The group has acquired Colour Studio and created COLOUR by Mediapro, a company offering a full suite of post-production services
GRUP MEDIAPRO has launched a new post-production center in Uruguay. The group has announced the incorporation of Colour Studio, a Uruguayan color correction and special effects company that has operated in the country since 2014. Equipped with the latest technology, the center offers the complete suite of post-production services needed for any audiovisual project, including color correction, VFX, clean-up, mastering, deliveries and even datalab services – data management for the audiovisual environment. This facility has the technical capacity to handle up to 5 projects simultaneously.
The incorporation of Colour Studio into GRUP MEDIAPRO combines the expertise of the Uruguayan team with the technology and international reach of the audiovisual group, which has operated in the Americas for more than 25 years and carries out activities linked to sports and content production.
The choice of Uruguay as a location in which to expand Mediapro's operations is not incidental. GRUP MEDIAPRO president and founding partner Tatxo Benet: “Uruguay is a country with first-rate professionals and a tax incentive system making it a very attractive location for major international productions. GRUP MEDIAPRO has had a presence in Uruguay for various years and with very good results. In 2023, Cimarrón joined forces with The Mediapro Studio and now the launch of COLOUR by Mediapro is another step forward in our strategy of expansion and diversification in order to provide our clients with services across the full audiovisual production chain.”
José D'Amato, Country Manager of Mediapro Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, adds: “We have been working in Montevideo since 2019. We provide services for CONMEBOL from here, and since 2022 have operated the VAR for the Uruguayan Football Association. We feel very comfortable working with our colleagues from this sister nation, with which we have a shared history, and we’re really excited about this new post-production facility. From here we will offer services based on cutting-edge technology and a team of respected and experienced professionals”.
Coproduced by 100 Balas (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO), the series was created by Diego San José and stars Carmen Machi
'Celeste', the Movistar Plus+ original series, is set to premiere in its entirety on the platform on Thursday November 14th. The series, created by Diego San José and directed by Elena Trapé, comprises six episodes and stars Carmen Machi, Manolo Solo, Andrea Bayardo, Antonio Durán ‘Morris’, Aixa Villagrán, Clara Sans, Jesús Noguero and Marc Soler. 'CELESTE' is a Movistar Plus+ original in co-production with 100 Balas (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO).
'Celeste' at the Serielizados Fest 2024
'Celeste’ was presented at the last San Sebastían Film Festival in the Velodrome section with an excellent audience reaction and also took part in the Official National Section at the Serielizados Fest in Barcelona where the first three episodes were screened on Thursday October 17th and which also featured a post-screening round table with Diego San José, Carmen Machi, Clara Sans and Marc Soler.
Plot
Celeste is a star of the Latin music scene. Her songs are worldwide hits. Her concerts fill stadia. She’s got her own perfume brand, underwear collections, and hair which reaches her waistline to promote her own shampoo. But this series isn’t really about her. The true star of 'Celeste' is Sara Santano, a Tax Inspector who has devoted her whole life to tax collection. It’s the only thing she’s known since she passed her state entrance exams in her 20’s and she’s given it her all in the 30 years since working for the Tax Office and now it’s time to hang up her boots. Or that’s what she thought. Because on the last day in her job, she receives the most important request of her career, prove that Celeste, the great Latin music star, lives in Spain and she has to pay her taxes there. A mission which has 20 million euros in play for the Spanish treasury. Sara will have to put her life to one side and delve into Celeste’s and prove that she spent 184 days in Spain. Half a year plus one day.
The tech innovation from Unilumin, the world’s leading LED screen manufacturer, boasts over 44 million pixels
GRUP MEDIAPRO, a leading European company in the audiovisual sector, has just installed its latest addition to the group’s virtual production studios in Barcelona, located in the city’s 22@ tech district. The LED screen measuring an impressive 210m², wall and ceiling, and boasting over 44 million pixels will enable the group to deliver commercial and filming projects with the highest quality and image definition. This latest tech innovation is a direct result of the agreement signed between the group and UNILUMIN, the world's largest manufacturer of LED screens.
Virtual production is one of GRUP MEDIAPRO's strategic lines of business. In addition to the facilities in Barcelona, the group already has the technology installed at its headquarters in Miami, the largest virtual set in Southern Florida, and in New York, with an area of 1,200m².
VP helps the advertising company, commercial production company and film shooting company to save costs, and bring creative ideas to life. The LED screens of the new VP studio are supplied by Unilumin which is a professional LED application pioneer. The screens featuring with high resolution which ensures the clarity and detail of the virtual scene, making the virtual scene more realistic. At the same time, it has a high refresh rate, smoothness and stability of the image, and reduces the image delay and tearing phenomenon to meet the shooting needs of high-speed dynamic scenes. Plus, avoid lag or out-of-sync issues during real-time rendering and shooting. Matches with the leading technology and equipment of GRUP MEDIAPRO, making an amazing effort for the VP. GRUP MEDIAPRO’s technology and Unilumin’s LEDs offer you with efficient and creative Virtual Production, making possible to happen.
'The 47' and the series 'Celeste', 'Quiet’, season three of 'The Head' and season two of 'The Famous Five' are among this year’s major premieres
The Mediapro Studio Distribution will be back at MIPCOM this year with a fresh slate of titles spanning a wide variety of genres, such as films, series, documentaries and entertainment shows, with productions already released as well as content in development, plus international productions and content in English. “We are very proud of the content that we bring to the market this year, an edition of MIPCOM that will be special for several reasons – with Spain as ‘Country of Honor’ and THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO presenting its new projects in production in the United States,” said Marta Ezpeleta, head of The Mediapro Studio Distribution.
'Quiet’ and 'Celeste' are two of the main fiction highlights in the company's portfolio this year. 'Quiet', created by Lluís Arcarazo, is an eight-episode thriller co-produced with 3Cat – set to premiere on TV3 and the 3Cat platform – and stars David Verdaguer, Ángela Cervantes and Álex Brendemühl. Based on a true story, the series is set in a Barcelona under lockdown and follows the police search for a killer targeting homeless people.
‘Celeste’, Diego San José's new series, produced by 100 Balas (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) in co-production with Movistar Plus+, revolves around a government tax inspector, played by Carmen Machi, who is assigned the most important case of her career just when she is about to retire. Consisting of six episodes directed by filmmaker Elena Trapé, it will be released in full on November 14 on Movistar Plus+ after its run at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
‘The Head’, THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO's leading international franchise and one of the company's most important productions, returns for its third and final season. This brings an end to the trilogy, which achieved enormous success and distribution in more than 90 countries in its first two seasons. And big news in international content this edition is season two of 'The Famous Five', a reimagining for TV of the iconic novels by Enid Blyton, produced by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO with the BBC, from an adaptation created by filmmaker Nicholas Winding Refn and Moonage Pictures.
The company’s catalog of international content also now features two new fiction series: ‘Fusion’ and ‘Tales From The Void’. Co-produced by Erik Barmack’s Wild Sheep Content in alliance with THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO, ‘Fusion’ is a Nordic noir thriller starring Icelandic actor Ólafur Darri ('True Detective') as a talented chef who tries to clear his name and win back his family after wrongful imprisonment. ‘Tales From The Void’, produced by The Exchange and with an expert creative team specializing in the horror genre, led by David Cummings, explores the most viral and haunting tales from Reddit’s NoSleep community for original horror stories, which has more than 18 million members.
In cinema, ‘The 47' comes to the market still in the afterglow of making the strongest premiere of the season in Spanish movie theaters, taking more than €2 million at the box office and notching up over 350,000 spectators. And this year's new movie release is ‘Transmitzvah', the film that marks the return to directing by Daniel Burman and which debuted in movie theaters in Argentina on October 10.
In unscripted content, this year the company presents the format ‘Crush’, recently adapted for Televisa in Mexico; the debate show ‘59 Seconds’, produced by Globomedia (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) and which has just premiered on RTVE; and two new formats featuring Berto Romero: '‘Replicant Sheep’, which takes a fresh and original look at how literature is reflected in popular culture and is produced by K 2000 (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) and broadcast on RTVE's La 2; and 'Ask Berto’, a very innovative format produced by El Terrat (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) for Movistar Plus+ in which Berto Romero answers questions that are as down-to-earth as they are incredible. Also in the portfolio and in the adventure reality category is ‘The Uprising’, a new competition produced by Globomedia (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO), which is currently being shot in Galicia and slated for release there on regional public TV channel TVG.
Other unscripted titles include hits like ‘The Conqueror’, the most extreme and most successful reality show on TV in Spain with 20 seasons screened on ETB; ‘Catch me if you can’, a format that since its premiere on ETB2 in 2014 has expanded to 11 regional channels in Spain, with adaptations ranking among the most watched programs on these channels; and the docureality ‘400’, created by El Terrat and screened on the Valencian regional channel À Punt, in which each week, presenter Pere Aznar accompanies the staff of a different charitable organization in search of reasons to overcome challenges and find happiness.
PHOTO 1: 'The Famous Five' / PHOTO 2: 'The Head' / PHOTO 3: ‘Transmitzvah’ / PHOTO 4: 'Quiet'
Filming set to get underway in the first quarter of 2025 with a script written by Paco León and Fer Pérez, a scriptwriter for the original series
Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the farewell to the ‘Aida’ series, one of Spanish TV’s and Telecinco Mediaset Spain’s most successful fiction series of all time, with their film production subsidiary Telecinco Cinema, and Globomedia (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) they’ve launched the film project which will see the series turned into a movie featuring the legendary series’ most popular characters.
From Telecinco Cinema, the producers of the new film are slated to be Ghislain Barrois and Álvaro Augustin, and from Globomedia (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) Laura Fdez. Espeso and Javier Mendez.
Paco León, one of the leading actors from the comedy series and with four feature-length films under his belt will be directing the project (‘Carmina o Revienta’, ‘Carmina y Amén’, ‘Kiki, el amor se hace’ and ‘Rainbow’), as well as writing the script alongside Fer Pérez, a writer for ‘Aida’ since 2007.
“Since the end of the series, there’s been a huge demand from audiences and also from the production team to see a reunion. When I was first approached to lead the project, I wasn’t convinced but then the idea of a film came to me and now we’re all hands on deck to get it done. It’s going to be exciting return to Esperanza Sur for everyone”, commented Paco León.
“It’s not as easy as it might appear to revisit such an emblematic brand and turn it into a film. In fact, the project didn’t come about until the cast of the series got together for a celebration and the topic came up in conversation and that was the catalyst for the project. It’s not going to be just another episode for the cinema screen. Paco León’s big idea is to transport the characters and their surroundings to a story which blends both universes but also brings a greater narrative depth to the original formula”, adds Ghislain Barrois, Director of Telecinco Cinema.
“Aída’ was one of the most successful and cherished TV productions, loved by audiences and made history on Spanish TV and was a huge hit wherever it was broadcast. The series featured a stellar cast whose characters became part of the viewers’ lives. To have Paco León on board leading the project and with Mediaset España is a privilege which at the same time is a huge motivation”, commented Laura Fdez. Espeso, CEO at THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO.
The project, which is set to see filming get underway in the first quarter of 2025, is a Telecinco Cinema/Globomedia (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) production with the participation of Mediaset España, Mediterráneo Mediaset España Group and Prime Video, where it will be available after its run at the cinema.
‘Aída’, a TV and social phenomenon
Launched in 2005 as a spin-off of the fiction series (‘7 Vidas’) which was produced in Spain, ‘Aída’ quickly became a huge TV hit with more than 6.8 million viewers (36% share) seeing the first episode, which set the record for the production. In its 237 episodes, ‘Aída’ averaged a 21.1% share and 3,954,000 viewers with a particularly loyal younger audience.
Thanks to its range of characters who were highly recognizable, the ‘Aída’ phenomenon quickly transcended TV screens and rapidly became a social phenomenon. With more than 60 cameos from people across acting, music and sports, ‘Aída’ won more than 25 industry awards with highlights being four Ondas Awards, 5 Iris TV Academy awards, 5 Fotogramas awards and 5 Actors’ Union accolades.
A 70-strong team from across GRUP MEDIAPRO companies equipped with 2 OB vans and 20 4K cameras covered the event
MEDIAPRO BMS was responsible for the production of the Youtubers Big Match, a DJMariio initiative, which brought together content creators from Spain and France on October 12th. Several GRUP MEDIAPRO companies, including Eumovil, provided services for the production whIch featured 73 staff with 2 OB vans and 20 4K cameras including several slow mo’s a film quality steady cam and a drone for the aerial shots.
The group was also responsible for the graphics package which used a tracking system mounted on a drone, as well as a television set for both the match preview and post-match analysis and a pitch-side set. The production team used latest generation broadcast equipment (1080 50p) and generated different signals for national and international broadcasts as well as a vertical format for social media and a customised feed for France.
The Youtubers Match, which saw Spain take on France at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, notched up an audience of close to 1.5 million viewers.
