AFC Micro Salon 2019, a winning bet and a successful move

By Jean-Noël Ferragut for the AFC

par Jean-Noël Ferragut La Lettre AFC n°295

[ English ] [ français ]

The 19th annual Micro Salon, held on 8 and 9 February 2019, made a decisive change, which had been in the works for the past two to three years, and moved to the Parc Floral de Paris. There, a massive open space awaited it, which allowed for easier set-up, a design that made visiting more pleasant for attendees, and large meeting spaces where conviviality, one of our event’s hallmarks, went hand-in-hand with equipment presentation and screenings of images, the creation of which is the principal subject of interest of all in attendance.

This year’s Micro Salon welcomed fifty-nine AFC Associate Members, eight AFSI sound partners, six guests, and 2,450 individual visitors.
Vincent Florant, the CNC’s director of innovation, of video and of the technical industries, and Thomas Grosperrin, manager of financial support for technical industries, honored us with their presence. Other notable visits were by Michel Gomez, delegate for Cinema at the Paris City Hall ; Jean-Yves Mirski, general delegate of the Ficam and Stéphane Bedin, the adjunct general delegate ; Angelo Cosimano, President of the CST, Baptiste Heynemann, its general delegate, and Eric Vaucher, a manager ; Stéphane Martinet, the general commissioner for Location Expo ; Yann Marchet, the general director of the Digital Summit ; Anne Bourgeois, general delegate of L’Industrie du Rêve. Also, Nathalie Coste-Cerdan, the general director of La Fémis, Luc Pourrinet, its technical director, Frédéric Papon, dean of studies, Sabine Lancelin, codirector of the Image Department ; Vincent Lowy, director of the Ecole nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière ; Claude Mourièras, director of the Ciné Fabrique ; alongside many students from cinema schools, for whom the Micro Salon is a trove of information.

Eight screenings took place on Friday and Saturday, presenting a wide range of the latest tools for creating films. The work of nine AFC cinematographers was the basis for five of them, using film clips or screentests as material, which were created in partnership with our associate members. Four sound workshops were offered by the AFSI.
Two new “Rendez-Vous,” which are the highlight of the Micro Salon, were on the schedule this year. A Meeting with Netflix, with Jimmy Fusil, the technical director of Netflix’s image and sound productions, Céline Bozon, AFC, and Jean-François Hensgens, AFC, SBC, and moderated by François Reumont. A Meeting with our British colleagues Chris Menges, BSC, ASC, and Oona Menges, alongside Iain Smith and Zachary Weckstein, producers, presented by Richard Andry, AFC, and Philippe Ros, AFC, was moderated by Ronny Price.

Acknowledgements and Thanks
The cinematographers of the AFC extend their most heartfelt thanks to all of the men and women who, thanks to their support, their help, their work, and their enthusiasm, did everything they could to ensure the success of this 19th Annual Micro Salon.

- Our Associate Member partners and their guests : Acc&Led, ACS France, Airstar Distribution, AJA Video Systems, Angénieux, Arri Camera Systems, Be4Post, Broncolor, Canon France, Cartoni France, Cininter, Dimatec, DMG Lumière Rosco, Eclalux, Emit, Exalux, Fujifilm, HD Systems, Innport, K5600 Lighting Ruby Light, Key Lite, KGS Development, Kodak, LCA France, Lee Filters, Leitz Cine Wetzlar, Loumasystems, Lumex, Maluna Lighting, Microfilms, Movie Tech, Next Shot, Nikon France, Panagrip, Panalux, Panasonic France, Panavision Alga, Papa Sierra, PhotoCineRent, P+S Technik, Propulsion, RED Digital Cinema, RVZ Caméra, RVZ Lumière, Sigma France, Skydrone-Aeromaker, Softlights, Sony France, Transpacam, Transpagrip, Transpalux, Transvideo, TSF Caméra, TSF Grip, TSF Lumière, Vantage Paris, Vitec Videocom, XD motion, Carl Zeiss.
- The AFSI partners who participated in the Sound Area and their guests :
A4 Audio, AEI, Areitec, Audio 2, Cinéla, Sennheiser, Tapages & Nocturnes, VDB Audio.
- The AFC’s guests : The digital image technicians of A-DIT, the AFCS Steadicam operators, and the AOA assistant camera ; Looree Support Caméra and Turtle Max.
- The team in charge of organization : Marie Garric, coordinator of the AFC, assisted by Amandine Leroy, for administration ; Eric Guichard, AFC, and Vincent Jeannot, AFC, for computer support ; Jean-Noël Ferragut, AFC, assisted by Vincent Jeannot, for the floorplans ; Margaux Duroux-Légaré, for managing enrollment and passes ; Olivier Bargès, facilities management, seconded by Elise Gouin, and assisted by Cyril Brigoulex, Grégory Valmir and Arthur Viot.
- The team of the Parc Floral de Paris : Nathalie Sarazin, director of clientele, Marie-Noëlle Rousseau, sales manager, Nicolas Ferré, operations manager and Ewan Rey, facilities manager.
- The team in charge of the welcome desk, the cloakroom, and the refreshment stands : Coline Chevrin, Justine et Manon Garric, Manon Gauthier-Faure, Gaspard Guibourgé, Annelise Légaré, Mathieu Poirier-Scala, Hélène Robert, Alexis Salley, Thomas Scaramuzza, Inès Sieulle and Joela Visniec.
- Hervé Pierre et Luc Jegado, for fire protection and security of property and people.
- Allain Vincent, assisted by Adrien Dodin and Pierre Mignot, for providing electricity supply to the spaces and for lighting the screening area.
- Eric Dumage, AFC, and Marie Spencer, AFC, SBC, for the design and set-up of the screening area, the preparation and management of the screenings ; Jean-Baptiste Hennion for technical supervision ; Vincent Tulli (Transpalux) for the structure ; Evelyne Madaoui (RVZ) for the lighting ; Marc Dubert (EES) for the blackout fabric ; Carlos Ribeiro and Gilbert Lucido, for the grip equipment and the construction, assisted by AFC members (see below) and Olivier Bouyssou, Eric Chabassier, Laurent Dray, Vivien Jouhannaud, Alan Lemay, Julien Torloting, for set-up, installation of blackout curtains, and break-down ; Clément Dinche and Pascal Simon, projection operators ; the AFSI and its members for the sound on the screenings ; François Reumont, for the introductions.
- Wilfried Lavanant (Airstar) for the “AFC” branded totem at the entrance ; Jean-Marc Meunier (Flam and Co), for the location equipment ; Gilles Henry (TSF Véhicules), for sundry means of transportation ; Sylvain Bouladoux (Cinesyl), for the hot beverage carts ; Olivier Binet (Tapages & Nocturnes), for lending walkie-talkies ; David Seguin (Next & Go), for the transportation shuttle.
- Stéphanie Nava, for the graphic design of the poster and Nathan Latour-Novo, for page design ; Marc Salomon, for the posters for the Netflix and the British rendezvous.
- Hervé Toucheron (Typofset), for the printing carts.
- Alain Curvelier, for the photo reporting.
- The professional press from France and abroad for the invaluable publicity it provides for our event (British Cinematographer, Ecran Total, Film and Digital Times, Le Film français, Mediakwest).
- The active members of the AFC that answered our President Gilles Porte’s call when it came time to organize, plan, set-up, mark the floors, install black-out curtains and break-down the Micro Salon (particularly the screening area) : Jean-Claude Aumont, Michel Benjamin, Matias Boucard, Stéphane Cami, Caroline Champetier, Nathalie Durand, Patrick Duroux, Dominique Gentil, Pierre-William Glenn, Agnès Gogard, Julie Grünebaum, Eric Guichard (informatique), Philippe Guilbert, Vincent Jeannot (informatique), Alex Lamarque, Baptiste Magnien, Stéphan Massis, Vincent Mathias, Philippe Piffeteau, Julien Poupard, Frédéric Serve, Gordon Spooner and Jean-Louis Vialard.
And, not wanting to name them for fear of overlooking a single one, the many members who came to welcome visitors and represent our association during these two days.
- The members of the AFSI who, alongside Pierre-Antoine Coutant, its president, organized, planned, set-up, operated and broke-down the Sound area : Simon Assathiany, Colin Barthe, Lucas Bochard, Eric Boisteau, Pauline Broquet, Grace Brown, Yves Capus, Franck Cartaut, Michel Casang, Geoffrey Dine, Philippe Donnefort, Philippe Fabbri, Damien Favreau, Lucas Goix, Vincent Goujon, Emmanuel Le Gall, Olivier Le Vacon, Denis Martin, Rémi Matthäi, Laurent Poirier, Geoffrey Terreau and Malo Thouément.

And, keeping the best till last, the AFC thanks the many visitors who attended our event despite its slightly remote location, who discussed their experiences with our presenters and shared their impressions regarding the tools and the way in which films are being made today, which made our annual Micro Salon, once again, an event that is unique, singular, and eagerly awaited by all.

(Photos by Alain Curvelier)

Translated from French by Alexander Baron-Raiffe

The Micro Salon 2019 in 3 minutes and 30 seconds


https://vimeo.com/318348487