Mona Lisa

-"Planète Glace" (4X52') explores our planet’s remaining Great Glaciers and the threats to them. This is a co-production with Arte and Nova Media / Canada. 


For the Planète Corps project, is this the first time that you’ve set up a co-production with Australia? Was this something intended or did it just happen? And if intentional, why this choice? You mention the SBS channel; are they on the lookout for content?

We’ve had regular pre-buys by SBS but this is the first time that we’ve signed a co-production. This was thanks to an Australian producer, Smith & Nasht, whom we encountered at the WCSFP in late 2011 (World Congress of Science & Factual Producers). The idea caught their fancy, and from then on we worked with our co-producer to draft two versions for the two main broadcasters, while following the different editorial lines but maximizing the number of shared elements.

About the “Planète Glace” project and your co-production with Canada: had you already co-produced with them? Did they contact you or did you go and seek them out? How did you get in touch with them? As to financing over there, are these large amounts? Easier to obtain than in France?

Nova Media is a Canadian producer whom we know and with whom we’ve been in touch for a number of years. We were waiting for the right project to set up a co-production together, and this series turned out to be just that.
Co-productions with Canada are relatively stringent (French-Canadian treaty with rather strict rules) and financing from the channels is no easier to obtain than in France. In the specific case of this set-up, what was interesting was the fact that they totally manage the direction and production of an entire episode.