The essential role of logistics in the film industry

500 actors, 350 technicians, several filming locations across the city. Delayed by the Hollywood screenwriters’ strike, filming for Season 4 of the Netflix series “Emily in Paris” will ultimately be organized in two phases: a first session before the Olympic Games in early 2024, and a second in the fall, after the close of the Paralympic competitions. Enough to give the French and American production teams a few sleepless nights. Cameras, production management, lighting, vehicles, meals, dressing rooms and changing rooms: every film or series shoot is a huge logistical challenge. All the more so when it takes place in a city as dense as Paris. Beyond mobilizing a wide variety of equipment and a large number of technicians, the exercise requires planning for numerous issues, such as parking technical vehicles, delivering sets, interrupting traffic, and ensuring the safety of crews and local residents.  

This logistical feat is TSF’s everyday business. A major player in the film industry in France and Europe, the group has provided a comprehensive range of services and equipment to industry professionals since 1979. “With our five agencies across France and Belgium, our ambitions are simple: to make our offering more accessible to our clients. We must be able to anticipate the dispatch and return of equipment, while sometimes responding to last-minute requests or requests made once filming has already begun. We must also ensure that concurrent shoots do not compromise the quality of our services,” explains Thierry de Segonzac, CEO of TSF. To maintain this level of excellence, the company offers productions a unique, integrated package that combines services (cameras and lenses, lighting, grip equipment, vehicles, production-office rental, etc.) within a single technical and commercial offering. Among the more than 100 feature films and several dozen TV series for channels or platforms supported every year, its recent assignments include Mona Achache’s “Little Girl Blue,” starring Marion Cotillard; Léa Domenach’s “Bernadette,” starring Catherine Deneuve; “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,” filmed in Paris and around Mont-Saint-Michel; and Season 3 of the series “Lupin,” by George Kay and François Uzan, for which TSF notably supplied an electro-hydrogen generator to power part of the shoot. A first for the French film industry, which is now seeking to decarbonize its productions. 

In addition to its “mobile” solutions—made available to film crews throughout France through a fleet of 350 technical trucks—TSF also has its own studios in Epinay, Bordeaux and, soon, at the Coulommiers-Voisins airfield site (77). With support from the Coulommiers-Pays de Brie metropolitan authority and the French government (the Île-de-France Region has yet to take a position on a potential contribution), the group is currently developing a 12-studio film-production project with outdoor sets on a 50-hectare site in Seine-et-Marne. In keeping with the site’s aviation history, the new studios already include a fully fitted-out Airbus A300 for filming, with a cabin fully equipped with business-class seats and an operational cockpit. “We want to create a place bringing together all the necessary amenities, including workshops, studios, sound stages and a set-design area, in order to facilitate the production of domestic and international films and television programs. In particular, the aim is to offer an alternative to the heavily used outdoor locations in Paris. For example, we will recreate entire Parisian streets as modular sets that can be configured to match the periods sought by directors.” With a budget of €83 million, it will be the largest film-production site in the Île-de-France region. The new facilities are intended to help France catch up in terms of total studio space. With 58,000 m2, the country of the Lumière brothers currently ranks behind Hungary, Germany and the United Kingdom (360,000 m2). 

Aware of this French shortfall, Minister of Culture Rima Abdul-Malak unveiled the 68 winners of the “La grande fabrique de l’image” call for projects last May. Launched as part of France 2030 with the National Center for Cinema (CNC), the initiative aims to support infrastructure projects with €350 million in funding through the Caisse des Dépôts, in order to make France an industry leader. “The prospects are unprecedented for all stakeholders in creation and production. Production volumes could double by 2030,” Rima Abdul-Malak said when making the announcement. This momentum is clearly not limited to the Paris region alone. Last October, the minister traveled to Marseille to inaugurate “Les Hangars du cinéma,” a 4,000 m2 temporary urban development site intended to serve as a logistical back base for local shoots. Here again, the Caisse des Dépôts provided €1 million to transform the former Vermigli gate-manufacturing site, acquired in 2021 by the PACA public land agency. “We have been asking institutions for a cinema-dedicated logistics base for years. We are very happy,” Erika Wicke de Haeck, president of the Association régionale des techniciens du Sud-Est (ARTS), told Made in Marseille in January 2023. With a temporary lease until the end of 2026, the Hangars du cinéma project underwent a thoughtful architectural rehabilitation with a strong emphasis on reuse. This includes rubble from demolition, while the fittings have also been designed for reuse elsewhere. The project was led by architect Kristell Filotico, who was able to count on the support of fellow architect Gauthier Oddo (project-management assistance) and members of the ARTS association. “Film technicians are experts in the temporary. They know how to set things up in 48 hours. We learned a great deal from them, and they made it possible to complete the project in record time,” Kristell Filotico explained in the same Made in Marseille article. Dedicated to small and mid-sized productions, the “Hangars du cinéma” site complements Provence Studios (Martigues) and, above all, the future Mediterranean City of Cinema at Dock des Suds, scheduled for completion in 2026 (Marseille).