For Luc Drion

By Jacques Cluzaud

10 décembre 2012 - Modifié le 15/12 La Lettre AFC n°226

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Last Indian summer of the 20th century – Northeast United States – first meeting with Luc Drion. A few centimetres away from his camera the Canadian geese of Winged Migration were flying in formation over a brilliantly coloured forest. They flew in all weather, under the rain and the snow, in the fog, full speed ahead.

Since then, other countries, other animal species. For Oceans, Cape Gannets dove into the water at 100 km/h, a hoard of dolphins began a fantastic charge on each side of our Zodiac. Luc is at the command of “Téthys”, the gyro stabilized head that he helped design (a “Galatée Films” invention).
Once, Luc turned away from his control monitor, looked around him and spoke into the making of camera, “it’s wonderful on film, but it’s even more beautiful to the naked eye. Thank you Mother Nature !”

Filming Nature again and again, in a helicopter, on the ground, in the sea, in Brittany, in South America, in the Arctic, staring into the eye of the storm and the eye of the blue whale, walrus, or polar bear…
Not long ago, during the first camera try-outs for the new film by Jacques Perrin that we were beginning work on, new challenges were appearing with new animals : deer, cranes, wolves, boars, and chickadees…
Then, one day in October 2012, a wasp approached Luc… a wasp that had been invited by no one. A wasp that arrived much too soon.

Jacques Cluzaud is a director.
(Translated from French by Alex Raiffe)