“I am a composer, not a director”… How this Albigensian music teacher made an immersive film on the Lapérouse expedition broadcast in the United States

The images are astonishingly realistic. Notably that of the arrival of Jean-Galaup de Lapérouse’s expedition in Alaska. “These are real images in the background. The patron of the film went there and took photos,” explains Olivier Gavignaud, who has just made a musical film on the Albigensian sailor with AI, “The Odyssey of Lights”. A film of which several sequences have already been broadcast at the French Fest festival in Seattle.

Also read:
“Building a museum is an opportunity”… Goodbye Treasury, make way for adventure: the excavators have gone into action to create the future Lapérouse archipelago in Albi

Nothing predestined this music teacher to make such a film. “At the start, I had written a musical composition to make a historical spectacle. But it couldn’t be done,” he explains.

Professor at the Lapérouse high school in Albi, after having been a student there, he became passionate about the history of the sailor. One day, he was lent the pocket book on Lapérouse’s logbook. “The trip lasted almost three years and they experienced extraordinary things. It’s not just the final dramatic dimension,” he comments. He then had the idea of ​​showing this epic thanks to the possibilities of generative AI.

Also read:
Lapérouse: a new lease of life to solve the mystery?

For a year, he worked on the film to arrive at an immersive work of 75 minutes. “I am a composer, not a director. I had the scenography, but we had to be able to build it, edit the film.” He works from storyboards, tables taken from the logbook, which he then animates using AI. You can even see historical drawings from the newspaper. “I often juggled between the newspaper, the drawings and real geography. Monterey Bay, even if there are villas today, the places have not changed. This allows us to be fair,” he assures.

Also read:
“An extraordinary adventure”: At the age of 79, he set off on an expedition to the island of Vanikoro in the footsteps of the navigator Lapérouse

He also revised the scenes a lot because, between the start of the adventure and today, the AI ​​has come a long way. Then, he asked friends from the theater and cinema world for their opinion. We also had to do a casting. Apart from Lapérouse, most of the faces of the members of the expedition are unknown. “Depending on their profession and their age, I had fun doing an imaginary casting,” he says.

Once the film is finished, we now have to produce the music. If Olivier Gavignaud wrote it, he must have it performed. And this time, no question of AI, we remain in a traditional register. On July 6 and 7, he will therefore travel to Budapest to record the original soundtrack played by the 65 musicians of the Hungarian MÃ V Symphony Orchestra, conducted by maestro Laurent Petitgirard. An adventure possible thanks to an American patron, passionate about the history of Lapérouse. “For me, it’s a real dream. I have a bit of pressure, I have to write the scores for the 65 musicians. It’s a hell of a job,” he admits.

To create this soundtrack, he first composed the large sequences that inspired him on the piano, then refined things. He wanted this music to be “very cinematic”, even epic, like the expedition. He also wanted to give local colors to the scenes, as with the arrival in Chile, the country where he spent two years of his life.

The film obtained the label for 400 years of the French Navy. Several extracts have already been broadcast in the United States or in Sète. It should be during the summer in Brest. The goal is that it can circulate during film festivals or serve historical or educational purposes.

But Olivier Gavignaud’s real dream is that it will be broadcast in the form of a film concert. “Its true format.” Particularly in his birthplace, which is also that of Lapérouse: Albi.