LIONS DAILY NEWS FRIDAY / JUNE 23 / 2017
campaign featuring football players, they usually have to come here.” We Produce recently worked on an H&M campaign in which every shot featured a celebrity, actress, dancer or model from somewhere in the world. “Just co-ordinating the talent, their wardrobes and their expectations was pretty challenging,” Solis says. “Then as producers, we did a campaign for the 9GAG [millennial entertainment content platform] app with LOLA Mullen-Lowe Barcelona, which was seriously epic and had a major challenge in that we had to cut, carve and transport a huge stone weighing several tonnes, then dig a hole and bury it. And we had to do all of this on a very tight budget. Our production team were stars for being able to achieve that — and that’s also why people like to shoot in Spain.” For Sara Hernandez, executive producer at La Joya Producciones, the boom in business is unsurprising given Spain’s multiple charms: “It has the weather, the talent, the people, the history and the architecture, so you can shoot any commercial that you can imagine because no matter where you look the environment is perfect,” she says. “Two of my favourite campaigns of the last year were ‘Tregua’ [‘Truce’] for Servicios Financieros Carrefour and ‘El Instante’ [‘The Instant’] for Euromillones, because both were extremely challenging from an emotional point of view. Both stories are charged with feelings and, at that point, it doesn’t matter that your ultimate goal is selling a product, because all you are focused on is reaching people’s hearts. To achieve that, you have to have an amazing director who is able to identify actors who can give everything in just a few seconds. It’s jobs like those that really bring the best out of everyone.”
FOCUS ON SPAIN
Down in Andalucía, business is also buoyant, according to film commissioner Piluca Querol: “In 2016, the Andalucía Film Commission assisted with 1,336 audiovisual projects. This is a record in the 19 years we have been operating — we celebrate our 20th anniversary in 2018 — and it represents an increase of 10.4 % on the previous year. Out of that total, 239 of them were advert shoots covering all kind of products. And it’s a very global business: in 2016 and the first few months of 2017, we’ve worked with ad shoots from all over the world, including a lot of European countries such as the Netherlands, the UK, Italy and Germany, as well as countries from outside the EU, including India, Russia and Turkey. In addition, of course, we’ve
ANA LAURA SOLIS “WE HAD TO CUT, CARVE AND TRANSPORT A HUGE STONE WEIGHING SEVERAL TONNES, THEN DIG A HOLE AND BURY IT. OUR PRODUCTION TEAM WERE STARS — AND THAT’S ALSO WHY PEOPLE LIKE TO SHOOT IN SPAIN”
CANARY ISLANDS
“THE MOST commonly requested locations in the Canary Islands are the white sand beaches and the dramatic, volcanic Teide National Park [in Tenerife], which features the towering mass of the 3,700-metre high Mount Teide, as well as the surreal Roque Cinchado and its otherworldly surroundings,” says Alejandro Álamo Sanabria, executive producer at Volcano Films. “But I personally really like Los Gigantes in the very south-west of Tenerife. It’s a truly magical place, with good weather all year long and astonishing views. Punta de Teno at the other end of the cliffs is also fantastic.”
NORTHERN SPAIN
“FOR ME, the north of Spain is under-appreciated and under-used,” says Sara Hernandez, executive producer at La Joya Producciones. “Areas like Galicia and Asturias are not that well known and both places have very different looking cities. There are also amazing tracts of unspoilt forest and
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done quite a few national jobs.” Querol says the most common product categories are car, fashion and drink brand. “But also this year we’ve had several productions featuring products related to the internet and social networks, shipping companies — even an insurance company from Australia, which filmed in Antequera, Malaga with Macaulay Culkin,” she adds. As Querol observes, international producers choose Andalucía because of its broad variety of locations. “Here they can find snow-capped mountains, the largest desert in Europe, medieval and Arabic castles, modern buildings, many kilometres of varied coasts, from dramatic cliffs to extensive, unspoilt beaches — and all of it topped off with a spectacular
the sort of architecture that can provide a very different look for a production.”
FUERTE-VENTURA
JUAN CANO, executive producer at Sur-Film, is a fan of Fuerteventura, because of “the dunes that arrive right by the ocean, the oasis, the rocky mountains in several different colours and the canyons. Plus, of course, the endless sandy beaches and the local goat cheese, which is so delicious.” Cano also cites Picos de Europa in Asturias: “It’s the Alps in Spain, with snowy mountains, huge natural lakes and green valleys.”
ANDALUCÍA
NOBODY knows Spain’s southern-most territory better than Andalucía film commissioner Piluca Querol. She runs through a few of her favourite locations: “Let’s start with Almería, which features the Tabernas Desert, then the city of Cadiz, which looks like Havana in Cuba. I also love the Roman bridge in Córdoba, the snowy mountains of
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climate and wonderful light,” she says. “All these types of locations are constantly in use and they are all regularly requested by visiting producers.” Juan Cano, executive producer at Sur-Film, also reports a satisfying 12 months. “It’s difficult to have to select one of the many great jobs that we’ve serviced this year in Spain, because it has been such a very creative and challenging 2016/17,” he says. “But if I had to select just one, it would be Porsche. It was directed by Joern Heitmann, and produced by Katapult filmproducktion and agency KeKo. We shot at the Navarra race circuit last September, in temperatures of 40-degrees, both day and night. The concept was that the car comes alive. Right from the first second of the commercial, you can feel its emotions while it’s speeding around the deserted circuit. It was also very satisfying for us to be able to share our creative process with the official racing team from Porsche. To be honest, the whole experience was simply amazing.” For Cano, the Porsche shoot encapsulates the reasons why Spain gets so much repeat business. “First of all, our crews are highly qualified and experienced,” he says. “On top of that, we have an embarrassment of riches in terms of locations. In less than a two-hour drive, you can go from snowy mountains to beaches and dunes. You can find everything from great modern cities to the most isolated, lonely spaces. Then there’s our Mediterranean weather, of course. We typically get 300 days of sunshine per year. And then there are our islands, which feature the most amazing tropical and jungle landscapes. And finally, I guess the Spanish style of life is also very charming and provides a highly agreeable working environment.”
Granada, the spectacular Sierra Nevada, Huelva, Rio Tinto, the Renacentists monuments in Jaen, the magical stones of El Torcal in Málaga and the newly named ‘Treasure of European Film Culture’, which was awarded to the Plaza de España in Seville by the European Film Academy.”
IBERIAN PENINSULAR
STAFFAN Tranaeus, executive producer and owner of SouthWest Productions, works out of Lisbon in Portugal, but often shoots in Spain. “It depends what you’re looking for as to whether we’d propose a shoot in Portugal or Spain, but the fact is that the Iberian Peninsular has some fantastic coast,” he says. “If you’re doing a short shoot, why go all the way to Turkey or South Africa when you can get an equally good look at great rates in the south of Spain? As much as we work in Spain, the big Spanish companies come to Portugal regularly and we have a very good relationship with them. In terms of production and production services, Portugal these days is like another Spanish province. And it’s great value for money.”
22/06/2017 20:40