They will never win a Goya, but without them there would be no movies

When the screening of a film ends, the credits begin, that list that many viewers don't even see on their way out of the cinema.

They lose the minutes of all the workers who have set up this collective effort.

And there are hundreds, even thousands in the case of Marvel blockbusters, whose titles can last up to ten minutes.

However, each year 23 Oscars and 28 Goyas are awarded.

There is a plethora of professions without which there would never be any series or films, although they will never be recognized in those ceremonies.

The Hollywood Academy dedicates the technical Oscars to these little guys and the Spanish Film Academy, since 2010, the annual Tribute to Professionals.

Six days after the 36th delivery of the Goya,

meets with some veteran technicians to explain the ins and outs of unknown jobs to the public.

More information

This is how a shoot ends during the pandemic

The

script

in the film of the year.

The vocation of Lourdes Navarro (Segovia, 63 years old) was medicine, but one day she visited the filming of

(1984), by Pedro Olea.

“I was fascinated by that universe.

It seemed to me that this could not be work, but fun.

And as a woman, luckily she has changed today, she was destined for certain departments.

Of them, the script, next to the camera, made me fall in love”.

Her job is to give continuity to what is filmed.

The films are not filmed in chronological order, but a shot can be shot up to months after the previous one;

the

(They are usually women) check that everything fits: costumes, decoration, placement of the actors, direction of gaze, movements... “I try to do it with great care.

Each one has their method to avoid getting lost in the chaos that a shoot can be.

I am not methodical or orderly, but I have my way of working”.

In the case of Navarro, seconds before the director shouts action, he concentrates so that things are not lost.

“You adapt to the director, and he somewhat to you.

On a shoot, the films belong to the directors.

I like to be in my chair next to the combo [monitor through which the shot is seen]”.

And he confesses that too much heat or cold upsets him.

"I have a very special thermostat."

Your first professional job for him?

“After several short films and meritorious work, the TVE series

[1993]”.

Since then, she has accumulated fifty films and series.

The last shoot?

by Gerardo Herrero".

Do you like to repeat with teams?

“Sure, but I go where they call me.

Although it is true that I am the usual

of Enrique Urbizu, Ángeles González-Sinde, Fernando León or Gerardo Herrero.

And if they caught another one, I would be very sad.”

How do you live the success of

in which it was a

"My contribution is minimal, but I had never been in the considered film of the year, so I am proud as a mother."

By the way, in her case, her authentic daughter will not inherit her work, but her passion for movies: she is the actress Irene Escolar.

What is the success in her profession?

“That the public is not aware of what you do.

That they watch a movie without feeling that something strange has happened, like that a spoon has disappeared or that the actors do not look at each other in conversations, or that the light does not fit”.

His latest professional crush on her?

Arantxa Echevarria.

I have worked with her in

and we will repeat”.

Has technology changed your work?

"Enormously.

I still have the script full of annotations, and all the rest of the information on the tablet.

The rest only works with tablets.

I think directors still like to see the role.”

And he is already preparing for the next film, “in a few weeks with Alauda Ruiz de Azúa”.

Lourdes Navarro, 'script', photographed at the Ocho y Medio bookstore in Madrid.

She has participated in more than 100 movies.

At first, she did not believe that what she has ended up being her profession could even be considered a job.Francis Tsang

The boatswain of the shoots.

In a filming, the voices are not usually given by the director.

He doesn't even coordinate the teams.

Nor does he make sure that everything is ready when “Action” is heard.

That task falls to the assistant director, a kind of frigate bosun or in charge of setting the rhythm by beating the kettledrums to the galley slaves in his paddle that he rows.

“Some voice must be given, true, but I prefer to speak calmly and treat people with affection;

everyone has their own style”, confesses Daniela Forn (Barcelona, ​​50 years old).

Daughter of a director (Josep Maria Forn), she was attracted to architecture, but... “I entered the Centro Calasanz film school [when ESCAC did not exist], because I liked taking photos, hoping to enter Architecture.

It was an interim one-year plan.

The bug bit me and I stayed.”

His first job of hers?

“Meritorious in a film by my father,

in 1991. They gave me a

and wake up.

And he was happy as a second assistant until in 2001 in the European co-production

A week before that filming, which took place in several countries, arrived in Spain, the assistant resigned and I was promoted”.

Do you like her work?

"Very much.

He is addictive.

The good thing about this job is that everything is new.”

Did you ever consider directing or writing?

“To my father's horror, never.

You must have things to tell."

How would you define his work?

"As a coordinator who touches all the keys."

In his curriculum, films by Mario Camus, Jaume Balagueró, Woody Allen on two occasions, Claudia Llosa, Fernando González Molina or JA Bayona.

“I have a good time with everyone, although given the choice, I have always enjoyed Joaquín Oristrell a lot”.

Is there a difference between a Spanish filmmaker and a foreigner?

“It is only noticeable in the scope of the project, and in the end it is always the same.

You just have to fit the different ways of each department if they are from different countries.”

His last jobs?

by Neil Jordan, who has reproduced Los Angeles of the 1930s in Barcelona, ​​and

by Carla Simón.

It has been lucky: a story very attached to the land and with non-professional actors.

A pleasure".

And what next?

a period shoot in the Atacama desert in Chile with the Danish director Lone Scherfig”.

A trick in her work?

“Always adapt to the ways of the director.

You are here to help."

Daniela Forn, assistant director.

Daughter of the film director Josep Maria Forn, Daniela (pictured in Barcelona) was going to be an architect, until one day they put her in the shooting of a film by her father.

Today she is a different assistant director, one who never wanted to be a director.

And she still doesn't want it.

Vicens Gimenez (© Vicens Gimenez)

The women who put a face to Spanish cinema.

“When we retire, we will write a book and you will see, already”.

Yolanda Serrano (Zaragoza, 50 years old) and Eva Leira (Madrid, 52 years old) make up the great couple of

directors of Spanish cinema, with more than 130 films and series in the curriculum.

By the way,

or distribution?

"Now only Manolo [Martín Cuenca], who is a romantic, says cast."

The steps of Serrano and Leira intersected in the choice of actors for

(2003), and since then they have been the

directors for films by Martín Cuenca, Daniel Monzón, Pedro Almodóvar, Alberto Rodríguez, Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, Steven Soderbergh, Jim Jarmusch or Alejandro González Iñárritu, and series like

or

Is this about finding stars?

“No, that very cinematographic moment of the test, where one [Eva] takes the camera and another [Yolanda] gives the reply, it is just the end of a long road.

A lot has been thought and talked about before, and this work has a component of alchemy that is impossible to explain”.

And a lot of field work.

“Our work methodology has been created over time.

And we ask for about seven months for each project due to our level of involvement, to immerse ourselves in the trans collective as in

meet Sevillian kids as in

or delve into the Guinean universe as in

A difficult job?

“Find María Valverde for

or

due to time pressure”.

A movie that makes you proud?

by Alberto Rodríguez, because the cast is wonderful and it's an underrated drama."

But, we insist, have they discovered stars?

“We did not discover, but we bet or propose different names, such as Álvaro Morte for

Pablo Molinero for

Dani Rovira for

or María Valverde in

”.

Latest jobs completed?

by Oriol Paulo, the series

and now we're down to two movies that we can't mention.

With the platforms, the products have multiplied, and we have made up to eight per year.

But we yearn for different scripts, that make us fall in love and challenge us”.

And the legend that actors are hired by their followers on social networks?

“In our case, it is false.

Tell me a product that has been successful because its distribution had many

Another thing is that we also look at social networks.

The main thing is to communicate”.

Why are there no signs on the office door?

“So anyone can get in here.

We do not torture anyone.

We're just looking for a performer who, like Cinderella's shoe, fits the role like no other."

Don't miss the light.

In a polygon of Paracuellos del Jarama, a carom of life made MC Group, the company of Miguel Ángel Cárdenas (Madrid, 61 years old), be on Avenida de la Luz.

Two immense warehouses house material and vehicles to be able to provide service "up to three simultaneous shoots".

Cárdenas is head of electrical, a legendary team on the set.

They provide light and electricity.

How did he start?

“By family inheritance.

I had finished Psychology, I wanted to earn some money and I hooked up with my father at

[1987], a TVE series that was shot in cinema format.

Honestly, I thought it was going to be temporary.”

And until today.

“Before, I enjoyed work more.

A playful aspect that existed on the set has been lost.

Now there is a tension for quality that seems that more than making fiction you are saving lives.

A lightbulb burns out and exaggerated existential crises appear.”

How much has technology changed your work?

“Radically.

The devices are less bulky, more manageable;

in return you need more specialized people.

On a shoot today we are from six to nine electricians, and each one has a very specific job.

We have gone from transporting iron pots to being computer experts”.

How many people work at MC?

“It depends on the shoots, sometimes up to thirty.

We have offices in Andalusia and the Basque Country”.

How do you get along with cinematographers?

“When they hire you, you can't choose, although I like to repeat.

Of course, I prefer to work with projects with a certain impact and adequate budget”.

His first credit as head of electrical was in

(1989) —“we never imagined the repercussion it would have”— and since then,

or

A job that makes you proud?

“All movies have something.

I prefer to think about the journey, and not the result.

For example,

It was very hard because it was filmed on the beach and we were throwing hundreds of meters of cable across the sand, an element that made movement difficult.

And that on screen, luckily, is not noticeable.

Why aren't there more women in your industry?

“There are beginning to be.

Before, we were weighed down by the myth of the weight of our equipment, which in reality you carried among several”.

Will there be a third generation of illuminating Cárdenas?

"I don't know... my daughter is already making her first steps in makeup and prosthetics."

Miguel Ángel Cárdenas, head of electrical.

He is a classic.

And his guild, that of the electricians, key to understanding the dynamics that take place within a shoot.

Cárdenas poses in the warehouse of his company in Madrid. Gianfranco Tripodo

The expert in the landscape of the Basque Country.

Lupe Martínez (San Sebastián, 68 years old) has X-rayed and internalized the Basque Country and its surroundings by heart, because her CV says “head of locations”.

She looks for the best houses, flats, landscapes or towns to film series and movies.

“My work is done before the shoot, although I like to close the location, to be present when the crew leaves the place so that it remains the same as when we entered.

I am very fussy."

Martínez starts looking at the earliest three months before.

She “Take her time.

Because not only do you track those sites, but you have to negotiate with the owners, and we still lack a culture of renting for filming.”

How do you start as a locator?

“I was in the administration of ETB [Basque public television], from there I went to programs, and when they began shooting their first series outdoors,

[1994], I went with a colleague to locate”.

His first big job of hers?

[1999], with James Bond for Bilbao.

I didn't see myself qualified, but they insisted...”.

His interlocutors are the art director, the producer and finally, the director.

"And that it be very close to elbow."

A special job?

“The Bond one, for my beginning, and

by Telmo Esnal, for how the landscapes completed the artistic commitment”.

Has technology changed your job?

“Yes, I store everything digitally, no more collecting photos and data, and packing and sending the information by plane.

Also, landscapes change.

Two years ago we shot the series

and today they are no longer standing.

Better to digitally refresh the files.”

Does the public know your work?

“No, but there is currently a lot of interest in where what you have seen is filmed.

There is a very active film tourism”.

An example?

“Coaches with visitors still go to where

such as the house in Leitza [Navarra] or the hermitage of San Telmo de Zumaia [Gipuzkoa]”.

Is the Basque Country experiencing a

of filming?

“Yes, because in a short distance there is a lot of different landscape.

Right now I'm with two series,

for Netflix, and the Balenciaga designer, and a movie, and I've had to give up another shoot.

Today I allow myself to choose”.

Lupe Martínez, head of locations.

Pictured in the basements of Madrid's Plaza de España.

She is a specialist in locations in the Basque Country.

Her first big job was in a 'James Bond' film. Francis Tsang

Removing the moles from Elena Anaya.

Sonsoles Aranguren (Madrid, 49 years old) is a composer or

visual effects

Nothing to do with music, but with the digital retouching of plans or their improvement by adding elements.

So she spends hours and hours in front of the computer, superimposing explosions, hairs, removing streetlights in period films, taking care of every detail... “Sometimes you get very tired of so much work and some capricious client who does not understand everything ”.

Because her day-to-day life includes improving the appearance of, for example, Elena Anaya's artificial skin and removing her freckles in

"I respect Pedro Almodóvar a lot, because he is one of those directors who understands the effects and knows what we can bring to him."

Aranguren points out: “Because of some rejuvenations forced by

I joked with a colleague that we would have to create a company called Divina Digital.

You erase herpes, scars, tattoos, you spend seven hours on a hair... We are pixel microsurgeons”.

How do you get started on this?

“In 2002 I lived in London, I had been an actress [she was a child star in

and a friend told me that in Madrid they were looking for teachers of this.

I used to work in human resources at the Reuters agency... and it was a revelation.

I signed up for all kinds of schools, soaked in it.

In 2006 I already started working as a

, and soon I entered El Ranchito, with

and his blood spurts”.

Now he is in the Myopia company.

"You are moving as

behind the projects."

Sonsoles Aranguren, visual effects specialist.

Photographed in his studio in Madrid.

Aranguren defines her role as that of a kind of pixel microsurgeon.

Erase moles, age, rejuvenate.

His work must be invisible. Gianfranco Tripodo

A movie that makes you proud?

When we saw it complete we were amazed.

The additions of him, those 2D touch-ups, my specialty, that give dirt to the tidal wave, added to the narrative ”.

What is 2D?

“There are two types of effects.

Those filmed to add to the main photography, as if it were a collage, later on the computer are the 2D ones.

The 3D ones are those created digitally”.

Is visual effects supervision the logical advancement of every

“Not always, because as a supervisor, and I have just been in

you dedicate yourself to organizing.

There is a

in work, I advise those who do not know what to do, to dedicate themselves to this.

I have a great time with movies like

o

a creative documentary in which Helena de Llanos had to be put on the same plane as her grandfather, the late Fernando Fernán Gómez”.

Does it matter to you that the viewer values ​​her work?

"I almost prefer that they don't see it, that they don't even wonder if there have been effects."

Any future wishes?

"Work more with directors, like Michel Gondry, who use effects as part of their narrative, who understand them as a poetic tool."

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