What do Hubert Lenoir, Kim Kardashian, Charles III and Pope Francis have in common? They’ve all walked a red carpet before. Reserved for guests of honour, this ceremonial and appearance carpet is a must for the decor of galas and major ceremonies. But where does this tradition come from? Why are we still rolling out the red carpet? Last text of a series of four.
A red carpet is a welcome decoration, a sign that we honor our guests. It is a staging of an entrance to an event when this entrance itself becomes a spectacle. How to succeed on your red carpet? Thinking of it as a journey and responding to the different needs of its participants — the artists, the media, the cameras, the microphones, the general public. Some things.
In Quebec, since the end of the Artis Gala, the most important cultural events on the red carpet are the Gémeaux awards ceremony or the ADISQ Gala. As in the United States, the red carpet is rolled out here for the premieres of films and also for the premieres of musicals in Montreal, at the St-Denis theatre.
In our country, celebrities come out — historically and today — from the small screen more often than from the big screen, as Pierre Barrette, director of the École des medias at UQAM, points out. No wonder, then, that TV show and series launches are starting to use the pageantry, whether at the launch of the Three Pinesby Louise Penny, or that of the series by Sophie Deraspe, Paradise Motelat the New Cinema Festival.
Rent or buy?
However, it is the ADISQ evening that requires the most carpeting: 280 square meters of crimson carpet, to form a 3.70 meter wide corridor in the middle of Place des Arts, from the Maisonneuve room to Wilfrid- Peltier.
Ninety-six bollards and red ribbons surround it. Johanne Lavoie, logistics director for cultural and media events, is responsible for having him pose. She is the one who put the first red carpet for ADISQ, about 30 years ago, and who also takes care of those of Olivier, Gémeaux and Québec Cinéma.
This year, ADISQ decided to buy its red carpet. “Before the pandemic, renting was really affordable,” explains Mme The way. There, the prices started to go up “, even to triple, according to the information of the To have to. Only one man is enough to take care of the pose.
“For ADISQ, he started installing the mats at 7:30 a.m. in the morning, and I think he finished around 2 p.m., says M.me The way. He is alone. Uninstalling it required freeing up space early, so it started at 6am. At 8 a.m. when I arrived, he was rolling out the last rug. At 9 a.m., it was all over: the carpets rolled up, taped, labeled. »
After laying the carpets come the technique and, above all, the lighting. As the red carpet is essentially an image production event, the environment must help the work of the cameras. The photographers are also elevated: on small stages, in the shadows, they catch the light of the stars.
The photo canvas
A red carpet, “it’s a journey, in fact”, continues Mme Lavoie, “because there is a line waiting for the photo to be taken in front of the canvas. You have to draw it, the line, so that there is no congestion, so that it rolls, so that it is easy. We have 1h30 to move all the artists to the photo canvas, and do all the interviews and photos on the carpet. »
This is one of the specificities of the red carpets of Quebec: each photographer has his little moment to sketch the portrait of the star, even when there are “two or three rows of photographers 4.50 to 6 meters wide”, explains Martin Alarie, freelancer for the Montreal Journal.
While in Los Angeles or Cannes, all the photographers are clicking at the same time, shouting or dressing specially to attract attention – and sometimes literally jostling for the best angle – here, “one after the other, we take our photos. As we all know each other, even when there are people, it goes well, ”says Mr. Alarie.
It also plays elbow among the journalists who cover the red carpets, underlines Catherine Beauchamp, who hosts the web TV Catherine’s pink carpet and is also a contributor to 98.5 FM.
In Montreal, artists are good players, the media respect each other. The competition is especially felt in Toronto or the United States. “The hierarchical organization of the media is alienating and encourages that too, notes Mme Beauchamp. In Toronto, the Quebec media are placed three-quarters of the way. At this point, either the artists are tired, or they no longer have time to respond. »
So, all that remains is her voice and her audacity to stand out. “Me, I speak loudly, it has already hurt me in Toronto, says the host. I got kicked off the mat twice because it bothered me to call out to the artists or take my place during a scrum. But you have to stand out if you want to come away with content. »
dream the future
Everything is reflected on a red carpet. And the one who has been drawing the path for Radio-Canada for three years is Alexis Laurence, artistic director on his own. “It’s very technical, actually… There’s an order, a tight timeline. It’s almost an ambulatory. I try to keep it smooth. The most difficult thing, he believes, is to make an environment like Place des Arts sparkle. Added to the challenge of the outdoor red carpets are the vagaries of the weather.
How will the red carpets in Quebec evolve? You can almost hear Mr. Laurence sigh on the phone. “Right now I just feel like my settings are very technical. Once you put the mat, there are not many possibilities left. It comes with the financial means — it sucks to bring it down to that, but we don’t have big budgets or big sponsors here, like at the Oscars. »
“I never gave myself the right to reinvent all that. “The fact remains that if he could, Mr. Laurence would like to” bring more madness “on his red carpets, with scenic objects, flamboyant decorative elements, which would give more glamour. “What we are doing right now is working. »
“What impresses me, adds Mr. Laurence, is the assumed attitude of certain stars here; the way some play the game. There are some who control their environment more, and others who arrive in front of the cameras and are really comfortable, with this bearing…” The sentence remains unresolved. This star presence, we understand.