AFC Micro Salon 2017: back to a pivotal year, and the first photo albums

By Jean-Noël Ferragut, AFC

AFC newsletter n°273

[ English ] [ français ]

For better or for worse, the 17th annual Micro Salon was in the spirit of the times: the number of visitors at this year’s Micro Salon shrank. In the eyes of our partners with stands at the event this was a positive thing (although our sister-organizations on the other hand are always trying to reach a broader audience). The reason? Quite simple: fewer visitors means more quality time for discussion with the exhibitors!

The four floors of La fémis hosted the savoir-faire and the latest products manufactured by fifty-nine of the AFC’s associate members who were in attendance, as well as ten partners of the AFSI’s “sound space”. Over the course of the event’s two days, over 2,200 visitors browsed the displays.

Raphaël Keller, Director of Innovation, Video, and Technical Industries at the CNC, honored us with his presence, and alongside Nathalie Coste-Cerdan, General Director of La Fémis, and Luc Pourrinet, Technical Director, during their visit they met with Didier Diaz, President of the FICAM, Jean-Yves Mirski, the General Delegate, Francine Lévy, Director of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Louis-Lumière, Thomas Grosperrin, of the CNC, Angelo Cosimano, General Delegate of the CST, Jean-Paul Gillet and Etienne Traisnel, Organizers of Paris Images Pro, Anne Bourgeois, General Delegate of Paris Images Cinéma, and each of them shared in their own way the particular interest they have in our event.

Not less than sixteen film screenings took place on Friday in the Salle Jean Renoir – because unfortunately the programme had to be cut short on Saturday –, and highlighted the wide range of what it is possible to achieve with the latest tools for shooting and post-production. One of them involved Céline Bozon, AFC, Sébastien Buchmann, AFC, and Claire Mathon, AFC, and another involved Caroline Champetier, AFCF, and Rémy Chevrin, AFC, in common activities with some of our associate members.
Another usual highlight of the Micro Salon was the Carte Blanche, which was given this year to the ISC, the SICA, and the WICA – all of which are Indian cinematographers’ associations –, represented by Sunny Joseph, President of the ISC, Ravi K. Chandran, ISC, WICA, Govind Nihalani, ISC, WICA, and Savita Singh, WICA. After the introduction by the three associations and the screening of a 45-minute-long film that showed fantastic aspects of contemporary Indian Cinematography, Richard Andry, AFC, and Marc Koninckx, AFC, led a debate with the audience.

Acknowledgments and credits
The Cinematographers of the AFC heartily thank all those who, thanks to their support and their invaluable assistance, made this 17th annual Micro Salon a success.

- Raoul Peck, President of La Fémis, Nathalie Coste-Cerdan, General Director, Luc Pourrinet, Technical Director, Elisabeth Ledanois, Administrative and Financial Director, Pierre-William Glenn, co-director, and Jean-Jacques Bouhon, of the Image Department, and all of the administrators, faculty, and employees of La Fémis for their warm welcome and kind assistance.

- Our partner associate members and their guests:
Acc&Led, ACS France, Airstar Distribution, AJA Video Systems, Arri Camera, Be4Post, Broncolor-Kobold, Canon France, Carl Zeiss, Cartoni France, Ciné Lumières de Paris, Codex, CW Sonderoptic-Leica, Dimatec, DMG Technologie, Eclair, Eclalux, Emit, Fujifilm France, HD Systems, Hiventy, K5600 Lighting, Key Lite, Kodak, LCA, Lee Filters, Loumasystems, Lumex, Maluna Lighting, Microfilms, Mikros image, Next Shot, Nikon France, Panagrip, Panalux, Panasonic France, Panavision Alga, Papa Sierra, PhotoCineRent, Propulsion, Roscolab, Ruby Light, RVZ Caméra, RVZ Lumière, Schneider-Kreuznach, Softlights, Sony France, Technicolor, Thales Angénieux, Transpacam, Transpagrip, Transpalux, Transvideo, TSF Caméra, TSF Grip, TSF Lumière, Vantage Paris, Vitec Videocom, XD motion.

- AFSI’s partners who participated in the Sound Space and their guests:
A4 Audio, Aaton Digital, AEI, AETA Audio Systems, Areitec, Audio 2, Cinéla, Sennheiser, Tapages & Nocturnes, VDB Audio.

- AFC’s guests for “did you say tweak?”: Mikael Lubtchansky, for his FoolColor software; Adrien Sicart, for his Tracis dynamic visual effects; the ADIT digital image technicians and the AOA assistant cameramen for their Pico Salon Détente; the administrators and moderators of the Cinematographie.info forum.

- Mateusz Graj and Darius Wyczolkowski, for the information they provided about the important annual cinematography event that is the Polish Camerimage Festival.

- Leslie Aknin (Airstar), François Roger (Ciné Lumière de Paris – TSF Lumière), Marc Galerne (K5600 Lighting), Franck Ledesma (Key Lite), Mikael Rousseau (Lumex), Patrice Millet (Maluna Lighting), Yann Blitte (Panalux), Guillermo Grassi (Ruby Light), François Chenivesse (Transpalux), for their help with lighting (electricity hook-ups and various lighting equipment); Jean-Marc Meunier (Flam and Co), for hardware; Gilles Henry (TSF Véhicules), for various forms of transportation; Sylvain Bouladoux (Cinesyl), for the rolling coffee-refreshment-snack carts.

- The team in charge of the organization: Marie Garric, assisted by Christine Mignard, for administration; Margaux Duroux, for managing sign-ups and nametags; Eric Vaucher, for technical managment; Mariève Dural, for location management, along with her assistant, Oliver Bargès, and their teammates Alexis Bouladoux, Lionel Damato, Aurélie Di Pascale, Kilian Gerhold, Guillaume Giffard, and Isabelle Lauranceau.

- The team in charge of the welcome desk, the coat-check, and the refreshment tables (stationary or rolling): Louis Barge, Jérôme Casajus, Coline and Madeleine Chevrin, Anne-Charlotte de Rochechouart, Clément and Quentin Duroux, yvan Eltchaninoff, Justine Garric, Vincent Legare, Mathieu Poirier, Lauriane Rouvillain, Inès Sieulle, and Maud Sofer.

- Jérémie Gombert, assisted by Jean-Sébastien Bancet, for decoration and signage.

- Michel Benjamin, AFC, for lighting the different areas, assisted by Jean-Sébastien Poüs (electrician), Tim Jamin (grip), other assistant electricians cited below.

- Allain Vincent, for providing electricity hookups on every floor, seconded by Mathias Yavchitz, assisted by Cécile Besnault, Florent Boitier, Benjamin Chaudagne, Alexandre Delol, Cédric Duron, Elena Erhel, Ivan Marchika, Maxime Sabin, and Medhi Sellami.

- Jean-Jacques Bouhon, AFC, and Eric Dumage, AFC, for preparing and securing the films to be screened; Lionel Gabet for their technical preparation; Pascal Vignal for colour-timing the screening; Stéphane Gadroy and Jérôme Pocholle, emeritus projectionists; François Reumont, for his presentations before each screening.

And also
- Olivier Binet (Tapages & Nocturnes) for making walkie-talkies available to us;
- Emanuele Fiori and Marine Langenegger (Epok Design), for the graphic design of the posters and invitations;
- Hervé Toucheron (Typofset), for the printing carts;
- Joseph Banderet and Romain Mathieu for their illustrated report;
- The professional press from France and abroad – for their extremely valuable publicity for our event (Ecran Total, Film and Digital Times, Le Film français, Mediakwest);
- All of the members of the AFC who rolled up their sleeves when the time came to prepare for and set up the Micro Salon:
Jean-Claude Aumont, Bernard Cassan, Patrick Duroux, Etienne Fauduet, Eric Guichard, Vincent Jeannot, Vincent Mathias, Tariel Meliava and, cited above, Michel Benjamin, Jean-Jacques Bouhon, and Eric Dumage.
And, without naming all of them, over forty other people, who, like Nathalie Durand, our President, fittingly represented our association during the event.
- The AFSI members who prepared and ran their Sound Space:
Michel Casang, Vincent Goujon and Olivier Levacon, for organization, Alexandre Abrard, Simon Assathiany, François Bailly, Colin Barthe, Pauline Broquet, Hélène Burckel, Yves Capus, Franck Cartaut, Pierre-Antoine Coutant, Amaury de Nexon, Simon Dumtetz, Julien Gigliotti, Utku Insel, Stephen Le Cocq, Emmanuel Le Gall, Denis Martin, Marie Massiani, Clément Maurin, Paul-Etienne Mondain, Yves-Marie Omnes, Christophe Penchenat, Vincent Piponnier, Xavier Piroelle, David Poirout, Emma Reverchon, Pascal Ribier, André Rigaut, Gabriel Roches, Raphael Sohier, Louise Van den Bergh, Emmanuelle Villard, Olivier Villette, for helping run the event;
Tapages & Nocturnes and Yellow Cab, for equipment and storage.

Lastly, although we had fewer visitors this year, the number of exhibitors has increased every year because of the unflagging creation of new tools for all areas of the profession. We must, of course, look for reasonable solutions to the issues created by the inability to expand the space available inside the emblematic walls of La Fémis, which has graciously hosted the Micro Salon since its first year.

Translated from French by Alexander Baron-Raiffe.

  • Click here to see the first photo albums on Micro Salon website.
  • Click here to see some Micro Salon pictures on Film and Digital Times website.