American Cinematographer - March 2008 - (Page 20)

20 March 2008 Chantal: A Night at the Pyramids photos by Olivier Samson Arcand, courtesy of OSA Images. Pop singer Chantal Chamandy serenades the Sphinx during live shooting of the concert special Chantal: A Night at the Pyramids, which will air on PBS throughout March. Chantal Spotlights Egypt’s Ancient Wonders by Stephen Pizzello Through the ages, Egypt’s Sphinx and Giza Pyramids have seen their share of spectacle, and the ancient site never goes out of style. Last fall, the iconic monuments provided a spectacular backdrop for a unique free concert staged by pop singer Chantal Chamandy. The show, titled Beladi (My Country), was a highprofile homecoming for the Montrealbased chanteuse, who was born in Alexandria to a Greek-Egyptian father and Lebanese-Egyptian mother but moved to Canada at age 6. Multiple hi-def cameras were deployed to capture the event for a forthcoming DVD and the PBS special Chantal: A Night at the Pyramids, which will air throughout March. AC was invited to attend the open-air extravaganza, which also featured the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, members of the Egyptian National Ballet, an Egyptian marching band, Tanoura dancers (known in the West as “whirling dervishes”), a Darbouka drum band and a dazzling light show designed by Matthieu Larivée of Montreal’s Lüz Lighting Design. Chantal spent a full year planning the logistically ambitious event, which drew nearly 5,000 attendees. The night before the show, just prior to a final rehearsal, she explained her motivation. “I could have done this show in many countries, but I picked Egypt because I wanted to come back to my roots,” said the star, who performed 18 songs in five languages, including cuts from her recent CD, Love Needs You. “I conceived and choreographed the show with my good friend Geneviève Dorion-Coupal, who has worked with Cirque du Soleil. We could have hired a stage director, but we decided we wanted to do the show our way, without any compromises.” Another Cirque alumnus, Guy StAmore, designed the show’s stage, which featured a series of bridges to symbolize the “bridging” of different cultures both onstage and off. According to Chantal’s husband, manager and executive producer, Greg Chamandy, the multicultural undertaking proved rewarding but also challenging. “There were some dynamics at the outset that involved finding a good compromise between the high-tech systems of North America and the more labor-intensive approaches used here,” he said. “For example, all of the lighting scaffolds were erected manually instead of with hydraulic lifts.” Larivée explains, “We were not allowed to use hydraulic lifts on the sacred land. We also had to hang lights one by one with ropes and pulleys. The local crew was more a group of hands than specialized technicians. So 14 guys from Europe and 3 from Canada handled all the technical aspects.” In mounting the show, the Chamandys enlisted experienced television director Gérard Pullicino. Well known for his work on music videos and French TV shows, Pullicino has helmed projects for David Bowie, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Celine Dion and Madonna, among other artists. For Concert at the Pyramids, he hired his longtime friend and collaborator, Jean-Philippe Bourdon, to serve as director of photography. The two met when Pullicino was an assistant director and Bourdon a camera operator; after advancing through the ranks and working on many music videos together, they were both hired to work on the popular French musical TV show Taratata. “Jean-Philippe and I know each other very well, so we don’t have to speak a lot when we’re working,” said Pellucino. “We have a ‘big complicity.’ He knows how I work, and I know how he works.” Bourdon added, “Gérard gives me complete freedom, but it’s a freedom that controls itself in a way because we share the same way of looking at things, and we like each other a lot.” Pellucino admitted that when he first heard the Chamandys’ plans for Concert at the Pyramids, “I thought they were crazy, but I was very excited by the show and its possibilities, and the chance to shoot at the pyramids was an exceptional opportunity. When we scouted the site two months before the show, though, the spot designated for the stage was not ideal; the perspective wasn’t good and the landscape wasn’t interesting.” Bourdon noted, “It wasn’t the first time a show had been done in that general location, but the previous shows had all been done on the other side of the pyramids, where you couldn’t really see the Sphinx. We were the first production allowed to shoot with the Sphinx in front of the pyramids. But when Gérard and I arrived, we didn’t like the stage location that had been proposed by the local authorities — the Sphinx was not very separated from the landscape because

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2008

American Cinematographer - March 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Short Takes: Bill Viola’s Ocean Without a Shore Production Slate: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Production Slate: Chantal: A Night at the Pyramids Magical Mystery Tour Some Kind of Monster Tantalizing Television Making Sitcoms “Sexy” Post Focus: Mega Playground Helps Set Look for Sibling Post Focus: Visual Effects Society Launches White Paper New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index In Memoriam: John McPherson, ASC ASC Membership Roster Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Wayne Kennan

American Cinematographer - March 2008

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