How to organise a shoot in Barcelona when your brand is based abroad

Why so many brands choose Barcelona to shoot

Barcelona packs into a small area things that elsewhere require travel: modernist and gothic architecture, contemporary neighbourhoods, an urban beach, hills minutes away and, within an hour, villages, vineyards, coves and arid landscapes. Mediterranean light allows outdoor shooting for much of the year. The city also has a film and advertising industry experienced with international work: crews, rental houses, studios and production services used to working with brands from abroad. For a foreign brand, that means shooting several very different locations in just a few days.

What the local production company does

The local production company is your hands and eyes in the city. It scouts and proposes locations, applies for permits, hires the crew, runs casting for actors or models, rents cameras, lights and vehicles, sorts transport, catering and accommodation, and coordinates the schedule. If your agency or director comes from abroad, the production company completes the team with local people; if not, it can also provide direction and creative. In Spain, filming permits depend on each town hall, and in the city they are handled by the Barcelona Film Commission: we explain it in which permits you need to film in Barcelona and the Baix Llobregat.

How it is prepared remotely

Almost all pre-production can be done without travelling. It starts with a call about the brief and references, and the production company prepares a location proposal with photos and videos of each place at the planned time of day. Casting is done through video selects and, if needed, live auditions over video call. Before the shoot, a document is locked with the shooting plan, crew, schedule and contacts, and a final meeting is held with everyone involved. The clearer the brief from the start, the less back and forth.

On shoot day, here or from home

Many brands send one or two people to supervise, and the production company welcomes them and makes sure they do not have to worry about anything else. When travel is not possible, the shoot can be followed live: the main camera feed is streamed over the internet so the brand team sees every take from their office and approves on the spot. That saves travel and lets the right people make the decisions. Language is not an issue either if the production company works in English: the whole process, from proposal to delivery, can run in English.

Shooting with Bostak in Barcelona

At Bostak Films, a production company and creative agency based in Viladecans, a few minutes from Barcelona El Prat airport, we work in English, Spanish and Catalan with brands from Spain and abroad. We handle full production in Barcelona, Catalonia and the rest of Spain, and travel wherever needed, as we did to shoot the Jaray fashion film in Granada. We can take on just the local production or the idea and post-production as well. If you are thinking of shooting in Barcelona, tell us about the project; here is how we work as a production company in Barcelona.

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