Three things can be said about María Albiñana. The first is that, Seeing his curruculum, One can deduce that she is a woman with broad interests and resources. Journalist, ballerina, director, As an actress, he has won various awards at festivals such as the online Film Festival of the United States and the Los Angeles Webseries International Festival, as well as several nominations for the International Videomakers Web Association of Italy and the New Webfest Jersey. Besides, He has published two plays and has directed his own musical, FVORRATED STAR. But, As far as these days are concerned, María Albiñana is the coordinator of the official webseries section of the Cinema Jove Festival that begins this weekend. Maria is, above all, a great professional and that is perceived, Not only in the quality of the programming of this section that she launched four years ago, but in the answers it offers in this interview. Maria does not go through the branches or hide in common places. Maria knows what he's talking about.
How important is a festival like Cinema Jove has a webseries section?
Last year, At the Marseille Festival they told us how fate that we had a film festival had hosted a section of Webseries, because they had tried in France and had been impossible. They did not consider that the webseries had to be part of a film festival and they were made of crosses because the webseries are still a way of telling stories, With another format, With other times, Other durations, But it is exactly the same. From the first moment, Cinema Jove immediately welcomed the idea, They were very open to host a section of this type. We are one of the few festivals in Spain and the few at European level ... and the world, I would dare to say. And furthermore, that we have kept it in these four editions and that has a future. For webseries creators, What better than being in the same meeting place in which they can interact with feature film directors and share experiences.
How does the idea of making this section arise?
It arose as a result of the first webserie that I surrounded, what was called Without life, with which we won many awards. One of the awards were given to us in the L.A. Webfest, which is the world's largest webseries festival. When I went there to collect one of the awards as best actress, The director told me, Why don't you make a webseries festival in Valencia? Then, The maximum that I knew of Webseries was what I had shot, But I had no idea of the webserie world. It was a barbarity what they had in Los Angeles, there was, I don't know, hundred?, Two hundred series? I realized that it was a parallel world that I did not know. I left the song parked, But then we went to Marseille and the director of the Marseille Web Fest, which is one of the most prestigious webseries festivals, He also told us, Why don't you make a festival in Valencia? So, Together with Ana Ramón Rubio, that she was the creator of this website, We said, Two people have already told us, Well, the same will be right. We are going to raise it. And speaking with those responsible for Cinema Jove, We commented on the idea and said: marvelous, It's what Cinema Jove was looking for: Something new, Bring creators, to bring young audiences, etc. All the Puzzle pieces fit and so began.
You have been running the section for four years. In this time, What do you think has been the most important evolution suffered by websites?
When we start in Cinema Jove, I think it was new, A novelty. At webseries level, Spain was opening its eyes. However, In the rest of the world, In the United States, In Australia, In Canada, They had been heading for a long time. I think there was a boom In the second edition internationally because people, suddenly, said, This format can work, And there were many creators who could monetize their projects. Then it is true that this year in Spain has hit the boom webSeries, But we had left a little like we didn't have a container. We had the product, But we didn't have the container. However, Two months ago or so, news said that Netflix had realized that the episodes of the series are very long, that people do not have time tovoid them and the best way to offer content was to offer shortforms, that is to say, WebSeries. That is to say, Now that Netflix (that has become God) He said yes, Let's buy webseries, I hope it's time to monetize them, What is one of the great handicaps that webseries have always had.
I wanted you to tell me, precisely, that, What has meant the entrance of the big television chains, public and private, and platforms like Netflix to the world of webseries?
In Spain, I believe that this has made them give visibility and credibility in the sense that yes, They work, It is a way of telling stories and people consume them. I think they continue to focus on an excessively young or adolescent audience. I think there are many types of audiences, and payment televisions, Those trying to monetize this, that is to say, under subscription, They focus on a teenage audience of 18 years that are not going to pay it. However, If you focus on an audience, Also young, but of 25 a 35-40, It is more possible to look for quality projects that do not find on television or do not find in the cinema, and are willing to pay to visualize content that they have not seen in other supports.
Has that influenced the way of raising the series? I mean that, at first, It seemed that the place of the webseries was YouTube, a kind of free space in which things were done with little budget.
What I like about webseries is that it is free, that is to say, The creator has total freedom to tell the story as he wants, in the way you want. There have been creators who have said, I want to put it on YouTube and I want to see how it works. YouTube is like put a needle in a haystack: Go and look for. If I were creator of Webseries, I would try to monetize it. And I think that producers and digital platforms in Spain, Some of them like RTVE, that has its own digital platform, or a3 average with flooxer, They should bet more on webseries creators and not, how has a lot of happened, Call long television series directors to create Webserie content, When there are creators who have been doing it for many years and they do it very well. If let's die the opportunity, If we die the financing, They would make barbarities. Barbarities are made! Besides, In Canada, in Australia and, above all, In France, the Government allocates public funds to Webseries, And that is why all the awards are carried out (laughter)... because they do very well, But because they also have money to do so.
What do you think we need to reach the level of other countries? What is the biggest difference at the creative or production level?
At the creative level, none. I think we have a brutal creative power. In fact, They always praise him at all festivals. When Spanish webseries are seen, how imaginative we are, This way of counting so fresh, so different, so authentic that we have. However, At the financing level it is a problem because they have no support. And it is very difficult to make a webserie with zero euros. In Australia they give you the money previously, It's not like here, Where they tell you: you gástatelo and then I already give it to you, But you have to justify that you have spent it. And then you say, but, How am I going to do it if I don't have the money? In Australia you present a project and, If you pass some filters, They give you the subsidy, And then they help you move to a festival to promote your website. They provide a lot of support and monitor, something that in Spain we do not do. In fact, in Valencia, today, Webseries's help are still under the umbrella of the shorts. I think webseries should have an independent section.
When talking about webseries, it is usually said that, With the digitalization of the means of production, costs have been checked and now anything can be done. Is this a myth or corresponds to reality?
Well depends on what you want to do. I believe that quality demands money and making cinema is not cheap. It is surprising that they tell you: But a webserie is cheaper than a series. Because? A minute of webserie is equivalent to a minute of a series and a minute of cinema. What will differentiate will be the story you are telling. If it is action and you need many special effects, Well, it will require more money. That everything happens in a room, Well, it requires less. It all depends on the technical aspects, But not because it is a webserie is priced and because it is a series or film has another price.
I would like you to tell us about the public. Do you think that in Spain the public already accepts the format as something more of the audiovisual offer?
Yeah, I think so. In Spain we are now living a boom of series. We not just see them, but we are producing very good series. Y, above all, The Spanish public is accepting them very well, thing that did not happen before. So, I think so, that people are already prepared. What happens is that there is a wrong concept because, After these four editions, When it comes public to the sessions, They tell you: oh well, What I just saw, This is a series! They tell you: a ver, that a webserie is, lifetime, One thing you record in your home with friends. And of course, You tell them: What you are telling me is a homemade video, Not a webserie. I do not speak in general, But what crashed me is that, They tell you that a webserie is not this quality that I am seeing in Cinema Jove. I don't know where this has been taken from, But if this is the image that they still have of the webseries I hope that little by little we will clean and eliminate it.
Tell us the news of this year's programming.
Bueno, Apart from the thirteen webseries of the official section, We have two projections out of competition. One of them is a film that is called Profile, of the Bazelevs producer that the films has produced Searching yDark web, that have been very successful and in which they tell everything through a computer or mobile phone screen. In fact, They have coined a new way of telling stories, ofstorylelling, software that have developed exclusively for that. And the other projection out of competition is the second season of Failed by the world. The director is Gonzalo Gurrea. With the first season he was very successful and we already had it here in the first edition of Cinema Jove. It is a parody of Spaniards around the world, but… Failed by the world(laughter). Of the thirteen series would highlight the Canadian Old game, which is exclusive premiere in Spain, o Night of love, which is a very funny Argentine series, A sequel to the first series made by its director, Pedro Levati, what was called Peace night, in which we talk about family and Christmas. Now is the family and a wedding. I think it is intelligent to make a sequel and not a second season of the same series. In bed, A Russian, that talks about couple sexual relations. BIPIt is a Swiss series and it is also premiere in Spain, as America.The GraveIt is absolute premiere because it has not yet gone through any festival. It is from a very young British director and is very well shot. Also People talking, whatIt is the average antenna3 series that has had the most successful. We will have here the director, Álvaro Carmona. And then, Susaneland, which was selected in Sundance in the 2018. And one that I like to highlight that it isBurlesque barbituric. The director is from Burriana, It is shot in Barcelona and I think, To my liking, is the most groundbreaking, The freshest, The most original. Let's say that the essences of what was a webserie at first: I do what I feel like, I count what I want and the way I feel like. We have a lot of comedy, But there is also a lot of science fiction, suspense and thriller.
But your section is more than the websites, They are round tables, The guests ... is almost like a master's mastery about this fiction model. I think that, If one had attended these meetings throughout the last editions, I would have learned a lot from all facets of webseries production.
Yeah, It's true. I think that's the good thing about websites, that we then have the round tables and the formative capsules. Round tables have an hour duration. One of them will be invited to the head of development of the producer Bazelevs, that will tell us about this software that they have created for that new form of storytelling that they have. And the other is about the past, present and future of the webseries. It is about the book that Meredith Burkholder has taken, What is the director of Berlin Webfest. The book is recently taken from the oven and will be the Bible or the Encyclopedia of the Webseries. Formative capsules are thirty minutes and professionals will come to give information for creators. One of them are Those understood, They are specialists at the audiovisual and film level, And they come to talk about what tricks or what ingredients are the essentials for the giant to come to me, that is to say, Netflix, HBO, etc. And the last formative capsule will be taught by the Flooxer digital platform, of A3 average. Mafalda González-Alegre and Emilio Sánchez come to talk about how they generate content, If they are open to co-productions, etc.
Since we are, to finish, I ask you: What should have a good webserie?
What a difficult question! Well, the basics of any audiovisual product were going to tell you (laughter): A good sound, Good lighting and a good story. Is that it does not differ in anything. I already tell you, I think what I like most about Webseries is freedom and that always surprise you with things that you have never seen on television. For example, Burlesque barbituricI had not seen it on television. O Night of love. Y, however, Once they see them, Televisions say, Ay, We can do this.
