Paul Ricard HTTT
During the weekend of the French round of the World Series by Renault, a film crew followed a driver who was not on any entry list. Grégory Bakian, a former kart racer, has taken up a career as a singer and he brought some of the best professionals in the music world to the circuit. Bakian is a friend of Nathanaël Berthon’s and the author/interpreter took advantage of the ISR team’s installations and the French driver’s car to shoot his clip on the Paul Ricard HTTT circuit.
“The song, “What’s doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” has gone down well on the radio. We made it our lead title and we had to bring forward the shooting of the clip by several months,” Bakian explained. “I had several proposals in Formula 1 at the start of 2012, but it had to be done quickly. As Nathanaël is a friend, when he heard about my plight he immediately asked me to come to one of the World Series by Renault meetings. The ISR team also did everything possible to help us shoot the clip.”
In the music world a clip in the context of motor racing is fairly rare. “When I listened to the music, the motor sport theme seemed to me to be the obvious one,” said Bakian. “The melody evokes a human adventure with highs and lows; I then thought of Philippe Strieff*, whose first and second life inspired the words of the song, and who has become the godfather of this piece. Motor racing embodies strong human values. I wanted to highlight them and render homage to the drivers.”
Grégory Bakian got into the no. 3 Formula Renault 3.5 for static shots putting on a driver’s suit like Nathanaël Berthon’s. As the filming took place during a race weekend he was unable to take to the track. Images of Berthon in action will be added to the clip.
“What’s doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” will be the one of the title songs on his album. The crew received a warm welcome in the paddock. “People were smiling and were happy that motor sport was the subject. We’re going to show the positive side of racing with beautiful images, different to the usual race summaries. Our project has generated curiosity in both the world of music and the motor car. I hope they’ll like it.”
Official Renault Sport Press Release.