Photo credit: Netflix
This week, we, along with leading industry journalists from Hollywood, as well as local journalists from across Europe, South Africa and the Middle East, were invited to tour Netflix’s production facility in Tres Cantos, just north of Madrid, Spain.
If you missed our first two reports from our Tres Cantos visit, we published them on Wednesday and Thursday: on Wednesday we told you about our visit to the set of Breathless (Respira), and on Thursday we told you about our visit to the set of the upcoming period comedy The Lady’s Companion (Manual para señoritas).
Below we share everything else we learned on the tour, which included several set visits, edit room tours, roundtable discussions, etc. The tour was primarily led by Larry Tanz (VP Content EMEA), Diego Ávalos (VP Content Spain, Portugal and Nordics) and Victor Marti Farres (Director Production and Post-Production, Spain).
Photo: Larry Tanz, Diego Avalos, Victor Martí Juarez – Netflix
The production center is nearing its fifth anniversary and has been home to several major productions over the years, with Society of the Snow perhaps being the best example of the center taking full advantage of its latest state-of-the-art facilities. Other shows that have been filmed here include La Casa de Papel and its spin-off Berlin, Valeria and Elite.
The facility is the largest filming location in the European Union, covering over 22,000 square meters. It has 10 stages, each equipped with “complementary facilities such as storage and office space, backstage, make-up and hair areas.” For post-production, the complex has 30 editing suites, two color grading rooms and two sound mix rooms.
Photo: Netflix
Netflix’s production hub is separate but fully integrated into the larger Netflix ecosystem.
The design of this production hub essentially allows a show or movie to go through every stage of its lifecycle, from development to greenlighting to production to post-production, without ever having to interact with the motherships in Los Angeles or Los Gatos.
Tanz spoke about how things used to be: “Alex Pina will tell you how he had to fly to Los Angeles to pitch his show to produce it in Spain, or for other creators, they had to figure out how to get into Hollywood just to realize their creative vision.”
“Fast forward to now, we have 11 offices,” Tanz continues, “with teams in different countries across creative, production, post-production, business, production finance and everything else you need to run a studio. And they work with local talent.”
Tanz and Avalos cited this way of working as a blueprint for expanding across Europe and the world: this more efficient approach ensures authenticity and resonance with local audiences, and promotes high-quality, culturally relevant content.
Despite the main focus on local content, the readiness to offer support also extends to productions outside Spain, with The Mother, Warrior Nun, The Crown and Jeff Goldblum’s upcoming series Kaos all said to be shot in Spain, with American and British teams at the helm.
“Kaos” is one of the shows filmed in Spain – Photo: Netflix.
Our local post-production facility is the hub most closely connected to Netflix’s global infrastructure, where new technologies are first developed and tested.
Most notably, they made extensive use of Netflix’s cloud-based remote solutions, allowing editors to work together across different locations and time zones.
This innovation is especially evident in one example given by Fares: “Our shows are edited between editors in Mexico, editors in Colombia and editors in the U.S., all connected to a data center here.”
According to Fares, these tools bring efficiency and flexibility to creators. He cited the example of the Portuguese soap opera “Turn of the Tide” (directed by Rabo de Peixe), which took advantage of the facility’s ability to process very large amounts of data (two terabytes per day), allowing Lisbon-based editors to edit and work on the series the day after shooting.
Part of the tour included a glimpse into the editing suite to see how one editor is using this technology accessed from the cloud to edit a TV show. We watched as he scrubbed through footage with amazing quality, pulling clips instantly with very little buffering or lag. Presumably he was able to save his work here and quickly pick up where he left off at home.
Tanz said what Netflix has at Tres Cantos is a “world-class post-production facility,” adding, “After 20 years working on stages in Hollywood, at Warner Bros., Universal and Sony, these stages have new soundproofing and modernization that those stages didn’t have, so in some ways they’re a step above, on par with or better than the top stages in Hollywood.”
Development of these tools isn’t just happening in Los Gatos: Fares said the company has engineers on-site troubleshooting and implementing solutions for specific shows and movies that are coming out.
Valeria (left to right) appears in episode 20 of Valeria. Photo: Felipe Hernández/NETFLIX © 2022
Netflix won’t scale back its ambitions in Spain
During a roundtable discussion with Tanz and Avalos, they were asked whether they were scaling back production in Spain or elsewhere overseas.
The answer was a resounding no: “Our members really love local films and series,” Tanz said, adding that diversity is key to success in serving 270 million households, or 500 million viewers, and that “no other entertainment company has attempted to produce such a wide range of programming with such ambition.”
Abalos said they have “doubled down” on production given that they have started to seriously pursue unscripted programming for the first time in the past two and a half years, adding that acquiring WWE was especially good as “Spain is a great market for unscripted programming.” He also cited the recent Alcaraz vs. Nadal tennis match (Netflix Slam) as a sporting event that has been well programmed for Spanish audiences.
Photo: TKO
“We’re not cutting back at all,” Avalos said. “If there are new opportunities we want to pursue, we’ll pursue them to ensure our members get the entertainment, storytelling and satisfaction they expect from an entertainment company like ours.”
The two also spoke about their film strategy, suggesting that acquiring films is just as efficient as producing them. “From a Spanish perspective, cinema is at the heart of what we do,” Abalos said, “and they [Netflix subscribers] Don’t differentiate between where a great movie comes from, whether it’s made inside Netflix or somewhere else.”
As such, Tanz suggested it “makes more sense” to premiere the series on Netflix rather than as a film: “Following something that’s already aired on TV feels less special than following something that’s just aired in theaters.”
Netflix said it has partnered with European studios and distributors to bolster its film library through the PayOne licensing window and other collaborations. Examples include deals with Germany’s Constantin Film, Studio Canal in the U.K., Italy’s PiperFilm and Sweden’s SF. These collaborations allow Netflix to fund and acquire high-quality films, benefiting both creators and Netflix members.
Snow Party – Photo: Netflix
Alex Pina’s new show and virtual soundstage
The last of our three set visits included a demo of the virtual sound stage (sometimes called The Volume), which is essentially a set that can have large panels of LEDs wrapped around it to make it look like you’re in a specific location.
It’s pretty impressive to see this up close and in adjustable scene shooting conditions. The most famous example of a show using this technique is probably “The Mandalorian.” Netflix has used it in various places before, with “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “1899” being the two biggest examples.
The tour suggested that many productions make use of the technology, with driving scenes cited as one of the main ways the show will utilise it.
Photo: Netflix
I also saw multiple takes of the show that will be performed live during my stay. I’m not allowed to go into details about what I saw, but it was a shoot for “The Fallout Shelter” and looked like Pina’s signature show. I’m very excited.
Other accomplishments of the day
Early on in the tour, Tanz had stressed the importance of all local content being a hit in their own country first and foremost, because if it’s not a hit in their own country, it won’t be a global hit. During the roundtable, the two executives spoke about adapting some of their local shows in other countries. Elite was famously adapted in India, and Money Heist was also adapted in Korea. They said that more of this could happen, but only if the creators can adapt the story in a way that resonates with the cultural context. This also applies to non-scripted titles like Love is Blind. This point seems obvious, but the two main sets we visited were permanent structures, and both shows that used them had already ended. Despite that, and the long wait for release (Breathless in 2024, The Lady’s Companion in 2025), the sets are waiting in hope of renewal. Both are set to be renewed, and there is already development going on, but ultimately it’s Netflix’s membership that will decide whether to renew or not. During this period, the space has been virtually unnecessary, underscoring just how risky and aided and abetted these productions are.
As I mentioned before, I wasn’t the only journalist on the trip. Tim Dams from ScreenDaily and Max Goldbart from Deadline submitted reports that you can read here. Unfortunately, I was unable to find some of the other international journalists.
That’s all I have to say about our trip to Tres Cantos: it was a wonderful experience and I hope it won’t be the last.
