A group of eighty to ninety extras attended the recording of the song, the series produced by Buendía Estudios in collaboration with Movistar Plus+, about Spain’s first victory at Eurovision. All they knew was that it was a period shoot and that long hair and beards were not allowed. When they arrived there, they had a surprise: several of them were informed that “they were going to be scanned, without specifying the reason”. The agency that hired them, Penelope, had not informed them that the day would include this practice.
“We opposed it because we had not been informed of it,” a member of the Professional Association of Show Actors (APAF), present during the missed call and who published a press release, told the newspaper. about this. “It was the first time that there was such an interruption in filming,” he adds, which means that 80% of the people cited were opposed to it.
The fiction team explained to them that the objective of the scanner was to “fill seats, with their modified characters, within an auditorium”. An action which, until then, was known as “layering”. That is, placing some of the people needed to fill a space in a specific location, filming them, changing them to another, making them adopt different postures and perform different actions such as clapping or standing up, and recording them at new. “As if they mixed us, then put it all together in the edit,” explains the singer.
“Before, a recording like this was equivalent to a day’s work, which they now want to save by digitization,” says the Association. In turn, they describe that the technology used for this purpose is “a kind of platform that you access, which circulates and takes different profiles through a reader. They ask you for movements to take the image from there and be able to transform it later as they wish. And this is not something new, they recognize that it is a practice to which they have been subjected for two years, but always with notice.
As it is the agencies through which the contracts are made – here Penélope – they are the ones who “detail what will happen”, on the basis of the agreement they have concluded with the production companies – in occurrence Buendía Estudios – of the projects.
The team of the song tried to rectify the situation. The first to intervene were the director’s colleagues. “They tried to convince us to do it,” says the MP. The next was the production manager, who asked them to accept, because “they had brought the machine” with which the scanner is made, with the resulting cost, saying that the room in which they were going to film was “very big”. and it was the best option to achieve this – for them. The extras insisted: “They didn’t warn us and we don’t agree. » From there, a negotiation process began.
They tried to convince us to do it. We told them that they had not warned us and that we did not agree
Professional Association of Figurative Actors
In the meantime, Penelope’s agency sent them a message on WhatsApp, asking for forgiveness for what happened. “Excuse me for not warning that there would be a scan today,” they wrote in the chat to which elDiario.es had access. The figuration, as specified in the press release published by APAF, required two conditions: a document in which the production company committed to using the digitized images only in this project (which included financial compensation in the event of non-compliance ), and the corresponding document. economic compensation. “They never made us a written proposal or a commitment agreement,” he laments.
“I’m told you don’t want to do it because you think your image will be used for something else. Please, it’s only for this series. It won’t be useful for anything else. Please do it. Thank you very much”, these are the other explanations that the workers received on this subject. The production director’s response was then to offer them “special appearance status”, which translates, as the MP explains, to “between 15 and 20 euros more” than what was initially stipulated. “With the scanner, they want to save this working day,” he insists. “It wasn’t worth it,” he shares. Beyond this situation, the filming day went as planned. “We continued to film without scanning,” says the deputy, “and a large part of it came back the next day as well.”
This newspaper contacted the Penélope agency, which hired the people concerned, from where they affirm that, “even if they were not warned, there were times when it was still done”. “Sometimes they are warned, sometimes it is at the last minute, or even the same day,” they explain, ensuring that it was specified that “they had the guarantee that their image would only be used in this series” . elDiario.es also communicated with the production company Buendía Estudios, which recalls that the contractual relationship of the actors depends on the actor’s agency, which is the one that “establishes the conditions regarding categories and rates, and the one that transfers information”. among their representatives.
“In this case, there was an error on the part of this company in communicating that this scanning procedure was going to be performed that day. The same day, the agency contacted them to explain the error”, indicates the production company. Likewise, they emphasize that the aim of the scanning was “the construction of digital layers in the recreation of a mass of public anonymous in an auditorium and its use is limited exclusively to this project”. Buendía Estudios believes that, during filming, the group of extras opposed to this practice “tried to impose as a condition an exorbitant rate compared to the standard rate”.
There was an error on the part of the representative agency in communicating that this scanning procedure was going to be carried out that day. He contacted them to explain the error.
Buendia Studios
— Producer of the series ‘The Song’
From the APAF, while working to “develop a new agreement with specifications”, they describe that currently, “a series of categories have been stipulated, which are not included anywhere”, which determine their prices. The “special” refers to “when you perform a skill, such as carrying a tray.” There is also the ‘acting with silent acting,” “when you shake an actor’s hand, give them a hug, or even have an explosion”; Then, this is part of the interim agreement, in which the next step stipulates a “maximum of two lines, sixty characters”.
The risks of letting yourself be scanned
The implementation of AI is one of the major concerns of the audiovisual sector. The lack of regulation and protection against this phenomenon was one of the demands of the writers’ strike that paralyzed Hollywood for 148 days in 2023. In fact, the negotiations on this issue were one of the great victories of the agreement obtained. Their protests have spread to our country and affect other areas such as literature, translation, video games and illustration.
The use of scanners during filming has opened the debate, again due to the absence of regulations. “It’s a personal option, everyone is free to request a scanner and compensation,” specifies the APAF member, even if he declares in particular: “I am not for the work. It’s bread for today and hunger for tomorrow. » He also believes that this is not a practice that remunerates the agencies themselves. “For them, it would also mean losing their job,” he argues.
The other problematic point that the Association identifies is the distrust regarding the use of its digitized images. “You don’t know where you’ll end up tomorrow. You are a puppet on a stage, in a Western city, whose costume and hair color are changed, you are in the background, you cannot be seen. How could you check it? It’s impossible,” he said.
