Rivages on France 2: “Risk 0 does not exist”… safety at the center of the filming of the series

This Monday, January 13, France 2 broadcasts two new episodes of Rivages, its event series directed by David Houreg (Germinal) and hosted by Fleur Geffrier (Les drops de Dieu).

In these new episodes, Abigail decides to defy the curfew in order to understand and record the seismic activity of the fault off the coast of Fecamp.

It is enough to create new spectacular scenes at sea, both on the surface and underwater. But do you know exactly how to shoot at sea?

“There is no risk 0”

During an interview with Allociné, director David Houregy spoke about the difficulty and dangers of such filming.

“This is a great lesson in humility“, he immediately explained to us before continuing, “All means were available to ensure the safety of the teams, but risk 0 does not existS”.

For this occasion, filming was overseen by master divers who were responsible for ensuring the safety of the cast and crew.

On this topic, the director told us that it was “An important device. Master divers watched us with us. We had some pretty crazy connections. We always say that a film is a collective effort, but it is their success“.

Intensive filming and monitoring conditions

You should know that David Houreg spent up to six hours a day underwater. For the scenes shot in Corsica, Flor Geffrier took a one-hour dive due to the coldness of the water, which can sometimes drop to 15 degrees.

In Belgium, where the special effects scenes were filmed, oxygen consumption was monitored very closely. Fleur Geffrier also remembers a time when the teams were asked to stop when the oxygen bottles were running out too quickly.

“We finished filming on apnea”

Although the camera operators had a limited number of hours, David Houreg in turn.Ended filming in apnea“.

he says, “I was banned from diving again so I free dived to end the streak. That really reflected this shoot. The production has spent lavishly to ensure everyone’s safety. You should know that there was no zero risk. It was very difficult. They helped me very well, but it was up to me to “stop”. I did it twice“.

And the director explained, “For whatever may happen, while we have all the necessary safety, and I insist, because the production has indeed used every possible means, the sea has risks. And it’s true that it was up to me to stop shooting days if I felt it was difficult. You are not insured against anything. So it is true that there is a kind of extreme vigilance to minimize risk taking. We have a lot of equipment that has been affected, but at least we haven’t had any human problems. This is the most important thing“.

While the safety of the crew was clearly a constant priority for the Director, this was the first time he had to pay attention to those around him. He explains: “All these people are part of my family. They are people I worked with long before the chair. It was special and made each shot special.”

Difficulties aside, David Houreg is sure he will remember the experience.A memorable memory“.