Just a Breath Away is a feature film that was initiated by Guillaume Colboc for Section 9 and co-produced for a budget of 11.5 million euros with Quad Cinema, TF1 films studios.
Synopsis
Directed by Canadian Daniel Roby, the script by Guillaume Lemans ( who also produced the film) plunges Paris into a toxic haze of unknown origin from the underground. No superheroic quest for the main character, interpreted by Romain Duris, but rather a race against time for his daughter's survival, who suffers from a mysterious syndrome that forces her to live in a protective glass bubble.
An ambitious French production
The production of the film began in 2016 with the determination to keep the production in France, which was backed financially by the Paris Region Support Fund (€475,000) and assisted in its search for locations by Film Paris Region. Filming took place from February 13 to April 19, 2017 within the territory.
The extension of the National Tax Credit to visual effects and the increase of its ceiling to 30% was a decisive and indispensable tool in the success of this project and the maintenance of post-production services in France, even though part of the VFX was done in Canada, since the director was from Quebec.
A bold mix of constructed natural sets and visual effects
The apartments in the main building were built at the Bry-sur-Marne studios by the teams of the film's production designer and artistic director Arnaud Roth. However, the staircases as well as the street and the surroundings of this building were filmed in a natural setting in a typically Parisian street. "It's a building that was completely built with spare parts, like a puzzle!" explained the director,
A hangar in Saint-Ouen, l'Aumône, which was chosen for its surface area and high ceiling, was transformed into a studio where the team recreated the Parisian streets that would be filled with smoke: three-story buildings, squares, roofs, etc...
The ambitious special effects were provided by the Paris Region company Fix Studios, which put 53 people to work for 9 months. The team got involved in the project right from the script in order to make the project realistic in terms of the budget. "Fix conducted smoke tests to find the ''look'' and assess what could be done in real life and what would have to go through 3D." In the end, 450 rigged shots for a budget of 2.2 million euros.
Collaboration between the set and post-production teams, integration of the VFX company starting from the project's financial set-up: these are the current challenges in French film production. The production of Just a Breath Away is a successful example, and therefore one to be followed and discovered in theaters now.