making0-kids-playing-footbal

Making0-KIDS-PLAYING-FOOTBAL

Making of

From Day 1, BIGGER THAN US has been an adventure to share. A bigger than us adventure, a rollercoaster of emotions, thanks to incredible people and moments, and lot of work. Here are some glimpses on what we experienced, directly from our director Flore Vasseur.

Making of

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making1-sam

Making1-Sam

My 7-year-old son fires the questions every parent of this earth fears: « Mom, when people say that the planet is going to die, what does it means ? And what is it I do to prevent it ? And by the way, what are you doing? ». It&rsquo;s been years of writing. On corruption, the end of democracy, the end of the world. I can&rsquo;t start to explain. But I get our children can be our guides.

February 2016

making2-mel-reponses

Making2-Mel-reponses

I meet Melati for the filming of my Arte documentary: « And if children changed the world? « ? With it, i am sure I will answer my son then be able to move back to my regular topics. Yet Melati and her sister Isabel overwhelm me. In them, I find the same wisdom and honesty I saw in other activists I met. I want to see them again and better understand what they are made of. Their beauty, words and anger do not leave me. Neither do my son&rsquo;s questions.

April 2016 

2016

An adventure 
started 4 years ago

making4-mel-and-flore-working

Making4-Mel-and-Flore-working

I try to convince Melati to work with me again. Through our first work together, i have seen someting bigger: others young people like her, all across the world, on different frontlines, not only the environmental one. There is no more time. They need to join force. Melati could be the connector. We start a list of names. Elvira, her mother, listens to us, to me carefully. She sets some conditions. I would have done the same thing.

August 2018 

making5-waves

Making5-Waves

On Melati’s sand, we play with the title of the film, washed away but the waves. We do not have time.

August 2018

making6-dreamteam

Making6-dreamteam

We enter the development phase: Marion and Denis join the dance. We are looking for our characters, our angles, our team and funding. These two are magicians.

August 2018 - March 2019

2018

making7-film-campagne

Making7-film-campagne

Crowdfunding campaign. From the very fist day, we want this project to be collective. More than 1100 people our adventure.

February 2019

making8-on-embarque

Making8-On-embarque

Thanks to contributors&rsquo; donations, we start the filming. Involved as an intern a few months earlier, Anouk leaves for her first filming. She will do (almost) everything with me.

April 2019

making9-liban

Making9-Liban

1st shooting in Lebanon with Mohamad. Christophe, our director of photography, hands me a camera. From there I am a child in wonderland. This is the « first time » phase: first incident, first image, first fight, first tear, first laugh, first luch. And first character : for us all, Mohamad sets the level very very high. So high, that we come back totally lost. In filming this is called a pilot. Better call it a crash test.

making10-debrief-liban

Making10-Debrief-Liban

We tell it all during our 1st filming debrief in Paris in public. These are events we will organize after each shooting: on open and live discussion with people supporting us or just interested in the process. We share our experience, some photos, a lot of questions and doubts. The packed audience mesmerizes us with suggestions. These direct feedbacks bring us a lot as we are collecting the material for the film. They will be gold for the editing, 8 months later.

making11-malawi

Making11-Malawi

Filming in Malawi with Memory. The children, the country, the decor, the light, the dignity, everything is beautiful. And terrible. We are super proud after making 2756 children dance on a remix of Bach in Africa in one shot. These are some tiny minutes of the 300 hours of rushes we will not use.

May 2019

making12-mel-dancing

Making12-Mel-dancing

Filming in Colorado with Xiuhtezcatl. Documentary filming is a sport and a patience exercise. You serve an idea, look for the better way to catch it. We wait for Xiu a lot. I am accustomed to film a lot and that buggs me. Xiu teaches me otherwise. When he is there, he gives everything. For Melati, Xiu is more than a brother. A twin. A mirror. It is almost disturbing.

June 2019

making13-greece

Making13-Greece

Filming in beautiful Greece with Mary. On the back of the postcard, Humanity is drowning. On vacation, the West looks away. Like us most of the time. For how long?

August 2019 

making14-mel-writing

Making14-Mel-writing

That is the most difficult month as we do not break and immediately go to Brazil for the filming of Rene. Half of us get sick in the Athenes-Rio plane. The girls of team remain strong. Melati writes everywhere and it is very very beautiful. As each of us, she tries to cope with what she experienced in Greece. Rene opens the gates of his favela to our cameras. And protects us.

August 2019

making15-bukompe

Making15-Bukompe

Filming in Uganda with Winnie. Dorothée, who organizes all the filming from Paris finally comes on the field. After 18 hours of flight, 2 hours on a national road and 1 hour on a rocky path, Winnie is waiting for us at her school garden in the refugee settlement. I am moved by her tiny legs in her farmer&rsquo;s boots, her XXL smile and her 8-month belly. Melati grabs a gardening tool, the children follow us and play. It is high time we go back to earth and talk about what we do to her soils and its inhabitants. At the end of the day. At the end of the road.

September 2019

making16-bike-in-nyc

Making16-Bike-in-NYC

Filming in New York with the smallest crew possible at the Climate Day organized by the UN. I l leave with an anger precisely from the end of the world. I want to tell the sotry of Winnie and all the others. Not that circus created by adults like me. New York has never seemed so empty to me. Vain.

making17-tess

Making17-Tess

Filming in Jakarta with Melati. As in New York, Tess takes the responsibility of the images. I assist her and she more than deserve it. Hendri Wijaya flies the drone, trying to understand us. Ethernal gratefulness. Melati is at home. She is ending her journey, changed. Our conversations will never be the same. Last clap. I cry all the way to Paris.

October 2019

making18-famille

Making18-famille

End of filming party and family photo. Without each of these people, we wouldn&rsquo;t have walked a mile, filmed a sequence, written a line.
&nbsp;
Photo © Monsieur José Cañavate Comellas

December 2019

2019

Le film

making19-polaroids

Making19-polaroids

Head first, we start editing: 800 polaroids, 300 hours of rushes, 60 transcripted interviews. I am saving Excel tables of Excel tables. We find the arche, the structure. We are naive enought to tell the film will release in September 2020.

January 2020

making20-montage

Making20-montage

A few hours before the first lockdown. Aurélie takes the hard drives and her editing table home. Sarah who assists her, do the same. These women will always amaze me. Long live excel, iframe, whatsapp and fiber. Women of courage. We work remotely. I&rsquo;m not always on their back. We are slowed down. t may well be a good thing. The pandemic invades our lives, our film.

March 2020

img_2445

IMG_2445

Remi, the composer, also works remotely. As soon as we can, Aurelie and I visit him in his recording studio. There, he composes the entrance music for Winnie in front of us. Just like that, feeling the vibes, hearing Melati’s and Winnie’s voices, playing with the scene. I am surrounded by magicians.

May 2020

making22-mix

Making22-mix

Fanny mixes and remixes. Richard plays with the light and the colors. The film appears in its full capacity, cleaned sound and native images. Everything comes out, bold and neat. Mary, Rene, Melati, Xiu, Winnie, Memory, Mohamad catch me not by the hand or the head any longer. But by the heart. Magic again. Magic all the way. I can tell of each person who put his or her hand and heart on our film, crafting and lifting it. It is love. A labor of love.

Making of

An adventure started 4 years ago

The film

The film

An adventure
started 4 years ago