Cat’s Eyes on TF1: How teams managed to capture the city’s biggest monuments before Paris 2024

On November 11, TF1 viewers discovered Tami (Camille Lou), Celia (Constance Labe) and Alexia (Claire Romain) turned thieves to solve the mystery of the death of their father, who died ten years later in a fire at his art gallery.

A prequel to Tsukasa Hôjô’s manga, Cat’s Eyes is set in Paris in 2023. To meet the requirements of the script, Alexandre Laurent’s cameras were invited to the most prestigious monuments of the capital: the Eiffel Tower, the Monnaie of Paris, the palace. Versailles and Louvre Museum.

And this large-scale shoot, which took place over six months, was not without problems.

Paris 2024 Games: The ultimate challenge for the cat’s eyes

The first major challenge: the 2024 Paris Games Indeed, this global event was one of the biggest obstacles facing the series team, as Benjamin Dupont-Joubien and Mehdi Sabar, the producers, explain to us.

Originally, the teams wanted to shoot the series in the spring to avoid the cold and rain. However, filming in these iconic locations had to be completed by March in order not to interfere with preparations for the 2024 Paris Games.

“We wanted to shoot in iconic locations. We didn’t know that we had to do this in advance and that the Paris 2024 games would block us.” explained Benjamin Dupont-Joubien at the microphone of Allociné.

Fortunately, the Prefecture of Paris supported the team in its efforts. According to the producer, “They couldn’t tell us everything because there were security issues. There were very frustrating and very difficult moments“.

Adaptation to cult monuments

Although the team still managed to access the main monuments of Paris, other obstacles arose.

“All this comes at a high price“, Benjamin Dupont-Jubien told us. “After we put everything in the budget, we were told that we had to add security because we had extras and we needed to insure the actors on the roofs.“.

Similar precautions have been taken for the technical team as well.We also had to hire approved people who could attach them to the monuments in Paris without damaging them, so we couldn’t call anyone. We also had to protect the team running behind the girls, be it the camera operator, holding the cables, etc.“

Therefore, adapting to unforeseen events was a major challenge, but ultimately a great pleasure for the team.

“Alexandre Laurent spent six months climbing and exploring every angle of the Eiffel Tower. Unpredictable weather on the day of shooting made everything difficult. At 250 meters in the air, wind and rain will turn to the ground. And when actors are on metal beams, every second counts. We had to shoot at night, the Eiffel Tower was open to the public during the day and the dates were unchanged.“.

Despite everything, Mehdi Sabar concluded positively: “These limitations have been our greatest challenge, but also our greatest satisfaction“.