at the bottom of a lake.
Specialized in all that is fluid and particles in synthetic images such as water, fire, storms, Digital District remains in its element.