How do you film a shark in Paris? The making of Sous la Seine
Xavier Gens deciphers the making of his film and reveals the secrets of the special effects in a long 20-minute video.
No, they didn't actually film a shark Under the Seine ! Netflix put a long making-of video online this weekend, to tell the story of the filming of its latest successful film. Director Xavier Gens tells how he thought Under the Seine and how he managed to stage these Sea teeth in the heart of the Parisian capital.
For 20 minutes, he details this “very trying filming to experience because of the water element” which changes everything. Everything must be carefully thought out in advance, like an incredible invention imagined for the film: the “washing machine” allows the actors to be filmed underwater in panic, thanks to an improbable concept , “a real engineering puzzle“, which fixes the camera on an underwater rotating axis and captures the actors in a sort of “hamster wheel“.
Xavier Gens also shows the reconstruction of the catacombs in the studio, in a larger-than-life setting, which had to be completely submerged under water.
And then, of course, he moves on to the making of the shark, which moves mainly in digital effects in the film, but which also had the right to a real terrifying model, which we see in the arms of Bérénice Béjo.
Finally, the filmmaker reveals behind the scenes of the filming of the final sequence, that of the famous triathlon, and describes the hassle of a production on the banks of the Seine where we can only film briefly, “between two passing barges...”
Under the Seine is currently watching on Netflix.
