Spanish Scripted Indie Insights: Plano a Plano (Netflix’s ‘Valeria’)

Scar / Cicatriz (Source: Plano a Plano)

Spanish drama is reaching new shores around the world but what do the producers behind these shows make of the industry & its prospects for the future?

In this new strand of articles, TBI hears from the owners of four major Spanish indies to get their takes on the business. Today, we hear from Plano a Plano’s owner & exec producer César Benítez (CB), partner & head of business development Álvaro Benítez (AB) and Emilio Amaré (EA), partner and CEO.

Are you expecting the coming year to offer more opportunities than 2023 or fewer? Why?
CB: For Plano a Plano, 2023 has been a very positive year. During this period, we finished shooting Una Vida Menos En Canarias, our fourth series with Atresmedia and we started shooting our big international bet, the series Scar (aka Cicatriz), an adaptation of the best seller by Juan Gómez-Jurado. It is a co-production with Dopamine led by Plano a Plano in which we have had the collaboration of Asacha Media Group and Adrenalin, and whose windows will be RTVE, Prime Video Spain, Telekom Srbija and Canal+ Poland.

Cesar Benitez (Source: Plano a Plano)

We also released the third season of Valeria and Un Cuento Perfecto, both on Netflix, reaching the number one place worldwide and remaining in the top 10 in more than 28 and 78 countries respectively for more than six consecutive weeks.

Although the global outlook offers great uncertainty, with a redefinition of strategy for many players and cutbacks in investments, 2024 looks very promising for Plano a Plano, with a volume of projects even higher than in recent years. We have two fiction premieres planned; we will shoot La Tregua, our first feature film; we will probably shoot a scripted series for a free-to-air channel, for which we are currently in the development phase; and we have confirmed the shooting of two series for worldwide platforms with which we hope to repeat our successes.

Fortunately, Plano a Plano is a recognised label in the Spanish audiovisual industry and we are privileged to be working with all the national free-to-air channels and with most of the platforms operating in our country. In this tumultuous moment that the sector is going through, we believe that clients want more than ever to work with reliable production companies and we already have a solid track record in the sector.

What do you foresee as the biggest challenge for your business in 2024?

AB: In a sector as global as the audiovisual industry, international co-production is fundamental for the strengthening of production companies, but also of the sector itself. It is an opportunity to retain rights, to participate in more ambitious projects and to expand our client portfolio beyond our borders.

For this reason, at Plano a Plano we are committed to the internationalisation of our projects (both in terms of content and marketing) and, without a doubt, this is a path we will continue to work on. The Scar (Cicatriz) project is a good example and the first step on this new and exciting business path.

Alvaro Benitez (source: Plano a Plano)

We are very proud of this scripted series because it is our first international co-production. It has been a long road with which we have achieved something pioneering: the first collaboration of these characteristics between fiction from Spain, the Adriatic region and Poland. We are right now in the middle of shooting, between Spain and Serbia.

We also have new international co-production projects in different stages of development and financing with companies in territories such as the UK, Israel, US and Germany, among others. The challenge is to turn them into reality and get them into production by 2024. We want the Plano a Plano brand to have the same recognition outside Spain that we have in our country.

Another of our challenges for next year is that for the first time in the history of our production company we are going to produce our first feature film. Also, as an international co-production (with Kazakhstan), we will maintain a high pace of series production and, at the same time, we will add to our product portfolio with the film La Tregua – we want to show once again the versatility of an independent production company like Plano a Plano. It’s a new way for us to tell stories.

Budgets seem to be stagnating in Spain but also globally. How are you planning to navigate this?

EA: The stagnation of budgets that is expected in the coming years will be another wave that we will have to surf in order to continue producing and generating valuable IP’s. Adapting to market changes is key to survival in the changing ecosystem that is the audiovisual industry. We are an independent production company. We don’t have any big audiovisual group to back us up, to provide us with financing, to help us grow – and we are one of the few remaining in Spain like this.

Emilio Amare (Source: Plano a Plano)

But this also offers something positive and that is that it allows us to move with more agility to these changes in the sector. Depending solely on ourselves has also forced us to work harder to stay above the line, making all our projects grow, taking care of each production to achieve quality products for our clients and their viewers. It is a challenge, an almost daily challenge.

Returning to the question about the stagnation of budgets, the truth is that we hope that this will be a new impulse to co-production models, which will allow producers to finance productions with different windows and allow channels/platforms to acquire more content and quality, but with a lower level of risk.

Where is the biggest opportunity for growth for your business this year?
CB: Undoubtedly, cinema and international co-productions of series. Regarding the former, entering the film industry is something we have been wanting to do for a long time and now we have the opportunity to start with a big budget project like La Tregua. With more than 15 series projects for the majority of national players and platforms, we have taken great care in choosing what will be our letter of introduction to the film world.

Scar / Cicatriz (Source: Plano a Plano)

This project gives me a double illusion since it is my return to cinema after a long period without having produced this type of fiction. In my previous stint at Boca a Boca, I produced almost 30 feature films that were great successes and La Tregua is a return to my origins since the world of cinema was my start in this sector. Throughout my career I have worked with great directors such as Pilar Miró, Luís García Berlanga, Paul Verhoeven or Mario Camús, and I am particularly excited to be working on a film project again.

La Tregua is a co-production with Kazakhstan that will be shot both there and in Spain. In the story, two groups of Spanish soldiers who fought against each other during the Civil War, some Republicans and others from the Blue Division, end up living together in a Soviet Gulag in distant Kazakhstan. There they will be forced to join forces and leave their differences aside to survive between the barbed wire.

As for international co-productions of series, it is key for us to continue working on this model. We have opened our way with Scar (Cicatriz) and we are determined to continue seeking financing for new stories through this path, which has allowed us to put together an ambitious project, retain ownership of the series and work with new clients outside of Spain.