During the fourth PRODU webinar, Arranque de Grabaciones con Los Nuevos Protocolos, one of the topics that generated greater interest in the audience was how costs increase for applying the protocols. The answer was that you cannot give an estimate, because it will depend on the size and type of the production, along with the extra measures that each producer decides to assume.
Another of the most polemic aspects was who is in charge of assuming this extra cost. Emilio Pina, the executive producer of the series Servir y Proteger from Plano a Plano, commented that the production company is assuming 50% of the costs related to the pandemic. “We are working for public televisión that has budget limitations, due to which they can react to a certain extent, but without a greater budget, they cannot do much more,” he said.
He revealed that for the fourth season of Servir y Proteger, the over cost is around 200 thousand euros, for the remainder of the production until August, budget that reflects along with the measures adopted, expenses for the construction of more dressing rooms, increase of transportation and other isolation measures. We must take into account that if the production was stopped before the coronavirus, it is necessary to include the new expense for pre-production.
Montse García, Fiction director of Atresmedia TV, explained that as a network, they are in conversations with all the production companies of the series they make, to study how they can deal with the over cost. “Obviously, as producers, we also have to be part of this rise,” she said.