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History of Eclair
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| 1907 : Founding of Eclair at Epinay-sur-Seine |
In the early years of the twentieth century the Lumière brothers’ cinematograph was prooving a triumphant success.
A young lawyer, with a special talent for business, acquired a property with a splendid park near Paris, the Château de Lacepède. « I intend’ he explained to the mayor of the period, ‘to create a luxury industry for the arts, a glassed-in theatre (the term « studio » did not yet exist). Our factory will produce neither noise, smoke nor smells.»
Charles Jourjon shot ten films in his studios each week. He developed them in his laboratories with equipment made in his own workshops. Without his being aware of it and purely for practical reasons, the lawyer had created the concept of the global offer ! He even launched his famous « Actualités Eclair » (Eclair News) which provided viewers in the first cinemas with news items.
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| The 1920s |
Eclair made projectors and equipment for colouring and developing film. The company decided to diversify and manufacture cameras for filming. The talkies arrived from the States, sweeping across Europe ; Eclair soundproofed its studios and produced one of the first talking films, « Le Collier de la Reine », directed by Gaston Ravel.
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| The late 1930s |
Eclair acquired the Tobis studios at Epinay-sur-Seine where Jacques Feyder shot « la Kermesse Héroïque » and René Clair filmed « Le Million ».
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| The late 1940s |
Eclair was the first French laboratory to propose colour processing to its clients. Eclair invented the Cameflex, the first completely portable, light and easy to handle camera. It revolutionised filming techniques and enabled directors to approach as close as possible to the subject they were filming. In 1950, Eclair was awarded a technical Oscar for the portable Cameflex by the Los Angeles Motion Pictures Academy.
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| The 1960s |
Eclair continued its policy of diversification : new cameras, dubbing for foreign films and above all developing the Group’s laboratory activities which became its core business. The studios welcomed prestigious directors for studio filming : Alain Resnais, Michel Deville, Bertrand Blier, Claude Sautet …
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| The 1970s |
Were synonymous with the beginnings of video. Eclair opened a video department for duplicating cassettes and film postproduction.
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| The 1990s |
The Group began a restructuring process. Bertrand Dormoy, the founder’s great-grandson, became Chairman of Eclair, one of the oldest audiovisual companies in the world. The Studios and Laboratories were still associated with making major films. Building on its wealth of cinematographic and technological experience, Eclair, within the Eclair Group, confirmed its ambition to be a leader on the European and world markets. The company opened a new laboratory for printing 35 mm copies. Eclair has extended its range of services to include digital restoration for feature films, conservation and storage. In 1999, the company inaugurated a new site with a digital department and laboratory.
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| The 2000s |
Have seen Eclair’s strong commitment to digital postproduction designed specifically for film. Eclair’s digital laboratory is one of the largest in Europe, with digital standardization rooms, and a production line for processing images from high definition to 4K.
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| 2007 : a century of innovation |
With Thierry Forsans at the helm, Eclair and its sister companies (Teletota, GTC, Centrimage, Jackson, Tele Europe...) continue to affirm their desire to innovate : be it with the grading system ColorUS, VOD or the elaboration of an industrial process concernaing digital masters and copies for movies theaters (DCI standards, JPEG 2000 encoding, DCP, generation and management of decryption keys...)
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