1- INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
My name is Bruno de Champris. I am 59 years old and I am french. I am a Film Director, Producer and Writer. I grown up in the south suburbs of Paris but I had the chance to travel a lot through Europe when I was a kid, onboard my parent’s Wolkwagen camping car! From the north of Norway to the south of Portugal, I discovered that there was so many things to live out there. My eyes were already framing the stories of all my journeys. All these Natural open space, amazing landscapes, people, cultures, languages… The seas, the mountains. From the perspective of my suburb I had to find a solution to escape at one point. It will be through sport! My surrounding was mostly made of concrete, so I deep dive into skateboarding and through two decades became amongst the top European riders! Extreme sports was my passion. I was framing with my camera all the actions around me. So decides to step further and I graduate from a prestigious Cinema School in Paris. Becoming a Film Director was a clear path for me, but still my background as a rider was in my DNA. So I decided to join both!
2- WHAT WAS YOUR STORY BECOMING A DIRECTOR?
After I graduated from the Cinema school, I decided to merge my passion for extreme sports and films. Shooting into environments like high mountain, big waves or into the air requires special skills that I developed through the years. My profile as a high trained rider and a film director allowed me to travel and shot the best spots around the planet for 20 years! With my team, we were creating documentaries, following the best skiers, surfers, snowboarders, sky divers around their favourite spots, following the seasons and the swells. The movies were shown amongst Theatres across Europe in a big Tour called “Les nuits de la glisse” (The extreme sports show tour). I was awarded “Best Sport Promo in the World”, by placing the spectator on top of a narrow peak, 4500m high, comfortably sit in a chair surrounded by hundreds meters of void! No wire, no effects. Just him, the void… and three weeks of preparation for one and only few seconds shot. This is what I like in this job. Creating moments! In the 2010’s, with the rising of the internet and the social medias, big screens shifted to smartphones screens… I shifted myself, keeping the wide angle mood, passing by Dubai for new challenges. Creating movies to be sized for such an amazing city. I was part of the launch of the Burj Khalifa ceremony! Today, It’s been almost twenty years that I keep on being astonished by the energy around there. Images are everywhere and filming all over the region is a must. From the heritage of the bedouin culture to the most futurist skylines ever… so many stories out there!
3- 35 YEARS EXPERIENCE - AWARD WINNING DIRECTOR - WHAT MOTIVATES YOUR INTO PASSIONATE JOB?
When we are talking about Motion picture, we say it all!.. The film industry is a constant moving industry… I started editing by cutting the reels! I was one of the first end of 80’ to use virtual editing system and computers to help into the post production. In the 90’ and the rise of the Digital era, I specialized into visual effects and the high end post-production technologies. I was finally the one who brought to Dubai the Virtual Production Technology, three years ago, replacing the traditional “green screens” with the top notch technologies based on huge LED walls, Tracking systems, 3D real time environments! Through the decades, as a director, you have to feel, to anticipate and to use the natural evolution of the technologies, and be creative with them! This is a passionate job, because you cannot stop evolution but just have to play with it. Every new technology, on the camera, on the set, in visual effects has to become a good opportunity for creation.
4- WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR FOR YOU AS A FILM PRODUCER IN THIS COMMUNITY?
Producing is the other side of my job. A film producer must have a perfect control and vision of the complete workflow of the movie. Even if making films is about art, yet, it stays above all a business with dead line, most of the time! But being a film director for decades gives you a perfect knowledge of what a production is made of. I became producer as a logical and natural path into the community. Your work and portfolio is your pass. I have a good assessment in action pictures, visual effects and high-end technology films. As a producer, my role is to keep chasing after the details, because production gets through so many different steps, from pre-production, script writing to shooting and post-production, that blockage can happed at any moment. This is part of the job to be careful to each and every details and to have a perfect overview of the workflow. You act just like a camera zoom lens… from wide angle to a close up shot!!
5- WHAT ADVISE WOULD YOU GIVE TO YOUNG PEOPLE - WHICH BUSINESS SKILLS DO YOU RECOMMEND FOR THEM?
First of all I would say that being a Film Director is not about a job title… It is about adversity, determination, dedication and passion. You have to step throughout all the jobs levels and grab the essence of each one of them, because each one of them is part of the game! Making a movie as a film director is about getting the best of a script using the eye of your camera, your lenses, your equipments and crane, your lights, all the crews, the editing, the music, the grading, the visual effects and so many more factors. I would advise to get through editing, for example, to understand the proper visual language of a film. Being a “runner” on set is the best way to observe and learn how the choreography of a shooting set works and how each one in the crew has its own role and action. I would advise finally to watch movies and then other movies… again and again! Inspiration starts from here and from the ability to observe our world with a different eye, the camera view finder eye! Regarding the skills, I would say that the film industry actually steps across a wider spectrum of technologies and communication fields. It allows to enter into this business through so many different angles and options. Movies are now developed and produced as global projects, including communication, marketing, social medias, and even AI from now on… 40% of the job within the next 10 years, in this field, are not even created yet! Youth… Show up your skills! In conclusion, I would say that Directing is a never ending quest. You cannot stop technology from evolving and offering you new horizons to experience and create. But whatever the technics, the cameras or the set, at the end, as a Film Director, I consider myself above all as a story teller...
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