The decor of Ninja Warrior ? It’s her. That of Prodigies and of The Voice ? Also. Designer of sets and scenographer for television, Michele Sarfati is an essential personality. After his architectural studies, a summer job with the decorator Philippe Désert, who worked at the very beginning of the Canal+ channel, introduced him to the basics of the profession at the end of the 1980s.This job is a mix of creativity, technique and budget. A setting must be seen with the eye of a camera and not a normal eye because the camera enlarges things enormously.“, describes Michèle Sarfati. There is a psychological aspect too. “Sometimes the producer doesn’t know what he wantsso we have to make him talk, try to touch his subconscious a little…”, she explains.
Michèle Sarfati redesigned the famous red armchairs of the coaches of The Voice
The scenographer has thus forged bonds of trust with Marc-Olivier Fogiel, for whom she created the decor of the Couch on France 3 in 2015. Having become boss of BFMTV, the man entrusted him with the makeover of his main set, inaugurated in September. An investment “six digits” according to the channel. An exception because overall, Michèle Sarfati has seen budgets decrease. “We change materials, we simplify. It’s less fun than before“, she agrees. His favorite show remains The Voice. Despite the standard decor present on all versions around the world, it was able to add its touch to redesign the armchairs. As long as they stay red! “And in 2015, I proposed a completely round decor, validated by John de Mol, the creator of the format“, she remembers.
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The scenographer of Secret Story talks about the design of the CSA room: “IAbove all, they should not want to stay there!”
It is also to Michèle Sarfati that we owe the design of the different houses of Secret Story for TF1. “We started from a hangar with a parking lot and we had to build everything inside”, she remembers. “Then, we had to change our style every year and find new ideas. It was I who introduced the Mona Lisa as an element of mystery”, underlines the professional. And for the famous “CSA room”, a room without a camera where candidates were allowed to go for two hours a day, Michèle Sarfati’s roadmap was minimalist. “It was a very small place, Above all, they shouldn’t want to stay there!“
Asked about the threat that virtual sets now represent for her profession, she puts things into perspective: “The producers still care about the sets. When there is an audience, they have to see things. The Voiceit would be unimaginable virtually!” If the passion is still there, Michèle Sarfati nevertheless wants to slow down and act on impulse. Because as she likes to say, “the most interesting setting is the next one”.
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