From the entrance to Zinealdea, a gigantic complex within an industrial area in Oiartzun, 10 kilometers from San Sebastián and a similar distance from France, you can see the green and rocky relief of Peñas de Aia that separates Guipúzcoa and Navarre. But the horizons of this project are even further away. The interior of this 18,000 square foot space was the Parisian studio of designer Cristóbal Balenciaga in the upcoming first Disney+ original series in Spain and the mysterious study center of El Internado: Las Cumbres for Amazon Prime Video and the Mediapro Studio. In the early days of last December, it mutated again to house, in yet another of its reincarnations, a perfect reproduction of the terrifying hermitage that hosts the new work by filmmaker Carlota Pereda (Cerdita). Given the ambitious studios that Netflix has created in Tres Cantos (Madrid) to consolidate the filming of many of its blockbusters, Zinealdea is seen as an alternative to other production companies and platforms in what is believed to be the largest set in the Basque Country.
The leader of this project, Elena Salegui, has experience in the world of architecture. Together with a team of professionals, he combined his knowledge with his personal passion for television and cinema to design this vertically conceived construction. “The territory in this part of Spain is very rugged and expensive, so we thought of concentrating all our needs in a smaller area,” she herself told this newspaper as she freely roamed the vast labyrinth of her facilities. The building is divided into six levels, with studios, sets, cloakrooms, dressing rooms, warehouses, offices, a restaurant and hundreds of parking spaces. It’s a micro-city that also benefits from its exterior. “Within a radius of less than 200 kilometers we have many different landscapes: sea, mountains, cities, medieval castles, desert areas [en la Ribera navarra]…” emphasizes Salegui.
Part of the filming of Disney+’s Balenciaga at Basque Studios David Herranz
The two main sets offer the possibility to shoot as if you were outside, with the certainty of being inside. Both exceed more than 15 meters in height. In such dimensions, a cliff, the mentioned hermitage and even multi-storey facades have already been built on it. Transparent and made of reinforced concrete, they are insulated and soundproofed, soundproof, echoproof and weatherproof. “No plane noise, no thunder, no rain creeps in here…nothing,” says the manager. The idea has always been that Zinealdea is more than just a filming or recording location, that the vast space brings together an entire ecosystem of technical services to relieve the teams who reside there of the economic and logistical complexities that it involves brings means the implementation of an audiovisual production. The tax incentives approved for this year 2023 also aim to turn the area into a long-awaited little Basque Hollywood. In several provinces of the region, from this month of January, these discounts can reach up to 70% in the audiovisual production sector, as a deduction for expenses incurred during recording or filming.
The beginnings of the project were not easy. It was conceived in the mid-2000s, although construction of the building began in 2010. Two years later, the economic crisis prompted those in charge to leave it derelict before completing its facilities, as Spanish audiovisual facilities suffered from filming stops. “We believed in the potential of our industry right from the start. We waited and waited until we understood that we could move on,” Salegui recalls. The idea was revived in 2018.
Iñaki Gómez, film producer responsible for Basque cinema hits like Handia (2017) and Loreak (2014) with his company Bixagu Entertainment, is shooting La ermita in Zinealdea in collaboration with Filmax. “There are no such institutions in the Basque Country. Previously, the task of locating interiors was more complicated in this region. We shot where we could because there was nothing else, with all that meant sound, light and noise… The conditions were more than precarious and the leap in quality was appreciated,” he comments during a break at one of the last days of film work in this audiovisual complex.
“La Ermita”, the new film directed by Carlota Pereda, is one of the latest projects shot in Zinealdea.david herranz
innovation and entertainment
Once found the way, these big studios have been looking for a versatility that isn’t just attractive for big productions. Commercials, documentaries and entertainment programs are produced on its smaller sets. This newspaper visited the facilities in December, when the shooting of Carlota Pereda’s film was taking place, while in another corner of the industrial complex works Vidext, a startup founded by twenty-somethings that innovates in the field of professional video. Its technology, similar to that of deepfake, makes it possible to synchronize the vocalization of texts with the same person’s face and make it appear that they vocalize natively in more than 40 different languages. With a single recording session, you can create content for much of the world without the need for subtitles. And a few meters away, everything is ready to start interviewing the participants of a new Survivors-style adventure competition that Basque television will broadcast this season. In addition to hosting studios with Chroma and white Cyclorama, Zinealdea seeks to make the space as sustainable as possible, using water, light, food, and even prop materials, while fulfilling similar roles as an eco-manager advising film crews on ecological issues.
Kube, the largest set in Zinealdea, more than 15 meters high. Image courtesy of Zinealdea
In the years to come, his managers hope to attract production from the south of France and even provide a talent pool for an industry that is booming and where some of its professions are suffering from a lack of specialists. That is why there is already a school that offers its students the opportunity to do internships in one of the many projects housed there. And this at a time when the Basque audiovisual industry has just won several nominations in the technical categories of the Goya Prize, with productions such as Cinco lobitos and Irati. “We love showing children the building through their schools and running workshops with them. We want them to know the audiovisual industry and know that it is alive; and that they can also find a future in this part of Spain,” defends the head of the center.
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