Tag Archives: TV Host

Joëlle Scoriels in the backstage of “Sans Chichis” TV program

Posted on February 28, 2010 | 1 comment

Here I am, between the back and forth of technicians and the laughs of the production team of the « Sans Chichis » TV program of the RTBF, one of the Belgium national channels. I follow  Joëlle Scoriels in her dressing room, a capsule bathroom refurbished in a cloakroom. Short time break, the shooting will start again.

– I am super lucky. I work.

Eyes suddenly serious, the spruce TV host of « Sans Chichis » is not another stupid bimbo. Joëlle is certified in “Philologie romaine” (classics literary studies) and in design at La Cambre :

– I can draw, I can write. I didn’t want to work in TV. It happenend by chance at a diner. I’ve never had any career goals, I just want to feel good.

– I’ve been six-seven years at MCM Belgique (a Music TV channel). I started at the Top 50 TV program.I was quite sad, I didn’t like the MCM’s flow. I really had to learn this « youngster » attitude.

Then she was a feature editor at « 50 Degrés Nord », the cultural TV progrm hosted by Eric Russon on Arte Belgique. But with « Sans Chichi », she is free to fully express her talent :

– It’s the first time I host a real big TV program, with a real content. I think being the same person. It’s my real me on the air. To be honest, I like to watch the TV program. Thanks to the team’s complicity, it’s fluid. They are all fantastic.

Showing me the outfits carrying, Joëlle takes the drink of wine served by Gérald Wathelet, the funny chief of the TV program :

– They take care of me (in a dazzling smile). Bouzouk is in charge of my stylism in the TV program. I am not a fashionista with a shopping addiction. And I’m not sad about it. In real life, I get dressed in Zadig et Voltaire and Diesel. But I really enjoy decoration : items, contemporary design full of colors, the sixties and mixes. I am a stay-at-home person. I have a seventeen months baby. It’s amazing. A wonder, the ecstasy! I am absolutely crazy about my little boy. And since he was born, I’ve been afraid of the death every second.

Sandrine Graulich, Mrs Production, enters and checks notes with Joëlle. Few weeks ago, I’ve met Bouzouk, a Belgian famous make-up artist. I guess he found me a bit crazy! Now they call Joëlle on stage. Favorite request : Brussels ?

– I’ve emigrated to Waterloo,unfortunately ! I am Brussels, I love Brussels. This town is a tangle, nineteen districts with an social coeducation for a long time. Ixelles district is a good exemple. I am from the Forest district, it’s a very mixed place. I love going in fancy dress of tourist. Brussels is a « new world » city, where I always know brasseries to go.

Last sentence?

– I feel highly happy! I just miss a Rochefort  10, it’s a smooth beer, avec a small note of caramel and banana. Wild !

Joëlle’s favourite :

The Walvis Café, “a trendy bobo bar and great location to meet friends in the Canal’s district”. Rue Antoine Dansaertstraat 209, 1000 Brussels, Tel : 02 219 95 32

Thanks Joëlle! 

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Interviews, Lifestyle & Destinations

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Brussels, Belgium: Eric Russon, the interview in Café Belga

Posted on February 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

Flagey under the snow, picturesque ponds:

I get in the café Belga. Puzzled I look at the numerous retro ceiling fans and the snow behind the big plate glass window.  Near to the TV studios, I have an appointement with the « Mr. Culture » of Arte Belgique. Eric Russon is the chief editor and TV host of « 50 Degrés Nord »,  the daily TV program about the Belgian arts news.

–  I am not cut out to be a TV host. We can have a vocation for sports jounalism for example, not for TV. It sounds a bit weird to me. I don’t know how journalists work. I have my press card. But I don’t feel like being a journalist. Maybe I have a too romantic vision of a journalist that crosses the world and takes risks. I am more a curious person and I try to arouse people’s curiosity.

On the table, Eric Russon’s manga cover agenda,

dazzling white light of winter sun. His carrer path is quite atypical  : law studies, two bachelors, plus an university diploma (for teaching), in Criminology at ULB (Brussels Universtity). 

–  When I was at university, I’ve worked in an  independent radio station for four-five years, till 1988. By chance, I started working as an Assistant Production of a movies TV program in Télé Bruxelles  (Brussels television). I was just found of culture. Then I started making cultural reports and in 1989 , I went on the air. After different TV programs,  I’ve hosted a daily cultural TV program  from 6 to 7 p.m. : one hour live with guests. I lived Télé Bruxelles in 2006. And since 2004, I’ve hosted the radio program « Culture Club », on La Première (RTBF).

Belgo belges (= the Belgians for the Belgians)?

– No. In the « 50 Degrés Nord » TV program, seven of the ten guests are Belgian. For many raisons, there are often foreign artists, interesting things can be exchanged. Most of the time, foreigners are more comfortable on a TV set than the Belgians, less trained to go on the air. And I don’t know why the Belgians have this  hang-up of inferiority. I don’t even understand.

Yet the Belgians are successfull abroad!

– Yes they are and they are good to promote themselves on television. TV is a show and we do news : telling a good story and a good casting of feature editors and guests. We create an atmosphere and a tension too. We set a series of themes. I choice the five subjects of each program. The team is composed of a producer, four journalists (for the reports) and feature editors. I am the only one journalist on the air. I prefer chatting than interviewing my guests, having a dialogue and sometimes criticizes. Chatting give you more options.

What about the audience measurement?

Eric Russon puts down his glass, looking his green mint tea. Almost the end of the meeting, let’s do the questions-answers way: what about the audience measurement?

–  I don’t pay attention. Belgium is a very small country, ten millions of inhabitants, including four millions of French-speakers. We don’t care about numbers. For each TV program, we have between sixty thousant and seventy thousand people. I compare a cultural TV program with subsidized theatre : culture is not her to be a smash hit of ratings. There is no equivalent of our TV program in the Flemish televisions. We have ten guests by program : one or two are flemish. They were very surprised at the beginning, when we asked them to come to the set. A long time ago, there was a cultural  coeducation between the Walloon and Flemish communities, but not anymore. The Flemish movies are successful in Flanders and the same in the French-speaking Belgium with the Walloon movies. For example: the movie « De Zaaak Alzheimer » (2003) – The Alzheimer Case (England) and  The Memory of a Killer (USA) – of the Flemish director Erik Van Looy was first successfull abroad,  before being played in Wallonie. Yet when we go to Cannes, for foreigners we are all the Belgians. We have two features editors : Nick Balthazar, director and Bert Kruisman who wrote a show in French, « Flanders for the no good », with a trash sense of humour..
 

Time to go. Last question : Brussels?

– A town with many different cultural events. It’s a very concentrated city that gets on my nerves! The snow and the traffic is stuck. Brussels was hottest before : no more nightlife. Le Belga is one of the very few bars opened late at night. It’s a stange city, not a partying city. It’s really polite.  

A district : the university district, near the Cimetière d’Ixelles, I’m not the kind of nostalgic who make a pilgrimage. There are many restaurants, bars and a nightlife.

Thanks Eric Russon.  
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Victoire magazine, Brussels: Meeting Anne Pochet

Posted on November 26, 2009 | Leave a comment

Discovering by chance Victoire‘s site:

first I’ve really enjoyed the column « comme chez moi »  (« come at my home » about Belgium artits interiors). Different, fun and refine and I absolutely wanted to meet its charming enthousiastic Editorial Director, Anne Pochet. For three years and half , the Victoire‘s paper issue has been the week-end additional magazine of daily paper Le Soir, about trends in culture, lifestyle and fashion.

 – It’s not a women magazine. The first challenge was this magazine must not be sexually identified: 52% of our readers are men. It’s a subjective vision with a proximity idea about what’s going on in Belgium. We avoided all the fashion magazines clichés. Let’s talk about us (Belgium people), not by chauvinism, but to know where is the Belgium ine the world trends. We’ve always found lots of recognition abroad, but really few at home. With Victoire, we kindly look at the country.

So where is Belgium in world tendancies?

– Very good question! It’s really really difficult to say, the image moves fast: lots of people have great ideas and projects. It’s a subtile networking : everybody knows each other, a small land with many shooting stars.

Gratuated of journalism,

Anne’s worked first for women magazines and as a production director and a Web project manager for the media group Sanoma for fifteen years. She’s also been a youth litterature’s critic for ten years :

– A great job. I was a young mom and I was happy to make parents discover less formal worlds.

She became a specialist in education’s philosophy and has presented a less “formal vision of eduction and the pratical aspect, without any activist message” in a radio show. And she’s hosted a short tv show at the RTBF 1 and 2, co-produced by One (Belgium offism of childhood and birth) and in collaboration with One’s experts: Air de Familles, viewed by 200.000 homes every week. And today as the editorial director of Victoire, her first big difficulty was to make the team. Her eyes sparkle:

– Everything works with human, but human has to bring content. I am a very good pitcher, choosing the columns. I delegate a lot, cause I want the people who works for the magazine know their responsability is complete and their skills tested in a positive way. Today my big pleasure is to manage my journalists team. During the week-end, I am the most difficult reader of Victoire visiting spots recommened by my journalists.

Victoire‘s future?

There is a world between the today Victoire and the one of three years ago : the magazine slowly changed, like a tectonic plates sliding. Since September 2009, we’ve had new sections « comme chez moi », « city strip », « petite semaine ». I am worried to get stocked in something successfull. My will: making changes with new contents, not only by the lay out . Victoire magazine has to be a beautiful object: a small world.

– I have the big luck to be born in Brussels

and not in a Texan corn field, it’s a real mental comfort. Brussels is a bit  hung-up and a bit complicated and nice for living. And I’m happy here.

A hotspot :  

WIELS,“in a splendid building, for my cultural gym : it’s terribly difficult for me to appreciate contemporary art”,  Av. Van Volxemlaan 354, 1190 Brussels. 

Thanks a lot Anne! Victoire: in kiosk every week-end with the daily paper Le Soir.

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