"Why El Hierro?" Asks an out-of-plane voice. "Can you think of any place further away?", He answers from the depth of the even deeper questioning. Hierro is an island, a series and, in haste, the adjusted description of a state of mind. So it was throughout the first season in which Candela Peña was right to hit the skin of the judge who gave life to more than just a mystery. She, in her own way, merged with the sense of a land built of solitude and much isolation. On paper, the grace of the Movistar series produced by Alfonso Blanco and directed by Jorge Coirait was his complete absence of surprise. It was not and did not want to be a corner production designed to provoke like so many others. On the contrary, its strength was, and is, the sincerity of an approach that is both transparent and, therefore, sunk in the enigma. A classic thriller for a time as unconventional as ours.
Months go by, the coronavirus arrives and from his hand an essentially strange time is born. And completely new. Iron , in its eternal and complete confinement, suddenly acquires the texture of perfect metaphors. Filming now begins again. It is already a little over a week that the team of 60 people from outside the island and 30 more from within are busy with the mask, hydrogels and the social distance in filming and moving in a kind of bubble. "I would say," says the producer, "that we are in a quarantine within a quarantine. From the beginning it was clear to us that we were arriving on a covid-free field and that it had to continue to be so ”. What follows is a detailed description of all the barriers and all the ditches built to stop the virus.
A specific flight picked up a good part of the team in Madrid on Friday, May 29. After stopping in A Coruña to collect the rest, she flew directly to Tenerife. And from there to the island of El Hierro. "As the famous PCR tests can give a false negative by not detecting a possible contagion in the last 48 hours", explains Blanco healthily, "we had to do a double isolation of two days before taking the plane and many others recently landed in the island after carrying out a second test » . It was all about resuming a shoot that began on February 17, was interrupted when the entire world was interrupted on March 14 and now returns to its being pending the 10 "bubble" weeks that lie ahead. And so on until completing the six chapters that make up the season. Is there perhaps a more remote place?
"We are aware", Coria takes the word, "that we are an exception. All the drawbacks of isolation are now in our favor. But it is all so strange ». Until arriving here, a detailed negotiation had to be carried out with the island government. It was as basic not to bring anything undesirable as to subject each performance to a protocol as hygienic as it was unpublished. How does a series in which contact is synonymous with danger change? How does reality alter the very meaning of fiction and, conversely, how does everything we are experiencing live to seep into the knot of fabulation?
"Everything influences and everything ends up being contaminated," says the director, not entirely aware of the viral load of certain expressions such as "contaminate." And he continues: «Nothing has been modified about the script. What has been done is reduce the number of extras in certain scenes and even shoot in layers. In other words, people will be added by computer later ». The producer describes how the printed orders that day by day have been reduced and traditionally mark the diary of any shoot ("everything is digital") at the same time that they have managed to replicate the image of the combo (the one that serves as a guide for filming) at the terminals of each technician or simply curious. "Everything is to avoid crowds, hugs or contacts," he says between proud and only resigned.
But beyond the technique is the other. And the other, do not hesitate, is the relevant. “It remains to be seen how all this affects us. And how, as the work progresses, we will resent this forced closure. It should be borne in mind that we are not going to go out, we are not going to receive visits, and we are not going to see anyone other than those we see daily. The Parador Nacional de El Hierro is entirely occupied by the team. See you in the morning, in the afternoon, at night. Either we go crazy or we have just left the family », reflects the director in anticipation of what is to come. Be that as it may, they already are family. And it is not metonymy product of friction. “We have been issued a certificate of family unity for health reasons. We are living together. It is the first time this has happened to me », the Galician producer of series such as Mareas vivas before Hierro specifies this time with sincere feeling. And not content with that, he adds: “We have also signed and signed a code of ethics myself. That is, we promise to abide by the rules. Keep in mind that there is no insurance that covers a contagion.
Blanco calculates that all the measures adopted can lead to an extra cost of between 2 and 10% on the budget. To the contracted person specialized in occupational risk prevention who is in charge of monitoring and distributing hydroalcoholic gel with passion, we must add the expenses derived from the delays required. Coria, for his part, is convinced that, however, the concentration is now greater. The constant threat adds tension. And that, at the moment, is good. Let's go faster. In addition, the hiatus gave me time to assemble what we had and to think and rethink what we have left. Everything is suddenly a more conscious process, "he says.
Be that as it may, Hierro promises this season to maintain the framework of the previous one that brought so much good. "The viewer must have the feeling that he is coming home. Candela is still there. But you also have to surprise ... and that's what we are at ». In any case, the surprise is given from the outset. The pandemic has made us reread everything again and Hierro , from his isolated solitude, is already another series; it is the series of double quarantine, of double confinement. Has anyone ever thought that at the end of July we would all be in this strange and remote place?
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