Delegation of Culture
y Educación
Palacio de los Condes de Gabia
Plaza de los Girones, 1
18009 Granada (España)
The new project of the Diputación de Granada will offer advice to municipalities and will promote the audiovisual sector in the province.
The province of Granada has hosted more than 200 audiovisual projects throughout history, mostly feature films, but also series, documentaries, informative reports, music videos and advertisements. Among the feature movies you can find mythical films such as “Doctor Zhivago”, “C’era una volta il West (Once Upon a Time in the West)”, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”; and also more recent ones such as “Caníbal” or “Intemperie”. During the last decade, TV series have gained ground to feature films and Granada has become the perfect setting for large episodic productions such as “Black Mirror”, which located in 2019 an episode in Gorafe; or “Inés del alma mía”, which premiered last Friday on Amazon Prime, and has several scenes going in the spectacular Castle of La Calahorra.
Regarding the audiovisual matter, the Diputación de Granada has set up a provincial cinema office during the March 2020 lockdown under the brand name “Film in Granada”. The office has two main objectives: to attract film shootings to the province, which will potentially stimulate the municipalities’ economic activity (and especially after the Covid-19 crisis); and to consolidate the Granadian media sector, promoting the province’s professionals and companies.
The current provincial deputy for Culture and Historical and Democratic Memory, Fátima Gómez, on whom this new project depends, has assured that “we have been working since May on three different lines: technically advising municipalities on audiovisual matters, collaborating with cinema and television producers in the search for locations in our province, and giving visibility to professionals and local companies, who will now have a place to show their work and offer their services altogether”.
Gómez pointed out that “Film in Granada” already has various communication channels: a YouTube channel and profiles on Twitter and Facebook. She stated that “we are developing a website that will be the main showcase of the project and that will have a professional guide, with the data of all the professionals and companies in the province that can work on film, television or advertising projects: from production departments to equipment rental companies or even catering services”.
Within the “Film in Granada” website there will also be a location directory, where the great diversity of scenarios in the province will be collected. This fact, in the deputy’s opinion, “is our true cinematographic potential, because Granada is a unique territory when it comes to great landscapes, natural spaces, architecture, heritage and rural or urban environments ”.
In this regard, the deputy for Culture has offered by letter to the mayors of every Granadian municipality the possibility of proposing locations in their local area in order to include them to the Professional Guide database, which is now under construction. Gómez also stressed that “cinematographic shootings always generate a great attraction for our provincial tourism, because they make people discover the beauty of our regions. In addition, there is currently a growing demand for tourism associated with cinema and TV series, and we should jump on the bandwagon without a doubt”. Simultaneously, “Film in Granada” has already made contact with local production companies in order to agree on a common strategy to promote the Granadian audiovisual sector, and establish the formative requirements of its professionals. Those requirements will be addressed during the next year in collaboration with the Faculty of Communication and Documentation of the University of Granada.
First Shootings: “Volando voy” & “Guardianes del Patrimonio”
In its first three months of operation, the “Film in Granada” office has collaborated in the search for locations and in the subsequent recording of a new chapter of channel Cuatro‘s “Volando voy” programin the Alpujarra presented by Jesús Calleja. The well-known mountaineer, who has already dedicated an episode to the Granada Geopark, has chosen on this occasion the Granadian municipalities of La Taha, Soportújar, Pampaneira and Capileira as the main locations for his program.
The recording of the new episode has had the collaboration of the “Patronato Provincial de Turismo” and has meant the trip to the region of Granada for a week of a 25 audiovisual professionals crew from the production company Zanskar, which produces the format for Mediaset Spain. The production also featured a helicopter equipped with the Cineflex system, a special camera that can shoot high-definition aerial images.
To conclude, “Film in Granada” has also given advice on the production process and has helped on providing filming permits for a new chapter of the cultural series “Guardianes del Patrimonio” produced by Playmedia for La 2 (TVE). The filming is scheduled during the next weeks.
More information:
filmingranada@dipgra.es
