"Rendez-Vous in Tornado Alley", a french TV series (with subs!)

[Christophe Asselin]

Hi american fellows (or foreigner enthusiasts)!

I'm here to introduce you a TV Series which I directed and edited. It's broadcasted on the french equivalent of The Weather Channel (La Chaîne Météo).

In 2011, I've been chasing in the Tornado Alley with two friends of mine, Vincent Deligny and Tony Le bastard (and yes, that's his real name!). We were there during 4 weeks, from the 15th of May to the 13th of June. We had a great time and took a lot of pictures/videos along the 12,500 miles we drove. Rather than juste make a few clips about one or two of our best moments, I figured I'd do a complete series about our trip. This results in ten episods of about 10 to 15 minutes which tell our story in the most possible entertaining way. The story of three french guys, keen on severe weather, storm chasers in their country, whose dream was to go to the U.S. and chase tornadoes. One of us had actually already done that twice, but the other two were newbies! The aim was to make something different from what we've already seen, even though the Discovery Channel's series probably had quite an influence on me (except they had 100 times our budget ). It has entirely been shot with a Canon EOS 5D MarkII and two Canon EOS 7D.

You can watch the trailer here :

Watch video >


Below are all the episodes available in HD 1080p and with english subtitles. Just click on each thumbnail to go to the Youtube page.

Feel free to watch, share, and tell me what you think about it!

EPISODE 1 : AMERICAN OLD WEST



EPISODE 2 : BACK TO BASICS



EPISODE 3 : THE CHASE



EPISODE 4 : HOW TO MAKE A GOOD CHASE IN THE USA?



EPISODE 5 : HIGH RISK


EPISODE 6 : LETDOWNS


EPISODE 7 : THE DARK LINE


EPISODE 8 : SUNSET DRIVE


EPISODE 9 : THE BIG DETOUR


EPISODE 10 : LAST CHANCE



See you guys

 

[Michael Gavan]

I'll be completely and 100% honest here... Amazing. Total fan-service to the chaser community!

Storm Chasers has some good moments, Storm Riders is far more realistic than Storm Chasers but a little less exciting to watch....And then this blows them both away, before even mentioning the fact that the videography is spectacular, even superior to a lot of what I've seen online or on TV in recent years. At most times, It's polished to the point of an art film....In 10 minutes of footage you somehow cram in 9 minutes of postcards and wallpapers. For once I feel like I'm watching something with continuity and not a bunch of filler and stock footage or graphics, or constant 'teaching' every step of the way. For the most part I don't feel like I'm having to deconstruct your episodes to figure out what really happened like I do with the mainstream shows. It maybe doesn't have the broad appeal of a typical American TV series, since there's not much drama, character watching, teachable moments, or sub-plots strung through. I'm very bias...The videography sells it to me, and I don't need all that extra stuff.

 

[Darren Cheney]

I am ony up to episode 2 but absolutely loving it so far. As Michael mentioned the videography is a winner and I am loving watching three mates, out to see the world and doing something they love. Cannot wait to dive into the remaining episodes. Congratulations on your production.

 

[Jeff Turner]

Very cool stuff. Great filming. Get the whole series on a DVD I say, it is quite good.

I am curious how the average European views the severe storms and tornadoes we have here. To us it is like living in California with the quakes. You know it is there, you experience it, and life goes on.

 

[Christophe Asselin]

I'll be completely and 100% honest here... Amazing. Total fan-service to the chaser community!

Storm Chasers has some good moments, Storm Riders is far more realistic than Storm Chasers but a little less exciting to watch....And then this blows them both away, before even mentioning the fact that the videography is spectacular, even superior to a lot of what I've seen online or on TV in recent years. At most times, It's polished to the point of an art film....In 10 minutes of footage you somehow cram in 9 minutes of postcards and wallpapers. For once I feel like I'm watching something with continuity and not a bunch of filler and stock footage or graphics, or constant 'teaching' every step of the way. For the most part I don't feel like I'm having to deconstruct your episodes to figure out what really happened like I do with the mainstream shows. It maybe doesn't have the broad appeal of a typical American TV series, since there's not much drama, character watching, teachable moments, or sub-plots strung through. I'm very bias...The videography sells it to me, and I don't need all that extra stuff.

Thanks Michael! It means a lot to us, therefore to me as I've spent a considerable amount of time on this! It's been anyway a real pleasure to work with our footage but it's even more pleasant to see people can appreciate the thing, and despite the fact they live in the US and are quite used to see amazing footage! Hope you'll like next episodes as much as the 5 first!

Very cool stuff. Great filming. Get the whole series on a DVD I say, it is quite good.

I am curious how the average European views the severe storms and tornadoes we have here. To us it is like living in California with the quakes. You know it is there, you experience it, and life goes on.

I'd say that for weather enthusiasts from all over Europe, the Tornado Alley is a Grail. As far as I'm concerned, going there and chasing tornadoes was a child dream. I've seen a whole bunch of documentaries in my youth and was always flabbergasted by the beauty of the phenomenon. We don't see many of those in France (I've never seen a tornado here actually, even though I chase a lot) so being able to go to the midwest where there are hundreds of them each spring, I'm sure you can imagine how exciting it is for us! Storms are also much more violent than in Europe. This definitely is an other world for us. And it's something I try to show through the series.


Thanks again guys!

 

[Stephen Levine]

C'est Magnifique! Thank you for sharing! I just skipped ahead and watched section 3. I love the focus on the action mixed with the immense beauty of what you saw. No editing out of where the funnels did not touch down - wonderfully realistic. Your joy and passion so evident as well.
I believe that this is Nova Special quality. Perhaps you may wish to contact National Geographic once this is completed.

 

[Jeff Turner]

"Storms are also much more violent than in Europe. This definitely is an other world for us. And it's something I try to show through the series."

I guess you heard about the big hail storm near Amarillo, Texas. Four foot high drifts of HAIL that closed a major highway (US 287). Snow plows were called out to clear the highway.

http://myhighplains.com/fulltext?nxd_id=260472

 

[Jeff Turner]

http://video.pbs.org/video/2220853400

And y'all in France will like this. About the 2011 outbreak which aired last night. When it started I was near Denver on business. I looked at the radar and some on line TV feeds and a tornado signature went over my neighborhood (in Fort Worth). I called my neighbor and he described what had to be a wall cloud. Luckily it did not touch down. Texas was very lucky in that outbreak.

 

[Christophe Asselin]

Thank you Jeff for the links. Unfortunately, videos from american TV networks are often unavailable outside the US...
But don't worry, we carefully follow everything that happen in the Tornado Alley during the chase season. Live streaming is great for that purpose! Then, Youtube is our friend to watch the best videos you guys made on the field!


By the way, Episode 6 is now available (see the first post of this thread)!

 

[Christophe Asselin]

I've just added the 7th episode!

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

I am just catching up with the series, and I am at episode 3 right now! Wow! This beats the daylights out of the Discovery Channel! Great job and best of luck for the future. Merci!

 

[James Langford]

This is really fantastic stuff! Excellent cinematography!

 

[Stuart Robinson]

Outstanding!

I am also an overseas chaser (England) and my time in the “Ally” is so precious to me so I fully understand just how important your time is for you.
As for the video / edit – stunning and well done.
I hope that we can catch up at some stage under a MESO during 2012.

 

[Christophe Asselin]

Outstanding!

I am also an overseas chaser (England) and my time in the “Ally” is so precious to me so I fully understand just how important your time is for you.
As for the video / edit – stunning and well done.
I hope that we can catch up at some stage under a MESO during 2012.

We unfortunately only chase in Europe this year. But we'll see you maybe in 2013! Thank you for your kind words anyway!

 

[brice.coffer]

I've been watching a few of these lately. All I can say is WOW. Blows anything from the US out of the water. Congrats. I was in awe by your Ada supercell footage. Very high quality production.