"It's a huge subject, all that! "Since Monday March 9 and the announcement by the prefecture to play behind closed doors PSG-Dortmund, round of 16 return from the Champions League, this Wednesday (9 pm) at the Parc des Princes, Luc Pannier, the production manager and RMC Sport branches, multiplies meetings and adjustments in order to best cover the event.
At 52, he manages for this meeting a team of a hundred people and has planned twenty cameras. "We wanted to bring the event to life with the public, we are going to bring the event to life in camera," summarizes the key man of the official broadcaster. Interview.
What changes for you the fact that PSG-Dortmund is behind closed doors?
LUC PANNIER. We had already considered the matter a bit before Monday's announcement. We are working closely with UEFA on what we will or will not have the right to do depending on the instructions that will be given around the protocol in particular. If there are no children when the players leave, we will be a little tighter. Same for the game. Rather than showing the stands, where we would have had the opportunity to have an atmosphere of madness, we will rely more on the game and the great players of Paris. It is not a big upheaval. It's more of adaptation in fact.
Are there any constraints?
We will also adapt to the instructions which are to be further from the players during the interviews and to the rules which have been placed behind closed doors between the club, UEFA and the public authorities. But we planned to be completely in the stadium all evening, from 7 p.m. to midnight. We stay on this device. On RMC Sport 1, we will also bring the surroundings of the Park to life. We are going to explain to people what this closed-door is and try to make this great match come to life.
How will the way of filming be changed?
The wide shot will be tightened as much as possible in order to see less of the empty stands. We will have to adapt because if the teams play very scattered, it is complicated. So the "wide shot" camera will have a huge job this Wednesday since it will not be able to stay on the usual quarter of land which represents 80% of the achievement. We also added cameras to be more in the game at ground level. And we removed everything that was intended to bring to life the magnificent setting that is the Parc des Princes, namely the spidercam and the drone that we had requested. So we're really going to keep football alive since there is only that left.
Will you take the opportunity to use more sound?
In terms of sound, we have little experience because last season, we broadcast a match from Lyon in camera and Marseille in semi-camera. It is true that it resonates and that we hear everything. We will therefore make a sound balance to try to hear what is being said as well as possible and bring that to life. While complying with the UEFA rules: we do not have the right to take the benches of coaches for example.
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Because of the restrictions on access for the press, do you feel that you have a special responsibility given that if you do not see something, no one will see it?
No, because on this Champions League contract, which is a very big contract for RMC Sport, we really have the adequate means and I think we can not miss anything. We have a whole device that allows us to see everything. All the images from the cameras go into recorders so we don't miss anything. And then we've had experience for a year and a half. The two directors, Emmanuel Roustit for the international signal and Philippe Letourneur are experienced so there is no problem. They have a very great capacity to adapt.