Gran Vía, 53, the most requested place to shoot in the capital

The film Dolor y gloria , by the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, who will represent Spain at the Oscars, in addition to some of the most successful productions of recent years such as While the War lasts , The Paper House or Las Chicas del Cable , among others , they chose the streets of Madrid as the setting for their productions. From January 2018 to May 2019, according to figures from the City's Open Data Portal, the municipal offices received 14,946 requests for audiovisual platforms to occupy public spaces with filming of films, series, programs, advertisements or photo shoots.

The film Pain and Glory , starring Antonio Banderas and that has raised 5.7 million euros , recorded in several streets of Madrid during the months of July, August and September 2018. The requests made by the producer The First Wish show that Some of the spaces chosen were Francisco Navacerrada Street, the Pintor Rosales Promenade and the Guindalera and Embajadores neighborhoods.

The last film by Alejandro Amenábar, While the war lasts , which reflects the Spain of 1936, during the beginning of the Civil War, also featured stages in the capital. Producers Mod Producciones and Telefónica Audiovisual Digital SL made several requests to the City Council to shoot this film between April and June last year, also in Ambassadors, in the center of Madrid. This film ranks as the third highest collection (7.6 million euros) and number of viewers (1.2 million people) in Spain. Pain and glory is the fourth.

The famous La Casa de Papel series , which is already in its third season, also selected some emblematic places in Madrid to produce its chapters. For example, in the subway station and the Plaza de Callao, where last January one of its most impressive scenes of this season was recorded, in which a rain of banknotes fall from a ship through those streets of the city center 50 euros In turn, Nuevos Ministerios was a space chosen for this shoot, as it represents the Bank of Spain in the recording.

The Vancouver producer, responsible for making this audiovisual product, requested permission to perform the series outside the courts of Madrid (Paseo de la Castellana, 187). Also at the exit of the Circle of Fine Arts (Calle Marqués de Casa Riera, 2) and close to Gran Vía (Calle de la Abadía, 4).

Las Chicas del Cable , by Bambú Producciones, set in the 20s and starring actress Blanca Suárez, reserved several spaces such as the Rosaleda del Parque del Oeste (Calle Rosaleda, 1), and other exteriors that resemble the era such as Royal Academy of Exact Sciences (Calle Valverde, 24), Maudes Hospital (Maudes Street, 17), with its majestic architecture, the Royal Academy of Engineering (Calle Don Pedro, 10), and the Railway Museum (Paseo Delicias, 61).

The 10 favorite places to roll

In the Top 10 of the places preferred by the producers to record a program, video, series, movies or, simply, to make a photo report there are five parks (El Retiro, Madrid Río, Juan Carlos I, Parque del Oeste and Casa de Campo ).

In the list, the main street is Gran Vía, at the height of the number 53 -in the intersection with San Bernardo- , and then come the squares of Puerta de Sol, Mayor, Oriente and Callao. At the neighborhood level, the preferred ones to shoot are Palacio, Sol, Universidad, Embajadores y Justicia.

Each of these places has its peculiarities. The Retiro parks (with 500 applications), Madrid Río (165) and Juan Carlos I (162) are the favorites for photographic sessions, while the Parque del Oeste (110) and Casa de Campo (92) highlight the applications for the recording of programs and short films.

On the other hand, in Gran Vía 53 street almost all the requests (196 of the 199) were to record programs . This type of recordings in turn accumulated 33% of the demands in the squares of the capital.

The Madrid City Council has raised 861,019 euros during the last three years for administrative fees and space occupation on public roads. Only for this first semester were 237,155, which is equivalent to 70% of what was achieved the previous year (335,688), according to data provided by the City of Madrid Film Office.

The income of the City Council is given by several concepts from the issuance of administrative documents (48 euros) and according to the square meters to be occupied (from 58 euros). And they are divided by communicative acts (when the work group does not exceed 15 people and the pedestrian crossing and vehicles are not difficult) and in the opposite case an occupancy permit is required.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project