“It has happened to me leaving home and finding myself in NY. With its hot dog stands, its taxis, its kiosks and the smoke coming out of the sewers,” says Xavier, a resident of Diagonal Seain Barcelona. The neighborhood was the setting for 74 shootings in 2022: even though it was transfigured in another city, it was among the 10 areas of the city where the most scenes were set. The boom has opened a path of growing income, with 2,773 productions based in the capital in 2022 to which 7,164 permits were granted to film. However, abundance also encourages complaints of residents where recording equipment is frequently planted.
“The first quarter of this year was a bit of a stretch. There was filming one week after another, with notice of only 24 hours on most occasions & rdquor ;, complains Xavier, who lives on the street fluvia. “I have seen my house in 50 different planes of films, series and ads& rdquor ;, recounts the neighbor, who testifies that the routine is altered when a film set gets in the way: “At the end of the year, we cannot be normal citizens for a whole month. A recording coincided with the half marathon and it was tremendous… We couldn’t go out with him. car and, with filming, not even on foot. We had to ask permission. Sometimes I have gone for bread and I have had to take a huge walk because they were recording, when I only had to cross the street. And to enter or leave the garage it’s complicated. You don’t have access because it’s closed.”
A inconvenience common in roads converted into film sets is the loss of parking spaces parking lot. “Normally the cut is from eight in the morning to eight in the afternoon, but the previous afternoon we usually have two guys putting fences. Depending on how they are, you have a lot of trouble if you want to park,” explains David, a resident of Joan d’Àustria street, in the Poblenou Llacuna. He calculates that they can house “20 or 25” annual recordings. “There has been a long time. I remember an advertisement for a car in which our street was tokyo. Around us a lot is also recorded, like in the street Pallars: then we are the street for ‘catering’ and parking. They interpret that they can do whatever they want & rdquor ;, protest.
“My father has a space for the disabled and they also park there,” laments María del Pilar, who lives in Joan d’Àustria, where she has spent a label that warns of the prohibition of parking for a filming of months ago. “When you come back from work and you find the posters, you know that you will have to spend time changing the car”, Stefano attests. “Sometimes they announce the cut the afternoon before. I travel for work and, once, the crane he took my car. Since then, she left the keys with a neighbor or the mechanic so they can move it if they’re going to film it,” he says.
“Sometimes they take up so much space to record that you have to take it to the boondocks & rdquor ;, grumbles David. He also criticizes that the film crews do not always occupy all the places they reserve and that, from time to time, the noise of the generator sets that feed current to the set wake them up at six or seven in the morning. Stefano believes that filming proliferates on his street not only because it oozes an urban aesthetic: “We are few neighbors and, therefore, they give us little importance. It also works for large bottles and the parties we endure. We are worth less than one discotheque”.
“Punctual privatization & rdquor;
The Barcelona Film Commission is the office of City hall that helps the production of films and series in the city. The entity establishes, together with other instances of the consistory, the conditions to minimize “possible inconvenience & rdquor ;. “But, indeed, medium or large shoots require a punctual privatization of the public road to do their job & rdquor ;, he admits.
In any case, the agency highlights that it does not always accept each of the claims of the producers. “But you have to understand that if the story being told is of evening, it will have to be recorded at night… We cannot impose script& rdquor ;, he wields.
He poblenou concentrated 53 shootings in 2022. They are usual in Lope de Vega, Àvila and Badajoz, among other routes. “There are almost every week. They are morning, noon and night. If it is not on one street, it is on another”, observes Jero Lorenzo, a member of SOS gulf trianglewhich brings together the neighbors fed up with the after-hours parties in the middle of the street.
“The problem we suffer is aggravated when the deployment of fences and filming protections coincides with the bottles: when they are very drunk, they take the fences, move them, jump them… And when they come watchmen, they fight or argue with them& rdquor ;, draws Lorenzo. In addition to the hassle because of the noise, also mention some other meddling: “It has happened that, in a timely manner, a film crew has asked some neighbors to enter the house and close the balcony or the window. Or, taking the fresh air, they have told us if we can enter the house. Or we have had to wait five minutes to enter the house because they carry out a take”.
Identical interference relates Daniel Pardo, a neighbor of Old Townthe district that accumulates the most recordings: 782 were recorded in 2022, 126 more than in 2021. “It adds another layer of discomfort to the difficulties to get around in some neighborhoods that are particularly hampered by intensive economic activity, especially due to the tourist monoculture& rdquor ;, he says.
The Olympic Village It has also been favorite territory for cameras. “It has been continuous since 1994& rdquor ;, illustrates Jordi Giró, president of the Neighborhood Association of the neighborhood. He comments that, in the first years after the Games, he spread a certain invasion: “They cut an entire street for a single piece. If no urban came, we would fly into a rage. We complained and now they are organized in a different way. The ‘boom’ has been normalized and we have already internalized it. Now we find filming inside houses & rdquor ;.
International projection
The Barcelona Film Commission stresses that, only counting 25 of the 696 film and series productions in 2022, the city was showered with 91.4 million euros and 16,000 contracts. “In the whole of Gross Domestic Product from Barcelona, filming represents 13%. In addition, they project us into the world,” he stresses.
Related news
Xavier confesses that he received the same response, almost literally, from the councilor of Sant Marti, David Escude. “He told us that we have to understand that Barcelona is very well positioned with filming, that it broadcasts the Barcelona brand and that we have to be a little more tolerant. I can be, but the money that the city council collects with the recordings do not revert to improving the neighborhood & rdquor ;, he opposes. “We do not receive compensation of any kind & rdquor ;, Lorenzo censors.
Barcelona amassed 537,090.26 euros in rates per recording in 2022, more than in any previous year. However, David does not feel that they revert to a location coveted as its street. “It cannot be that so many films are made in the same area. Sometimes it’s two a week. They should be distributed & rdquor ;, he suggests. The same idea other consulted voices express. The Barcelona Film Commission replies that “the spaces They can be repeated both as a filming scenario and as a parking lot for vehicles technicians”. “Neither in Barcelona nor in any other city in the world there is a limited supply of spaces and uses. Each space that the producers point out has a reason& rdquor;, he brandishes.