PRODUCERS
Mediacrest: predictive selection of content investment Launched in 2019, Mediacrest is a brand new producer in the Spanish market that uses “Big Data” and the experience of its high-level executives to make a predictive selection of investments in content. Founded by Francisco Pou, CEO, and Sergio Palomino, CEO of the advertising agency Manifiesto, it is based in Madrid and Barcelona, and has Daniel Domenjó as Francisco Pou, CEO executive director, Xavier Borrel as responsible for production and development, and Josetxu Palenzuela as CCO and heading the international business. Pou: ‘Our aim was to bring together the top talents in the industry so we could go onto the market with a solid team with a view to the future. Talent is crucial in light of the audiovisual revolution we are currently undergoing. That, combined with the fact that we are working with our own Big Data tool and have our own ad agency’. Regarding projects, the company works ‘with all platforms’ on an international level: ‘Untameable (13x’50) is a story about a group of troubled teenagers united by therapy involving an extraordinary horse, Napoleon, and offering dramatic moments, adventures and humor; Squadron is an action-packed, air force thriller that combines action, adventure and mystery; and Seduced (8x’50) tells the story of a woman cheated by a man who turns out to be a psychopathic predator that changes her world forever’, describes the executive, who also highlights El Clásico, a documentary about the social, anthropological and economic implications of a Real Madrid-Barcelona football match. ‘Spain is a creative, imaginative and flexible country, with a cultivated and growing audiovisual industry and a great capacity for high-quality production. There is also its language to consider: a language spoken by 600 million people around the world’, comments Pou. ‘We are a young company but with a team that’s highly experienced in the audiovisual world. This allows us to not only to move forward with guarantees of success in fiction and entertainment, but also affords us a list of contacts that allows us to work with renowned producers with extensive experience in the field and, above all, to seek out synergies in which each member of the team can contribute their Untameable, brand new series own value added’, concludes the executive.
Onza: international coproductions Founded in 2013 by Jose Maria Irisarri, Nicolas Begareche and Gonzalo Sagardia, Onza Partners has become a key player in the Spanish audiovisual market through two divisions Onza Entertainment and Onza Distribution. Several prime time shows have been proGonzalo Sagardia, CEO duced for the networks, as well as key dramas for Amazon Prime Video. The company is rebranding for MIPCOM. Gonzalo Sagardia, CEO of the audiovisual unit: ‘We have established our model of collaboration with the great creative talent that exists in Spain. In addition, a year ago we bet on our own department of both fiction and entertainment. In the entertainment field, we have produced several programs with good results. In fiction, we are close to launching the first show fully developed by us. Our bet and hope is now to combine the two models. The primitive, working together with external creators, and the conventional producer that creates its own concepts’. Since it creation, Onza has taken its DNA to a clear international strategy. ‘We’ve produced Hernan with Dopamine (Mexico), which will premier soon and we’ll keep betting in that line’, confirms Sagardia. ‘We are working in a new development agreement with a big studio, which will be closed soon’, he adds. Hernan, historical coproduction with Onza Distribution offers a wide Mexican Dopamine will premier soon variety of content, including dramas such us The Ministry of Time or Little Coincidences, and from Spanish (Bambu, CTV, Plural, Isla Producciones) and international producers, such us the Portuguese TVI’s Emmy-winner Payback, and Coral Vision Europa’s The miracle of Fatima, as well as close to 10 entertainment formats. Sagardia concludes: ‘In the next years we’d like to bet on quality fiction + entertainment, adapting our developments to each operator and their needs. Our commitment to international co-productions is unequivocal: we created a specific position headed by Jessica Ortiz, former director of Onza Distribution and now VP of co-productions and content development. We are shaping a great alliance that will undoubtedly strengthen our position in the international market, and allow us to address larger projects also locally’.
LACOproductora: a new way to make fiction Launched a little less than a year ago, LACOproductora is a new initiative of Jose Miguel Contreras, a veteran executive with great experience of Spanish TV. He describes the company as ‘back to origins’. ‘We are a small, agile company. We look for ideas and talent, and we take care of the rest. We are not looking for employees, but partners. Change of model: we do not buy ideas, we associate. The future belongs to the creators, and we are going towards them’. • 30 • PRENSARIO INTERNATIONAL
‘El cielo puede esperar is a good example of the project we are aiming at. From an idea, we make “cocktail of development” and generate a product to present to the client, in this case Movistar+. Now we are selling it outside of Spain. It is an idea that enters industrial processes. No more big structures’, he further explains.