On the occasion of this 2025 new season, we chose to give the floor to two key figures of Pics Studio, who work daily at the heart of its strategic core.
Jacques Vienne, Head of Real Estate Development, and Sébastien Giraud, Chief Operating Officer, agreed to take part in a cross interview. Together, they reflect on their respective roles, share their vision, and provide valuable insight into the internal dynamics that are shaping both the present and the future of Pics Studio.
Q1. To begin, could you each introduce yourselves and tell us a bit about your background?
Sébastien: I first cut my teeth in the music industry before shifting, in the early 2000s, to cinema. I started as a set decorator, then quickly moved on to location scouting, and later became a unit production manager. In 2019, during a discussion with Alain Guiraudon, we identified the lack of filming infrastructure in France. That’s when the idea of Pics was born.
Jacques: My background is in real estate. I’ve worked in France, Spain, and Brazil, mostly on commercial or office projects. On a personal note, I’m passionate about offshore sailing. With Pics, I had to immerse myself in a completely new world: understanding film shoots, sequences, workflows, and constraints… I tried to translate all of that into architectural plans, just as I had done for shopping centers or business parks. With one obsession: keeping the ability to adapt to future evolutions, even those we cannot yet imagine.
Q2. This project is described as highly ambitious. Could you give us some benchmarks—how does it compare to existing studios?
Sébastien: We designed it as a genuine piece of a city. When you develop a territory, you think about housing, healthcare, culture… We applied the same reasoning: to make a film, what do you need? Not just soundstages and workshops, but a complete ecosystem. From the start, three structural choices guided us: decarbonization, thanks to Benoît Ruiz and solutions such as low-carbon concrete, a photovoltaic farm, and geothermal energy; digital innovation, with a TPN certification—unprecedented in France; and finally, a comprehensive vision of the site.
Jacques: I would say we started from the core—the stages—then built everything around them: workshops, dressing rooms, post-production, but also training facilities, auditoriums, accommodation, mobility solutions… The goal was to cover every need without leaving too many gaps along the way.
Q3. You chose to collaborate with the architects L35, Atelier MG, and Betem. What guided that choice?
Jacques: Professionalism above all, but also their holistic vision and ability to blend local and international perspectives. We were looking for partners who were both competent and pragmatic, with a genuine willingness to collaborate. Fortunately, after several years of working together, the chemistry was there!
Q4. How do you work together to translate the industry’s needs?
Sébastien: Jacques went through a kind of crash course in audiovisual production, and I did the same in real estate! We spent hours visiting, meeting, and listening. Every piece of information gathered turned into a concrete need to be addressed with an architectural solution. The engineering firms sometimes tore their hair out, but they always found ways to make our ideas feasible.
Jacques: At the beginning, I knew nothing about cinema. Seb opened the doors for me: we spoke with wigmakers, carpenters, electricians, producers… And I realized that a studio isn’t just a soundstage. We learned a lot from each other.
Q5. Jacques, what differences do you see compared with your usual projects?
Jacques: It’s a different world, but the logic is the same: assembling building blocks like Lego. The major difference? The critical importance of energy and data supply. An electrical or fiber outage here can cost far more than in a shopping center.
Q6. The film industry evolves quickly. How did you anticipate that?
Sébastien: We asked everyone—from small local production companies to major American studios. The result: a standard yet flexible offering, with infrastructure designed to evolve. For instance, “fuse walls” that can later be opened to create elephant doors, or networks dimensioned from the outset for virtual production.
Jacques: The key words: scalability and reversibility. We designed spaces that can transform according to future uses.
Q7. Let’s talk about low carbon. What does that mean in concrete terms?
Sébastien: Every component was selected for its carbon footprint: concrete, steel, paints, carpentry—everything. Our goal is to create the most decarbonized site in Europe, with extremely detailed carbon reporting for each production. Our photovoltaic farm will generate 1 MW, and geothermal energy will provide both heating and cooling.
Jacques: Exactly. Starting from a blank page gave us not only the opportunity but almost the obligation to design the most sustainable project possible. Tomorrow, we’ll even be able to provide each production with a daily carbon footprint report.
Q8. How do you balance national and international productions?
Sébastien: Expectations are converging: data security, personal safety, quality of infrastructure. We planned for a range of stages from 300 to 3,000 m² to cover all needs.
Jacques: And we adopted American standards, the most demanding, so that the site meets every expectation, both domestic and international.
Q9. Did you have to innovate?
Sébastien: Yes, a lot. We designed our own elephant doors with acousticians, imagined stages capable of hosting fire or water scenes thanks to special systems, and fiber-wired the site to a level never seen before. Nothing was left to chance.
Jacques: We certainly innovated. But I prefer to keep a bit of mystery…
Q10. And what about regulations—how did you manage them?
Sébastien: Regulations stack up without necessarily complicating productions. But ERP or TPN, for instance, are essential to attract the most demanding clients.
Jacques: We had to juggle with a multitude of regulations: environmental, safety, police, public access… It required dozens of permits, but we made it through.
Q11. Pics is more than just soundstages. How did this broader vision come about?
Sébastien: It directly stems from the DNA of our shareholders, GGL and Spag. Their expertise is land development. For them, it was obvious that a studio had to offer more than the traditional triptych. So, we thought about mobility, housing, post-production, technical services, training…
Jacques: Yes, it’s in their culture to think big and anticipate macro-level impacts. Pics is the perfect illustration of that.
Q12. And tomorrow, what’s next for Pics?
Sébastien: First, we’ll make it live. After that, we’ll see!
Jacques: We’ll open it, we’ll operate it, and I’m convinced it’s destined for great success.