I worked for the Crown now we film The Crown
Paul Abrey, Managing Director of Palma Pictures will be giving an insight into how they filmed top productions like the Netflix hit The Crown on the islandon Tuesday, April 23 at 5pm at Sala Palmanova (Carrer de Diego Salvà Lezaún, 2).
Paul Abrey jokes that he used to work for the Crown and now he makes The Crown. As many as our readers will know Paul, was once the British Consul in the Balearics and now he has moved on to be the managing director of local film production company Palma Pictures, writes Jason Moore.
Q.— What do you like best about your job?
A. — “The great people I work with and the dynamic nature of the work we do, having the ability of creating something within a short space of time, sometimes just two or three weeks from receiving the enquiry and script from a client to shooting on an amazing location with over a hundred professionals, all working in tandem.”
Q.— From working for the Crown to producing The Crown? Has it been a good experience?
A. — “Haha, You and I have known each other long enough to know my former role in Mallorca.
It was my great privilege to be Her Majesty’s Consul to the Balearic Islands, a role that I did for 6 years, including organising some wonderful celebrations with the amazing British community and local authorities here for the Queen’s official birthday celebrations in June (now of course it would be the King’s official birthday).
“During that time here, I met some wonderful people, which included a couple of Englishmen running a film production company, who were just starting to work on the TV series called The Crown (that was preparation for series 3 and we have been involved in every series since), and the rest as they say is history.”
Is Mallorca the perfect movie set?
Q.—
A. — “Of course! We love this island, all the islands, as do many of the clients and famous Hollywood stars who come here, the wonderful diversity of locations you can find. We shoot all across Spain and Portugal on spectacular roads, beaches, parks, villas, deserts, we are truly blessed with amazing places to shoot, so much so they named a TV series after it (The Mallorca Files!) and we had a lot of fun shooting that across the island, from the airport to remote fincas, it was labour of love.”
Did you ever imagine yourself working for a production company?
Q.—
A. — “Er, no! As someone who started their career in financial services, how did I arrive at working on a Mediterranean island making TV, films and ads, it’s been a wonderful journey and I’ve loved every minute of it.”
Q.— What are your expansion plans at the moment?
A. — “We have grown significantly in the time I have been here and we’re very busy at the moment delivering all sorts of content, from advertising, photo, films, tv series, etc, in the last year or so we’re delighted to working in Portugal as well as every corner of Spain, we listen to our clients and what they need from us, and we will continue to grow in the foreseeable future.”
Would you encourage young people to join the industry?
Q.—
A. — “I regularly speak to young people about the industry. It isn’t for everyone but for many it is an incredibly rewarding job. We have an excellent intern programme, where folks interested in the industry can work with us in the capacity they’re interested in, be that locations, production, technical (e.g. camera operator or electrician) or casting and Talent management.”
You have lived on the island for many years, what is it like seeing the island on film?
Q.—
A. — “It’s amazing, really, a lot of which we’ve filmed! Having the ability to show people some of the wonderful aspects of Mallorca is great.”
Q.— If you had to choose your favourite actor who would it be?
A. — “Difficult question as there are so many to mention, from the amazing Anthony Hopkins and Denzel Washington, to the current crop with Cillian Murphy who did Oppenheimer and Peaky Blinders, from a comedy standpoint Adam Sandler and we loved working with him on Hustle.
Q.— And actress?
A. — “Again amazingly difficult to answer. With long and amazing careers I would mention Dame Judi Dench of course, Emma Thompson and a personal favourite, Olivia Coleman, who we had the privilege of working with on The Crown, and Emilia Clarke, who we worked with on Me Before You.
Q.— Your work gives Mallorca some great promotion, that must be very satisfying for you?
A. — “Mallorca is an amazing place and doesn’t need much promotion! But it’s fantastic to see the smiles on the faces of our clients when they arrive and see the beauty of the island for themselves.”
Is Palma Pictures on the lookout for more actors and actresses?
Q.—
A. — “We have a database of over 10,000 folks who could potentially be involved in filming adverts or tv series, our casting team are always looking for new talent, details on our website for how to get in touch.”
Q.—And
finally how are companies like Netflix changing the industry?
A. — “The streaming companies, such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ etc, are big generators of a huge amount of content, across the world, across all territories, and they are very active here and we are very happy to work with them as well as the more traditional players. Netflix obviously started as a provider of others’ content and as we all know in the last number of years they have generated a huge amount of original content, which we are only to happy to help with.”