‘Money Heist’ Creator Alex Pina Talks New Present ‘Billionaires’ Bunker’

In 2019, making “Money Heist Season 3,” Netflix and creators Alex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato took Spanish TV to a brand new manufacturing stage. 

Now they appear poised to do the identical with thriller “Billionaire’s Bunker,” poised for launch on Sept. 19 and shot at Netflix’s Tres Cantos European Production Center, its largest studio complicated within the European Union, and its most main high-tech hub there

“In not only budget but narrative language and structure and character build, it’s the most ambitious series I’ve seen in the history of Spain,” Diego Ávalos, Netflix VP of content material, Spain, Portugal mentioned on as set go to on Tuesday to Netflix’s Production Center and a “Billionaire’s Bunker” megaset, in close by village Colmenar Viejo.

6,200 sq. meters (66,700 sq. ft) in dimension, its greater than 100 interconnected areas supplied a extra immersive expertise for the work crews. The bunker is after all claustrophobic, however alos critically luxurious sufficient to steer billionaires that they may spends weeks, moths of even years there,” mentioned Ávalos.

“Billionaires’ Bunker” can also be the primary Netflix collection in Spain which makes in depth use of digital manufacturing.  

The collection additionally delivers a trenchant critique of the ethical miseries of the richest 0.1% on the planet, which for the grace of God and governments, directs humanity’s future.  

“Billionaire’s Bunker” begins as WWIII seems prefer it’s nearly to interrupt out. Max (Pau Simón), his enchantment profitable, is met on the jail gates by a contrite dad and rushed to Kimera Underground Park, an ultra-luxury secret billionaires’ bunker 900 ft under the bottom, as fighter jets cross over head and households rush to the vehicles to flee the large metropolis. 

Max and his household watch in dazed amazement at telecasts on the bunker present the world destroyed by nuclear struggle.

But Max and Guillermo’s household have unfinished enterprise. Drunk, drugged, Max drove his dad’s automotive into tree. Ane, his girlfriend, died. He is sentenced to jail for involuntary manslaughter. Ane’s father, Guillermo, and sister Alice, each within the bunker, nonetheless hate is guts.

Produced for Netflix by Vancouver Media, Pina and Martínez Lobato’s Madrid-based label, “Billionaires’ Bunker” begins off with an apocalyptical tone, then we go on to a enjoyable fiction present. You begin with one style, you then preserve altering style, like a Russian Doll. This is totally totally different to something we’ve completed earlier than,” mentioned Pina.

“The show does make reference to the current geopolitical situation but it’s more about the journey of characters, more about an emotional journey,” Pina added. 

“This is a show about large deceptions and big secrets,” Martínez Lobato teased on the set go to. “The change of genre is counterbalanced by the ensemble cast and strong character creation. Different viewers will fall in love with different characters for different reasons,” Avalós noticed.

“In a way, ‘Billionaires’ Bunker” goes additional than ‘Money Heist,’” Pina mentioned. “Trapped in the bunker, they lose hope. All that’s left to them is to take off their masks and be themselves.”

“Billionaire’s Bunker” can also be dystopian actuality thriller, the imaginative and prescient of a high-tech bunker-hotel which wears its personal high-tech craft and manufacturing and digital manufacturing values on its sleeve. 

Painted in turquoise and amber colours, the bunker imitated put up WWII minimalism and Bauhaus, famous Vancouver Media’s Abdón Alcañiz, artwork director, bodily manufacturing. “We were looking for a strong visual identity. We’d learnt that from ‘Money Heist.’ Visual identity is a way to reach the international market. It’s a selling point as strong as the star system,” mentioned Pina.

Pina and Martínez Lobato’s first manufacturing since “Berlin,” it encompasses 4,800 extras and over 7,000 sq. meters (75,000 sq. ft) of units and greater than 160 set items, requiring over seven months of development.

The bunker context had knocks-on for the narrative, Pina argued. “The fact of shooting in a confined space enhances creativity. It’s actually the fourth show we’ve done in a confined space. It’s like a pressure cooker. You can enhance the drama and the characters. They can go crazy. The romantic side is more romantic the dramatic more dramatic.”

From Rear Projection to In-Camera VFX

The Netflix Spain mega-production additionally used a 30 x 6 meter digital display and an 8 x 4 meters ceiling display.

For years now, Netflix has been upping the ante on high-tech change. “We were the first to introduce HDR, Dolby Atmos, new post-production workflows and one of the first to use virtual sound and virtual productions,” Ávalos has mentioned. “It’s incredible to see how all of a sudden technical challenges to create more unique storytelling were now being solved first by non-English language markets, and by people who have always had to make every penny count.”

“Berlin” nonetheless made use of conventional rear projection, although on the finish it examined digital manufacturing. “Billionaires’ Bunker” was shot in HDR and Dolby Atmos. It was additionally the primary Netflix present in Spain with actually in depth digital manufacturing utilization by way of in-camera VFX, mentioned Victor Martí, Netflix head of manufacturing.

Three elements mark that change, he added. Netflix started to work with David Monguet, a digital manufacturing supervisor. Over the final two years, Netflix has developed an open-source instrument, Open VPCal, that sychnronizes shade digital camera areas with a LED panel, permitting for complicated in-camera VFX, with rather more VFX being moved from put up to pre-production. Also, Martí mentioned, the costs of LED panels are coming down.   

At the Tres Cantos Netflix Production Center press go to, Martí and Migue Amoedo, Vancouver Media’s co-executive producer and visible designer, drilled down on high-tech innovation by way of a demo at its Stage 7 digital manufacturing set. 

Used extensively on the total season’s 160 sequences, the spectacular outcomes of in-camera VFX could be seen in a single memorable opening credit score sequence early on in “Billionaires’ Bunker” the place the digital camera drifts in by way of blue sky and lacy white clouds encircling three glinting tower-blocks to lastly relaxation on a determine in a single, in an workplace, staring exterior by way of a window.

“Alex [Pina] had noticed the clouds around Madrid’s highest tower-blocks. He said he wanted a scene,” Amoedo recalled. Pina bought it. 

Amoedo and Martí additionally displayed on the enveloping 180-degree LED display a collection of Madrid cityscapes from nightfall, heat daylight nonetheless caught on occasional buildings, to nighttime, vehicles trawling down its central Paseo de la Castellana.

“With showrunners the potential of in-camera VFX means that their creativity explodes,” Amoedo commented.

Pina agreed. “Quite recently, I phoned Migue and asked for a man and a dog in a cage on a river, at night, with rain.”

No doubt he bought that shot as effectively.