Groupe F: The art of playing with fire
Par Jennifer Meunier | 10 Dec 2008 | 16H19
For ten years now, Groupe F has been leading the way in pyrotechnic displays around the world. With its great talent and artistic daring, the company is passionate about its work.
It is an image France will never forget, one that has remained indelibly printed on memories. On the evening of Friday 31 December 1999, the Eiffel Tower set ablaze, displaying its beauty and grandeur for all to see. Dressed in a thousand flames, the beautiful monument dazzled the City of Lights for seven minutes leaving the population hypnotised and speechless.
In the wake of that incredible occasion, for Groupe F (F for fire), the creators of the display, business started booming. Since then, demand for creations has been flooding in and the group has toured the world displaying its pyrotechnic talents. Pyrotechnics is basically the craft of making things go bang and then creating displays with special, fire-related effects. What really makes the company special in this department is that it turns its technical know-how into genuine artistic flair.
Groupe F and its artistic director Christophe Berthonneau also have a deep interest in scenography. They don’t just queue up rockets and set them off, they also create choreographies that become performance pieces in their own right; “When Christophe devises a display, he sets out to control the whole of the visual space,” says his collaborator Eric Binard, administrative director of the company. “He also works on the different ways of launching fireworks and their forms.”
Colour, rhythm, music, balance, light and dramatic intensity are all factors that make a display unique, even if some seasoned scenes are reused in a different order and through a different optic. Christophe Berthonneau is like a filmmaker directing a film. He creates a scenario for the display, then visualises it via a storyboard. Then he builds up his own soundtrack, by selecting pieces or commissioning a composer. This preparatory work can take three months or more, depending on the scale of the project. “We manage to adapt to all kinds of environments. We can launch at a height, from water, historic monuments, new buildings, high risk locations, everywhere,” the spokesman is proud to say.
A united troupe
What also sets Groupe F apart is its origins and mindset. Created in 1990 by a group of people from the world of show business, the group bears closer resemblance to a theatre troupe than a business. “There’s a strong troupe feeling here and that’s what I liked when I joined six years ago,” the administrative chief says, himself from the world of theatre. At the time he was a street performer, and became a musician in the nineties before finally joining Groupe F. “To begin with I wasn’t interested in firework displays, but I was quickly won over by the atmosphere within the team and by the constant challenge of the projects,” he says. The group has a very busy schedule and always has several productions on the go at once, but they still manage to respond to customers’ needs while retaining creative freedom and personal expression.
The collective has produced a number of internationally renowned performances. Before the Eiffel Tower display for the new millennium, they worked alongside the Icelandic songstress Björk during her 1998 world tour, and linked up with her again five years later creating pyrotechnics for her new concerts. Some of the group’s biggest performances have been the inauguration of the Millennium Bridge in London in 2000, the opening and closing ceremonies for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, the opening of the Singapore National Theatre in 2002, and more recently the Universal Exhibition in Saragossa, Spain. The group does not always have total control over an event and they are often subcontracted; the name “Groupe F” can be found everywhere in the credits of a vast majority of world events.
“We take on all kinds of projects”
The company also likes to pitch in for smaller, less hyped events. “We take on all kinds of projects: French and international, for capital cities or villages. There is better team cohesion when we’re on a smaller scale event. It’s always much more fun to work in a smaller group rather than in a huge structure,” explains Eric Binard.
Groupe F has hence produced yearly Bastille Day displays practically all over France, as well as a number of shows for attraction parks. In 1995, it produced the special effects for the Mona Lisa show at the Parc Astérix (France). After several years, work and research, the company took on the inauguration of Vulcania (France) in 2002 with its reconstruction of the eruption of Auvergne’s volcanoes. But the group also exports its talents abroad, and in particular works for the Disney resorts in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Los Angeles. On average the group works once a year for an attraction park. “Park projects are very different and have their own constraints. They involve a series of smaller sound and light displays. They are a bit less fun than one-off events; there isn’t the same challenge and passion. But they’re still interesting to do,” says Eric Binard, sounding like the actor he once was.
The future of Groupe F seems to be mapped out. “I think we’ll settle and stay as we are. Things work very well as they are. Expansion isn’t worth the risk; we’re keen to preserve the troupe feel and the authenticity,” concludes the “family” man. With its permanent staff of fourteen and its hundreds of occasional collaborators, Groupe F is thriving and will be sending crowds into raptures for a long time to come.
It is an image France will never forget, one that has remained indelibly printed on memories. On the evening of Friday 31 December 1999, the Eiffel Tower set ablaze, displaying its beauty and grandeur for all to see. Dressed in a thousand flames, the beautiful monument dazzled the City of Lights for seven minutes leaving the population hypnotised and speechless. In the wake of that incredible occasion, for Groupe F (F for fire), the creators of the display, business started booming. Since then, demand for creations has been flooding in and the group has toured the world displaying its pyrotechnic talents. Pyrotechnics is basically the craft of making things go bang and then creating displays with special, fire-related effects. What really makes the company special in this department is that it turns its technical know-how into genuine artistic flair.
Groupe F and its artistic director Christophe Berthonneau also have a deep interest in scenography. They don’t just queue up rockets and set them off, they also create choreographies that become performance pieces in their own right; “When Christophe devises a display, he sets out to control the whole of the visual space,” says his collaborator Eric Binard, administrative director of the company. “He also works on the different ways of launching fireworks and their forms.”
Colour, rhythm, music, balance, light and dramatic intensity are all factors that make a display unique, even if some seasoned scenes are reused in a different order and through a different optic. Christophe Berthonneau is like a filmmaker directing a film. He creates a scenario for the display, then visualises it via a storyboard. Then he builds up his own soundtrack, by selecting pieces or commissioning a composer. This preparatory work can take three months or more, depending on the scale of the project. “We manage to adapt to all kinds of environments. We can launch at a height, from water, historic monuments, new buildings, high risk locations, everywhere,” the spokesman is proud to say.
A united troupe
What also sets Groupe F apart is its origins and mindset. Created in 1990 by a group of people from the world of show business, the group bears closer resemblance to a theatre troupe than a business. “There’s a strong troupe feeling here and that’s what I liked when I joined six years ago,” the administrative chief says, himself from the world of theatre. At the time he was a street performer, and became a musician in the nineties before finally joining Groupe F. “To begin with I wasn’t interested in firework displays, but I was quickly won over by the atmosphere within the team and by the constant challenge of the projects,” he says. The group has a very busy schedule and always has several productions on the go at once, but they still manage to respond to customers’ needs while retaining creative freedom and personal expression.
The collective has produced a number of internationally renowned performances. Before the Eiffel Tower display for the new millennium, they worked alongside the Icelandic songstress Björk during her 1998 world tour, and linked up with her again five years later creating pyrotechnics for her new concerts. Some of the group’s biggest performances have been the inauguration of the Millennium Bridge in London in 2000, the opening and closing ceremonies for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, the opening of the Singapore National Theatre in 2002, and more recently the Universal Exhibition in Saragossa, Spain. The group does not always have total control over an event and they are often subcontracted; the name “Groupe F” can be found everywhere in the credits of a vast majority of world events.
“We take on all kinds of projects”
The company also likes to pitch in for smaller, less hyped events. “We take on all kinds of projects: French and international, for capital cities or villages. There is better team cohesion when we’re on a smaller scale event. It’s always much more fun to work in a smaller group rather than in a huge structure,” explains Eric Binard.
Groupe F has hence produced yearly Bastille Day displays practically all over France, as well as a number of shows for attraction parks. In 1995, it produced the special effects for the Mona Lisa show at the Parc Astérix (France). After several years, work and research, the company took on the inauguration of Vulcania (France) in 2002 with its reconstruction of the eruption of Auvergne’s volcanoes. But the group also exports its talents abroad, and in particular works for the Disney resorts in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Los Angeles. On average the group works once a year for an attraction park. “Park projects are very different and have their own constraints. They involve a series of smaller sound and light displays. They are a bit less fun than one-off events; there isn’t the same challenge and passion. But they’re still interesting to do,” says Eric Binard, sounding like the actor he once was. The future of Groupe F seems to be mapped out. “I think we’ll settle and stay as we are. Things work very well as they are. Expansion isn’t worth the risk; we’re keen to preserve the troupe feel and the authenticity,” concludes the “family” man. With its permanent staff of fourteen and its hundreds of occasional collaborators, Groupe F is thriving and will be sending crowds into raptures for a long time to come.
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