© 2017 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Village Roadshow Films North America Inc. and RatPac-Dune Entertainment LLC
They Chose France
Interview: Tim Moore, Producer, The 15:17 to Paris
1. Directing a feature in France is an extraordinary challenge. How would you describe the specificities of filming in France compared to the US?
We’ve shot before in France, we made Hereafter there, so we knew what to expect when beginning this process. And of course, the film takes place in France, so we wanted to shoot as much there as possible to make it as real as possible. Clint, from day one, had the idea that he wanted to shoot on the actual train. So that was the number one priority. To do so, we had to deal with the SNCF and also Thalys, Film France, and the local production companies. Warner Bros France also helped out; so we had total cooperation from all the different companies there trying to make it happen.
I should also add, that to shoot on a moving train is not an easy thing to do: we basically rented the train for five days. We took all the seats on the actual train but we couldn't stop it, we had to run on their schedule. Another challenge was shooting in the Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris train stations because we didn't have any control there. It took total cooperation from not only the people who ran the trains and the stations, but also with the authorities, the local police and the cities we were stopping in
2. Were there any incentives, such as the Tax Rebate for International Production (TRIP), as well as other financial support mechanisms for movie production, that drove your choice to shoot in France?
We didn’t come to France because of the Tax Rebate advantage, it did help the finances, but because the story takes place there, we had to shoot some scenes there. But what we did was we brought scenes that we wanted to shoot in other parts of Europe (Italy, Germany and Holland) to France and thanks to that, it was possible to cut costs in the budget.
3. What is your advice for an American or international director who is considering to work with French professionals?
The crews and the production staff were available in France meaning we didn’t have to bring as many people from the US. As the French are known as some of the greatest filmmakers in the world, there isn’t any drop off of film quality in shooting in France. It made the transition very easy, because we started filming in Georgia (USA), then in Italy, and we ended up in France.
From Shoot in France, A newsletter for filmmakers and producers,
December 2017
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