The Mill Paris production team discusses working for the Cité du Vin in the French city of Bordeaux
The Mill teamed up with Clémence Farrell’s scenography agency for the renewal of the permanent tour of the Cité du Vin (Wine Museum) in french city of Bordeaux. Together they designed and produced a large number of audiovisual mediation devices for the new tour. The design team, including Didier Laval, Nicolas Thépot, Maud Chirat and Hugues Allart, worked alongside Clémence Farrell from the outset of the competition to imagine lively and spectacular audiovisual proposals, which appeal to both knowledge and wonder.
To create immersive audio-visual experiences, production, editorial design, direction and creative direction all have an integral role. The editorial design and scriptwriting team translates complex scientific topics into compelling stories. The directors propose original, surprising and poetic settings, exploring all the possibilities offered by audiovisual tools. The production team ensures that the projects developed are relevant to the museographic and scenographic programme.
“Our team is specialised in the development of audiovisual experiences dedicated to the museum sector. This leads us to produce unique objects in a tailor-made and almost artisanal way. The development of this type of project brings with it a certain responsibility: to offer the public enriching experiences that can transform their vision.
The Mill has the ability to bring on board, around the design, a group of talents who master the entire production chain in the animation and VFX fields. On this project, Clémence Farrell imagined scenographic installations that were very different from each other, offering very specific creative fields: the monumental sculpture of a vine to be dressed in light, globes 1 m in diameter showing films in spherical projection, the giant relief map of the Gironde region, a circular screen 9 m in diameter.
The collaboration started off on a very good footing as the competition proposal was particularly well received. On the one hand, we shared the same creative vision with Clémence Farrell and on the other hand, the Cité du Vin (Wine Museum) team was very confident and committed to encouraging the production of the different devices. These were great encounters that undoubtedly contributed to the success of the project.”
“I was contacted in February 2022 by the Cité du Vin (Winde Museum) to respond to a call for tenders for the renewal of the existing scenography, i.e. the redesign of the exhibition's staging and the visitor's path. The agency Clémence Farrell, which I created in 2008, is specialised in the creation of immersive scenographies that use audiovisuals to make visitors dream. It is this notion of immersion that attracted the Cité du Vin (Wine Museum).
Usually I take care of the scenography and then I call on productions to manage the audiovisual part and the design and production. This time, as I had already worked with The Mill Paris for the MuséoParc Alésia and everything went very well, so I immediately proposed to the Cité du Vin a turnkey solution with the production and the post-production managed by The Mill Paris. There are many advantages to working with this studio as the teams are very creative, passionate and have a culture of high standards, being used to working in the very demanding field of special effects in advertising. It was a great collaboration with beautiful people who share the same passion. I am convinced that we will work together again and always with the same enthusiasm.”
The Vine
When the visitor enters the exhibition, he or she is confronted with a projection of a large vine on the wall. Thanks to video mapping, the visitor can follow the life cycle of the vine: photosynthesis, the circulation of the sap, the fertility of the soil… At the bottom of this large installation, several smaller, more intimate screens show the gestures of the winegrowers. The sound design completes the experience and encourages immersion with the singing of birds, the breath of the wind… A poetic and sensory experience that allows the visitor to understand the harmony between the vine and its ecosystem.
The Planet of the Wines
Visitors can understand the notion of grape variety and the impact of the climate on the cultivation of vines thanks to these two fixed globes on which animated sequences are projected.
When Wine Conquered the World
Immediate boarding on a 50-seater boat to discover the history of wine thanks to a 220° animated film that tells us the story of wine from ancient ships to container doors. This film was directed by Nicolas Thépôt and Bérangère Lallemant.
The Bordeaux vineyard
Thanks to cartographic video mapping, the visitor discovers the Bordeaux region and its geographical specificities. The narrative principle is original since the narrator dialogues with the map itself and offers the visitor a sympathetic story with several jokes.
The winegrower’s year
This film is a 360° projection and proposes only real images shot supported by animation effects to illustrate the passing of time. It was shot over a period of almost a year directly with the volunteer winemakers of the region in their vineyards. Through these beautiful images, the film shows the symbiosis that binds the winegrowers to their environment, the dedication they have to their work and the demands they have to make good wine.
“The idea was to retranscribe the urgency and joy of this moment with a rhythmic and sunny music. Nicolas Thépot wanted acoustic timbres to express the feeling of authenticity and the nature present in the image. A string quartet and a piano lent themselves well to this request.
Furthermore, we thought it would be interesting to think of the four seasons in their entirety, with the beginnings of themes that will be developed in the next three opuses. Finally, Bruno Ginestet's sound design adds realism for total immersion.
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