Reality TV, Marc-André Gauthier has been directing for almost 20 years. double cast, An almost perfect dinner, The castaways of love, Everything for a holiday home, the island of love and When we made love are some of the projects he immersed himself in and observed people in their authenticity. With The devil’s lot: the conquest of the sea, he participated in the experience of his life. A magical project, an incredible gang experience and a show that resembles him and is very proud of. And that despite the difficult conditions to make this immersion in the heart of the 1930s as hard as it is believable.
The show returns for a second season in 5 years. It is an ambitious project that flirts with fiction. How did you manage to create this cinema bill?
We took the time to do things. We took a whole day to shoot the opening sequence of Episode 1, which lasts 4:30 min. It was important to set this signature from the beginning. We shot in Port-Daniel, near Paspébiac. The place, the sets were there. We brought in horse-drawn carriages, a bunch of costumes, lots of extras. You had to feel the 1930s so that the viewer could quickly get into the series. It’s a lot of coordination and logistics. For the rest of the adventure we have two cameramen and two sound engineers per colony. It’s like two sets of movies running in parallel.
With kind approval
Marc-Andre Gauthier
Competitors must have skills that define them in some way. Do they have to be guided by the character they exude?
It’s a state of mind. They are not characters. They have real emotions, they are real things they are experiencing. And we do everything we can to make it a full immersion. For example, nobody in the team eats a muesli bar in front of them, nobody rides four-wheelers, nobody talks about the ice hockey result from the previous day. We reduce their contacts to a minimum to forget what is happening outside.
As with any competition where there is an elimination, there can be some friction. We saw recently that reality TV context creates tricky situations. Do you need to set limits for participants?
After several reality shows, the line between what works and what doesn’t is very thin. In the context of Devil’s Lot, these are people who have found themselves in difficult conditions, chosen for their abilities and who have agreed to embark on an adventure, unaware of what is in store for them. They’re smart and lucky to be there because it’s the experience of a lifetime, beyond the price. These are people living together, who are starving, who are tired, and despite each elimination, we witness a grand gang trip. They’re all still friends.
Reconstructing the story so that the participants lived in Gaspésie like the settlers of the 1930s must have required a lot of research?
We released the good old episodes of L’ombre de l’épervier, we had the help of the Musée de la Gaspésie and we can count on the historian Billy Rioux, who accompanied us throughout the shooting. We don’t want to convey anything wrong and expose ourselves to criticism. The gang, including props master Léa Better, is creative.
What pitfalls did you encounter during filming?
The team was exceptional. You cannot put anyone under these conditions. It was cold, we had to walk to the colonies every day, about a quarter of an hour in the forest, with all the equipment. It was windy and the terrain was impassable. Despite the rain, we shoot in the mud or in the sun with the mosquitoes. These are long days. It’s a very intense month. You also have to be flexible. One day we had to turn on the water but it was low tide. Nature had decided this wasn’t what we were going to shoot. There are lots of little details that can seem silly, like the time it takes for a lens to defog after rain. We don’t have a dryer in the forest. The cameraman had to stay on the edge of the fire with his lens. Everyday pitfalls when not in a controlled environment. But that’s the beauty of the project.
The devil’s lot: the conquest of the sea Friday 8 p.m. on Historia and Séries plus