Working on the Media: Plus Belle la Vie

Working on the medias : Plus Belle la Vie

Introduction

 
    In 8 years, Marseille has won 40 000 jobs. Marseille is a town focused on touristic industry, scientific research and multimedia. In fact, Marseille is the second French multimedia pole after Paris.

    In 2004, « la Friche de la Belle de Mai » was created in an old tobacco's factory. It is quite a big place (20 000m²) and especially an important economic center : it totoalizes about 2000 jobs. This multimedia pole won this success largely thanks to the saga « Plus Belle la Vie » (PBLV). Indeed this saga is shot in the Belle de Mai's studios. They have been converted in a fictive urban district of 1 100 m².

Plus Belle La Vie, a famous saga

    PBLV is a soap which has been broadcasted on France 3 channel since August 30th 2004. It puts on stage the inhabitants' everyday's life in an imaginary district of Marseille called « le Mistral ». Most of the episodes try to talk about the news. For instance, on the episode broadcasted on June 21st  2007, the characters celebrated the Music national day.
    This series has become very famous. In fact, it received the public's price TV Hebdo in 2007. It is also broadcasted in Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Italia, Croatia, TV5 World, Canada and Maghreb. Every night, 5 to 6 billion people watch PBLV i.d. 25% of the viewers. In a week, 15  billions of different people watch it.






Plus Belle La Vie, a driving force for the Phocean economy and tourism
    The budget is around 27 billion euros that is to say 85 000 euros by episode, the largest budget of French fiction ! This saga is the most money-making France 3's soap. It represents 17% of the publicity receipts and the official internet site gets more than 150 000 euros of publicity. Besides, every year, Marseille gives 200 000 euros to PBLV. Today, after many subsidies, 1 empowered euro brings 8. So, every year, Marseille gets 20 billions euros.
    PBLV employs 400 persons year-round, spends 30 000 euros in Marseille and gets 43 billions euros. Only the scenery required 13 300 hours of work and 50 persons (at 90% regional). The actors earn 500 to 1000 euros by day and they work bare necessities 10 days by 20. The best payed actress of PBLV is Laetitia Milot with 9 000 euros by month. In 7 years, 1065 actors and 34 000 extra have played in PBLV !



    It's important to point out that PBLV mainly spends its budget in the Phocean industries. For example, the costumes are created and made by stylists from Marseille. Moreover when they have to shoot out of the studios they are quite generous : so they have given 20 000 euros to the leasing of hospitals.


    Plus Belle La Vie brings 100 000 tourists in Marseille every year. To promote this phenomenon, the saga has got out by-products : CDs from the original tape (more than       150 000 CDs sold), an internet site « Plus belle la life » which gets more than 150 000 euros and counts several hundreds of thousands registered persons, pins, cups, box sets, novels, comics, recipe books, information books about the actors, board games included a paper to be extra, video games, applications for smartphones, calling cards, a monthly magazine. Moreover, they opened two official shops (one in Marseille, in the district of Le Panier and another one in Aix-en-Provence. During the holidays, the shop received about 1 500 visitors by day. This buisness  represents about 3% of the cash flow.

Conclusion

    This saga have provided a lot of jobs and in particular a positive image of Marseille. Without PBLV the media pole of La Friche Belle-de-Mai may not have taken off !

Principal sources :
http://www.laprovence.com/article/a-la-une/marseille-plus-belle-la-vie-puissance-2012
http://www.ozap.com/actu/belle-vie-beau-succes/113178

 Axelle T.D

 Plus Belle La Vie 

Plus Belle La Vie or «A More beautiful Life» is a 5-day-per-week French TV soap produced by Hubert Besson, Michele Podroznik and Francois Charlent. Plus Belle La Vie was first shown on August 30th 2004 and since then it has been on TV at 20:15 each Monday to Friday evening on France 3.



Plus Belle La Vie is a soap about the daily lives of the inhabitants of “the Mistral”, a district in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, where the two main types of storyline are produced:

The day to day activities of the inhabitants of the Mistral that is to say their troubles and triumphs in their love-life and friendship.
The criminal intrigues in which certain residents of the neighbourhood are involved. 

The series attracts an average audience of 5.3 million viewers and on November 17th 2008, Plus Belle La Vie reached its highest figure, with over 6.8 million viewers.



The Main characters are: 

Michel Cordes (Roland Marci)
Sylvie Flepp (Mirta Torres)
Ambroise Michel (Rudy Torres)
Fabienne Carat (Samia Nassri)
Audric Chapus (Raphael Cassagne)
Dounia Coesens (Johanna Marci)
Cecilia Hornus (Blanche Marci)
Laurent Kerusore (Thomas Marci)
Virgile Bayle (Guillaume Leserman)
Charlie Nune (Eve Tressere)
Elodie Varlett (Estelle Cantorel)
Ludovic Baude (Benoit Cassagne)
Aurelie Vaneck (Ninon Chaumette)
Serge Dupire (Vincent Chaumette)

The inside scenes are filmed in the studios of the Belle de Mai in Marseille, 37 rue Guibal. The access to studios is impossible, except when the production enterprise organizes a special visit that is about once a year.


Inside the studio of the Belle de Mai there are several different studios like: the place of Mistral called the “1000” studio, the bar of Roland, the studio of Thomas, the store of Eve, the office of Guillaume and the ground floor of the Hotel Select. 

Every second week there is the filming of the outdoor scenes given that the second group is filming the scenes outdoors while the first group films the scenes in the studios. The outdoor shooting normally takes place in  Borely park, in the garden of the Pharo Palace, the Saint Jean fort, the Esplanade J4 but also in the streets of the “Panier” borough. 

 Aleksandra M.

Plus Belle la Vie 

 

Plus Belle la Vie is a really famous television series which is appreciated in France.

  


It talksout the life of the inhabitants of the Mistral, an imagined neighbourhood of Marseilles. The studio of the series is in the Pôle Media of the Belle de Mai, in Marseilles .


All the episodes are not filmed in a studio, and you can see many real views of Marseilles.
The principal real places are : the prison of the Baumettes, Borély Park, the Corniche Kennedy, and the neighbourhood of the Panier, the oldest district of Marseilles !
On June 8th 2012, the TV chanel France 3 broadcasted the thousandth episode of the series .
A very huge audience watches the televison at  20.15 h. every evening.