{"id":34732,"date":"2020-05-29T17:27:28","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T15:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newimages-hub.com\/?p=34732"},"modified":"2020-05-29T18:54:36","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T16:54:36","slug":"pierre-emmanuel-le-goff-vingt-cinquieme-heure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newimages-hub.com\/en\/pierre-emmanuel-le-goff-vingt-cinquieme-heure\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-lockdown interview with Pierre-Emmanuel Le Goff, La Vingt-Cinqui\u00e8me Heure founder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Post-lockdown, NewImages Festival keeps on shining a spotlight on its friends and partners. We strive to better understand and support all those who craft new images throughout this personal and professional journey, so we can live through this pivotal period together.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, Pierre-Emmanuel LeGoff, General Manager, La Vingt-Cinqui\u00e8me Heure Distribution<\/strong>, launched a virtual cinema service, shortly after the lockdown was announced in France. The online platform aims to help movie theatres get through the weeks and months they are forced to close their doors for health reasons. Their philosophy can be summed up perfectly by \u2013 what else? \u2013 the famous movie line, \u201cFor things to remain the same, everything must change.\u201d<\/em>[1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 9 June, Forum des images<\/strong> will launch Le FIL<\/strong> [2], a virtual cinema with regular screenings, every Tuesday at 8.30pm, on the Vingt-Cinqui\u00e8me Heure<\/strong> [3] platform. Our audiences can look forward to a curated online program! We can\u2019t wait to reopen our spaces and welcome you again! We are also looking into a dedicated collaboration with NewImages Festival<\/strong>, with new VR functionalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur virtual cinema is still just a crutch, a digital prosthesis, that has to be used wisely. Nothing can replace face-to-face interaction<\/strong>.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 La Vingt-Cinqui\u00e8me Heure<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Please introduce yourself and your work<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am the General Manager and founding partner of La Vingt-Cinqui\u00e8me Heure Production<\/strong> and La Vingt-Cinqui\u00e8me Heure Distribution<\/strong>. I am also a film director, producer, distributor and, now, kind of an exhibitor with our new virtual cinema. We also launched Le Troisi\u00e8me H\u00e9misph\u00e8re<\/strong>, a company dedicated to new technologies and VR post-production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your post-lockdown experience like?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m of two minds about it. Whereas we saw pollution go down a lot during the lockdown \u2013 we could hear birds singing in the morning, for example \u2013, the noise is coming back with a vengeance with loads of people back in the streets again and an almost hectic atmosphere. My wife is due to give birth in three weeks and it\u2019s been a tricky experience. Oddly, there were lots of good things that came out of the lockdown. Beyond the health-related tragedy, it meant that we could take a good look at the way we think and live. We worry that everything will go back to how it was before, particularly in terms of consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the launch of your virtual cinema in March, you were one of the few companies to foresee the lockdown. How did you do it?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were on very high alert \u2013 especially me, with my wife being pregnant. She was really paying close attention to the situation and she passed on a lot of health-related news to me. On the professional side of things, I went searching for more news and I found out that cinemas were closing in China, and then in Italy\u2026 Since similar causes have similar effects, there was no reason for this not to happen in France. From mid-February on, I started to warn my union and the CNC<\/strong> (the French Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image). The partial or total closure of cinemas was unimaginable at the time, but I realized that it was already happening in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were already in the process of developing a video call solution so that film directors could go and meet audiences in remote areas. Internally, we sped up development and added a geolocation feature to this virtual cinema service for national releases, and to prevent overlapping in terms of geographic areas and viewers. Our film Les Grands Voisins<\/em><\/strong> was set to come out on 1 April, and we felt the service needed to be ready for the premiere, on 25 March. We held in-house crisis meetings and decided to launch a beta version, in order to get it out on time. Since the launch, nearly two months ago, five developers have been working on the platform to improve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Les Grands Voisins <\/em><\/strong>movie poster<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>\u00a9 La Vingt-Cinqui\u00e8me Heure<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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How do you define your product \u2013 virtual cinema, e-cinema or VOD?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we offer is a virtual cinema, with screenings at set times organized with the cinema exhibitors in a geolocated zone. This perimeter means that they can still work with their usual audience. It\u2019s closer to a normal cinema screening but for the fact that the theater is virtual, since it doesn\u2019t actually have four walls and it\u2019s hosted on the cloud. Although cinemas are currently closed and the screening cannot be physical, the event can still take place \u2013 people watch the film at the same time and have real interactions with the directors and film teams during Q&A screenings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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