[ intro | part 1: Pierre-Alexandre | part 2: Stephane ]

Some folks know from an early age what they want to do when they grow up. As the years pass, they either let life decide for them, or they resolve to follow their vocation.

My younger brother Pierre-Alexandre Teulieres opted for the latter: after college, he reinvented himself, studied film and is now an up-and-coming movie director in Paris, France. Pierre-Alexandre's drive and hunger are impressive, but experience taught him that passion works better when peppered with a speck of business savviness.

Pierre-Alexandre Teulieres: I’m glad you chose to interview me for your website, but I’m not sure I can actually claim to make a living from my passion.

Middle Class Crunch: Well, besides your filming jobs, do you have another source of income you pay the bills with?

P-A: Nope. I dedicate all my time to it!

MCC: There you go! You do make a living from it, and therefore your situation is totally relevant to the topic. To begin, explain to us how you got into film.

P-A: First off, here’s my background. After graduating high school, I enrolled in an engineering school called INSA and after 5 years, I got my degree in Civil Engineering. After my final internship, I took a step back and realized I did not really enjoy this discipline, the lifestyle or the work routine that came with it. A radical decision ensued; I chose to give it all up to pursue what really drives me: making movies for the film industry.

MCC: What made it so radical, as you say?

P-A: Because to do so, I had to go back to square one after 5 years of studying for a Master’s Degree. And film school is usually another 3 years. It was a little scary at that point, but I really had it with engineering.

MCC: Now that’s true passion! How did you choose your film school?

P-A: There are not that many film programs in France, so I had to take several admission exams that took place on a national level before being able to apply for film school. Some of the practical tests were surprisingly difficult and creative; you can tell film schools expect a lot from their future students. Two of France's best schools for film are La Femis and Ecole Louis Lumiere. I was somewhat intimidated by Louis Lumiere's reputation, so I decided to concentrate on the Femis exam instead, but I did not pass. However I did get accepted to ESAV, Toulouse’s film school.

MCC: I recall this was during fall of 2004. From that moment on, you probably felt like you were finally heading towards the right direction. That must have been elating.

P-A: You bet! The thing is, during my 5 years of studying engineering, I was already spending a lot of my spare time experimenting with screenwriting and filmmaking with a camera of my own. Whether it was short movies or music videos for local punk rock and electro bands, I always felt great pleasure in the process of filmmaking. In high school, I would shoot and edit skateboarding videos for my friends. Even as a young boy, I kept snatching daddy’s camcorder and devoted entire days to put together little videos with animated Lego and Play-Doh characters. It was all game, just a hobby, I never quite thought of it as work.

MCC: How did attending ESAV go? Considering you were so eager to make it to film school, was the material taught out there up to your expectations?

P-A: For the most part, I’d say yes. While the curriculum offered at ESAV in Toulouse is quite academic, I was also given the opportunity to work on student-directed film sets, right in the middle of the action; I opened myself to a whole new world and tried to learn as much as I could. After attending for a few months, I got a better taste of it and I resolved to specialize in imaging because the courses were more technical-oriented and that was what I enjoyed the most.

MCC: After graduating from ESAV, how did you transition from the academic world to the professional world?

P-A: It came rather naturally because it turns out the work dynamic on movie projects was the same in and out of school – at least that’s what it felt like. Besides, I met a lot of creative, motivated students during my 3 years at ESAV, and some of these connections proved fruitful. 

MCC: How so?

P-A: A classmate and I travelled to Thailand for several weeks to work on a documentary project. He had written a draft for it prior to our departure, but we ended up completely rewriting it on location because many things did not go as expected. We followed the lives of two foreign Muay Thai fighters that gave up everything to live, train and fight in Thailand. We called the biopic Farang, which stands for Foreigner in Thai.

This experience was a turning point for my friend and right after coming back from Thailand he started his own production company in Toulouse, called Shaker Productions.

He saw the big picture: as paradoxical as it sounds, he realized producing cookie-cutter promotional or corporate movies for institutional clients as our bread-and-butter was our ticket to artistic freedom. The money we make from these financially rewarding but somewhat repetitive assignments can later be reinvested into artistic projects of our own or of other up-and-coming directors. Or even oddball projects like Farang.

MCC: So you guys are channeling your income from commercial projects to more creative, personal ones. Who are your corporate clients?

P-A: They are quite diverse, actually. I’ve produced footage for many different clients, public and private, in the art, tourism, banking and automotive industries. Organizations like Paris’ Centre Pompidou (Museum of Modern Art), Hertz, Colgate-Palmolive, Carglass…

MCC: How long have you been working for Shaker Productions?

P-A: Shaker Productions hired me as a technical consultant after my graduation from ESAV. I stayed in Toulouse but we all quickly got bored over there. Business was too slow and as far as the movie industry goes, nothing significant was happening. I needed to get more work, more motivating projects to stay busy on, and I needed to expand my network. As a result the whole Shaker operation moved to Paris in 2008, and so did I. I have not looked back since!

MCC: Right, the movie industry is so geocentric. In the United States, it seems like everything materializes in Los Angeles and New York City. In a similar fashion in France, the pole of attraction is Paris; like it or not, this really is where all is happening in France. How does it work for you now in Paris?

P-A: Well, Paris is definitely the place to be to hone your filming skills; there is so much going on here. Tons of movies, shorts, commercials and music videos are being shot here. Toulouse was missing all that emulation.

But this does not mean Paris is an easier place to work in for an independent technician like me, so all this must be taken with a grain of salt; it’s actually quite a cutthroat environment because of a relatively limited access to all the projects, even the ones of lesser scale. There are so many people in this town trying to make it in the movie industry, or even simply trying to get their foot in the door, that competition can be quite harsh.

MCC: Now that you have a few projects under your belt, do you feel that you found your niche in this industry?

P-A: I’d definitely say I found my forte, but not my niche yet. Since 2007 I’ve been an intermittent du spectacle [Translation: short-term contract worker in the French entertainment industry, a status specific to France]. I make all my living as a cameraman and editor on promotional movies. Even though I’m an independent professional, I mostly work on commercial projects in partnership with Shaker Productions. Today these bread-and-butter projects represent 85% of our output.

I wish we could spend more time on our own in-house documentaries and short movie ventures, but we have to do what pays, you know…

MCC: Tell us about your indie jobs. Do they bring you the creative satisfaction you crave?

P-A: I use some of my spare time to find and participate in artistic, indie movie projects that I believe in, whether it’s in partnership with Shaker or not. It is a hassle because it’s all about who you know, even on small-scale projects like that. Not to mention that some indie film projects fall apart before even getting started.

I hate to say it but being a technician on the set of an indie project can be rough. We’re usually understaffed, so I’m usually asked to juggle from one assignment to the other and often find myself working 14 hours a day. Besides, not every job I get hired for pays – far from it! Indie producers are often short on funds to pay for a full-time crew; as a result, I often end up working for free... This is a reality that a lot of movie industry outsiders don’t know about, so you’d better get comfortable with this fact of life before you get started. It’s not as glamorous as you might imagine.

MCC: Why do you keep doing indie work then?

P-A: For different reasons. First and foremost because I love it, regardless of the job I get hired for – even though I usually work as a cameraman on indie sets. I regularly hear about new projects under development from acquaintances, and once in a while I happen to fall in love with a script I'm handed. Next thing you know, I want to be a part of it and contribute to making it happen.

Indie work is a very powerful and enriching experience: creativity is unleashed with little to no external pressure, people meet and exchange ideas, techniques and know-how. It's as unique as discovering a foreign land for the first time: other directors share their vision and let you enter their own personal worlds.

Another reason to be in the indie circuit is networking. I want industry insiders to know my name and what I'm capable of, whether it's on set or during production. It is so essential in the entertainment industry – almost like a necessary evil! Indie projects expand your professional circle. I want to keep opening new doors and seize every opportunity I have to work on great projects, even if they never make it to the big time. It’s valuable to have your name on a project you have faith in, even if you did not get paid for it.

MCC: We know you also find time to write and film your own short movies. Tell us more about that.

P-A: Yes, in addition to all we’ve talked about, I also write, direct and produce my own movies. As a director, I finished all post-production of my latest short movie, Conflit [Translation: Conflict], in fall of 2009. I actually shot all the scenes a year before around September of 2008, but my budget was so tight that I spent almost an extra year working on special effects, editing and post-production practically by myself during week-ends. That's because I barely could afford to hire help, so things went slower than they should have. I did get help for the sound mix and a couple cutting-edge visual effects, though.

MCC: There was quite a lot of buzz around Conflit, wasn't it?

P-A: Yes indeed, and I'll tell you, for the first time in my young career, I feel my work is getting some kind of recognition from my industry peers. Conflit was nominated in about 10 different film festivals, and so far I’ve won 3 awards for it, including one given by a high-profile French movie critic (Thomas BAUREZ, from Studio Ciné Live).

However, despite all this positive feedback, I’m not sure my situation is going to change in the near future.

MCC: Why? From what I’ve heard, you seem to be going somewhere…

P-A: I’m currently focusing on the post-production of my latest personal project. It’s exciting, but I’ve still been facing the same difficulties, and I cannot seem to find a way around them: I have had trouble raising money, organizing people’s schedule and staying focused on my other work assignments – I mean the ones that are actually making me money…

But in my opinion the most daunting aspect of it all – and the most enthralling one in a weird way – is working really hard to make it happen, without knowing the outcome. Will the movie turn out the way I want? Will it fall flat or will it convey the message and emotions I want to express? How will the public and critics perceive the movie? Will they shoot it down in flames? I know it’s a universal part of the artistic creation process, nevertheless I still have a hard time facing this reality. It can be draining financially and emotionally.

So, to answer your question: do I make a living from my passion? Yes, I did find a way to support myself with it, however it is also taking a lot from me. The tradeoff is that my income comes from a field that’s only somewhat related to my passion, but is not exactly my passion, and from which I get very little creative satisfaction. This is a sacrifice that I’m willing to cope with for the time being – but for how long?

MCC: Don't underestimate your abilities. You're out there, making a name for yourself one step at a time. What is your latest project about, specifically?

P-A: It's a music video for a song called Bomb Disaster, performed by QG, an electro artist. Shaker and QG's label, DGA-FAU, have both collaborated for its production. We treated this video as if it were a short movie, and I shot it on location in Paris. I'm currently finishing editing it, and it should be released by December 2010!

MCC: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Pierre. We'll keep an eye on your next projects!

MCC edit on 01/15/2011: Pierre-Alexandre's music video for QG was finally released early in January 2011 on both YouTube and DailyMotion. Check it out below (warning: not for the faint of heart!)

[ intro | part 1: Pierre-Alexandre | part 2: Stephane ]