Bali by Franck Fougère

You may have "seen" it on the net recently… Franck Fougère is the author of this video on Bali, we wanted to present them to you.

- How old are you, Franck Fougère?
I turned 35 on October 6, so I'm still fresh to travel the world!

- What corner of the planet do you come from?
After having moved a lot in my youth with my parents, I didn't really get attached to a particular region, until I got to know Corsica where the majority of my family was already settled. And there, I finally felt like I was somewhere.

- Where do you live?
I live with my companion, between Marseille and Porticcio, in Corsica. 

- How long have you been diving?
I have been diving since I was eleven years old. My father was a diving instructor in Ajaccio, a good opportunity to play remora during the holidays.

- Your greatest quality?
Franc. Tell those I love that I love them ...

- Your biggest fault?
Frank ... tell those who piss me off, that I ...!

Franck Fougère

 - Your experience in underwater video?
I started underwater video in the 2000s. At no time was there any question of making a profession of it at the time. But after my meeting with a director, who worked for France TV and wanted to buy me images made with my little camcorder for his documentary, I said to myself that it was perhaps possible to make a profession out of it. What a dream!

- Your master in underwater video?
I don't really have an underwater video master. On the other hand, I am inspired by the work of Devin Graham, a young American director of my age… lol… of which I am a fan. He gave me a lot of technical advice and guided me in the acquisition of my equipment. It is someone who shares his knowledge and his knowledge.

- Can you show us your film?

When I move in a country, through my various achievements, I have at heart to represent it with my own sensitivity. Regarding Bali, the island of the Gods, I really wanted to share all this cultural richness, the kindness and the sincerity of an open people in an environment that lends itself to escape. Between temples, rice fields classified as World Heritage by UNESCO and ancestral know-how, I have the feeling of having been a privileged witness. It is an incredible experience to be able to be alone off the tourist trails, immersed in a population that welcomes you with a broad smile, beyond words, language, our exchanges were healthy, honest, cultural differences and beliefs with each put aside, there were only simple relationships between two human beings. How to talk about Bali without talking about Surfing which has largely developed there. Being a surfer, I wanted to show a certain facet of the discipline, a different look, a look from the other side of the mirror, playing with the elements in these perfect moments like a surfer in the bottom of the wave crossing the Balinese sun . Finally, I could not ignore the underwater ecosystem and its abundance of life. Immersed between the Bali Sea and the Indian Ocean, I discovered species and an atmosphere still preserved, including the encounter of Mola Mola. I do not pretend to have gone around all this philosophical and environmental density, I simply wanted to share my experience with my sensitivity.

- Why Bali?
For the first opus of this series which should have ten around the world, I wanted to be able to make a clip in the areas that I enjoy the most, surfing and scuba diving, in a heavenly setting filled with stories and beliefs, among a population known for their smiles. It seemed obvious to me that Bali met my expectations ...

- Does a video like the one from Bali require a big budget?
The video itself does not require a particular budget because I have all the equipment necessary for this realization, which does, however, cost a small fortune. Travel, accommodation, food and travel are expensive. This is why I approached partners like Dune, for example, who helped me a lot to accomplish the first part of this personal project.

- Is this an order?
No. It's a personal project. I wanted to let my artistic side express itself and do what I wanted. The objective of this series is clearly to break certain conventional codes, by associating my images and my achievements with poetry and by uniting them with music to achieve the particular atmosphere that I had at heart.

- Once completed, where do you distribute your work?
Once completed, all means of communication are good. Facebook allowed me to be published on National Geographic, for example, and to make known to the greatest number and my way of working and what I wanted to bring out of Bali.

- Is there a philosophy behind your images?
My philosophy is simple. Live magical moments, in extraordinary places, with different people and be able to share them as much as possible, with sincerity.

- Doing underwater videos pay the rent?
Everything depends. I am an operator in shooting, specialized in underwater images, but also in steady-cam / tracking and in aerial images. The accumulated total has paid my rent for two years, while I have been working for more than fifteen years.

- Your projects?
The project that is really close to my heart is to be able to make this series of documentary clips. Several destinations are currently planned such as the Maldives in November then Mexico, and, during 2016, Egypt, Sudan, Oman, Seychelles, Reunion and Raja Ampat.

- Your ultimate diving and filming fantasy
My ultimate fantasy? Find partners who would allow me to move forward in the realization of this project and so many others, such as being able to admire and share the sumptuous swimming of the whales, for example!

behind the scene

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