Too Many Commissions: Film in Mallorca

Here's a startling statistic. 30% of tourists visit a place that they have seen featured in the cinema or on television. And here's a second statistic. "Cinematic" tourism is responsible for shifting 40 million international tourists per year. They are statistics which have been quoted by the president of the Spain Film Commission, Carlos Rosado.

Films have immense power as means of tourism promotion because, as Sr. Rosado points out, they are "virtual brochures" which are much longer than conventional adverts, they reach more people and they make stronger emotional connections. The Film Commission, wishing to further develop Spain as a destination for filming, has produced a video called "Shooting in Spain" which, the president says, is enjoying great success on social networks.

A film, in addition to the number of tourists it might subsequently generate, also brings immediate economic benefits. They may be shortlived, but the number of jobs that can be created are significant. The Commission points to the example of filming for Ridley Scott's "The Book of Exodus" in Almeria and Fuerteventura. 6,000 work contracts resulted. And on top of these jobs, there were of course benefits for local hotels, the complementary sector and suppliers.

If you go on to the Film Commission's website, you will find a section for locations. This is categorised according to regions of the country. There is an entry for the Mallorca Film Commission. Click on it and it tells you - if you are interested in filming in Mallorca, that is - that the Mallorca Film Commission offers financial assistance up to 15% of costs and will also help with getting "important discounts" on flights, hotels, restaurants etc. It adds that Mallorca has a professional and highly qualified film and audiovisual sector. You can then click further and go to the Mallorca Film Commission's website, but once there, you begin to smell a bit of a rat. Why has there been nothing added since mentions of the filming of "Cloud Atlas"? Your curiosity raised, you click on the link for the Facebook page. Nothing has been added to it since May 2012.

There is of course a very good reason why nothing has been added. The Mallorca Film Commission doesn't exist any longer. (Perhaps someone should tell the Spain Film Commission and it can amend its website.) Mallorca has been without a film commission since the back end of 2012. It had fallen within the Mallorca Tourism Foundation, a body under the control of the Council of Mallorca, but which itself was scrapped when the Council decided it wasn't going to get involved in tourism promotion any longer. The commission - its name at any event - was to be continued as part of a private operation called Mallorca Plató and would receive a grant from the Council of 80,000 euros. The idea for this private operation lasted only as long as it took - about six months - for the suggestion to be made that a new commission, the Balearics Film Commission, should be created. This new commission is due to become a reality in April. It will receive the 80,000 euros grant, an unspecified amount from the regional government (but probably a similar sum) and contributions from the private sector.

If you are confused by all of this, then you have every right to be. Most confusing of all is that the Council of Mallorca, having got rid of the tourism foundation and its tourism promotion responsibilities because it had wanted to save money and avoid duplication, is getting these responsibilities back again. That's because the regional government has decided to hand such responsibilities over to the individual islands. As for the new Balearics Film Commission, it won't be tied to any tourism organisation but to the Department of the Presidency. Its politician in charge will be the regional vice-president, Antonio Gómez.

The confusion gives an impression of organisational chaos at governmental level, and chaotic is exactly how things have been where political treatment of Mallorca's film industry has been concerned. And it hasn't only been the treatment of Mallorca's film industry. The hugely embarrassing row over the non-payment of a grant of 150,000 euros by the Council of Mallorca to the producers of "Cloud Atlas" was not good for the image of the island as a filming destination and did nothing to suggest that governmental bodies "get it" where the benefits of film are concerned. Gómez has said that the matter will be resolved when the new Balearics Film Commission is set up and that any loss of credibility will be restored.

One can but hope so. There is a professional and highly qualified film and audiovisual industry in Mallorca which suffers as a consequence of institutional incompetence. If politicians were to appreciate the value to tourism that can be derived from film, they might stop arguing about trifling amounts and support an industry which has a great deal to offer.

MALLORCA TODAY - Money for Cloud Atlas will not be paid

A grant of 150,000 euros to the producers of "Cloud Atlas" that it had been thought that the Council of Mallorca would pay will now not be paid. It would appear that there was no official contract for making such a payment, only a verbal agreement with the previous administration (there was a change in administration once shooting started on the film in 2011).

See more: Ultima Hora

Rubbing Off: Microsoft in Mallorca

If you take a look at the list of companies on Palma's ParcBit technology park, many will probably be unfamiliar. Halfway down the alphabet, though, you will find a very familiar name. Microsoft.

In May 2009, Microsoft opened its first technology centre devoted to tourism anywhere in the world. The Palma-based Microsoft Innovation Center (note the suitably Americanised spelling) Tourism Technologies was founded with three main objectives in mind, one being, and this would be pretty obvious, to create new initiatives for technological innovation that add value to the tourism sector.

Microsoft's mere presence in Mallorca has been a boost to the island's technology industry, but how much of a boost?

When the Microsoft centre was opened, the then president, Francesc Antich, spoke of it as contributing to an aim of raising the value of innovation and development in the Balearics to 5.6% of GDP by the end of his period in office. This was probably always a somewhat ambitious target. Though spend on I+D increased by 10.5% in 2010, the actual contribution in terms of GDP via investment was the lowest of any region of Spain - 0.41% of regional GDP.

One of Microsoft's flagship developments was a "distribution platform" for the whole tourism offer in the Balearics. This web-based portal, described as not being a website as such, was intended to be a single system for different players in the tourism industry by which they could commercialise their services and products and make savings of up to 40% in doing so.

The fanfare that surrounded its announcement in spring last year did rather downplay the fact that it was going to cost the regional government more than had been envisaged. As always, I stand to be corrected, and I would very much like to be, but I cannot find a reference to its having been launched.

Another development has been the "global tourism hub" for the Windows Phone 7, a "killer" application for the tourism industry. Whether it will really prove to be a killer app is another matter. Microsoft also faces competition; from Google, for instance.

Nevertheless, the development, with the Palma centre behind it, has indicated Microsoft's intent and, as much as Microsoft also provides consultancy services to local businesses, it is the rub-off effect from its presence on Mallorca's technology industry that is arguably the greatest benefit the island stands to gain in its aim of getting I+D to be a far more significant element in the regional economy.

The gain for I+D is not, though, the only one that is hoped for, because tourism is at the heart of the Microsoft technologies, and the rub-off effect for tourism is coming from a possibly unexpected area - that of tourism connected to the cinema.

Though, as far as I am aware, it has not been stated as such, a reason for the filming of parts of "Cloud Atlas" on Mallorca may have been Microsoft. The company's reputation (and its being American) is one thing, but as important if not more is its relationship with the Mallorca Film Commission and with the Cluster Audiovisual, the association of audiovisual producers in the Balearics.

Microsoft, together with the Cluster Audiovisual, has come up with what is potentially a brilliant idea, and one that goes a long way to overcoming what might be the disadvantage for tourism from filming at locations such as those used for "Cloud Atlas". The idea is known as "Film Travelling", the slogan for which is "what film do you want to journey to'".

Essentially what this is, or will be, is a video database that will show locations of a film on a map. The intention is to map the Balearics and give a guide to where filming has occurred and what was filmed, and it wouldn't have to be confined to cinema productions. The rub-off would be that the database could be used by the tourism industry to sell visits related to the locations.

When the filming for "Cloud Atlas" was first spoken about, along with its potential benefits for tourism, a point I made was that these benefits would not be as great as might be hoped for as fans of the film wouldn't necessarily know what the locations were. "Film Travelling" solves this problem. It will be launched, it is hoped, at the same time as the premiere of "Cloud Atlas", which does just make you wonder a bit more about whether Microsoft had some influence on the choice of location. Whether the company did or didn't, its benefits to Mallorca's technology and to its tourism are beginning to rub off.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Cloud Atlas in Formentor

Filming for Cloud Atlas moved to Formentor yesterday, forest near to the hotel being used for shooting. Meanwhile, Halle Berry, who broke a metatarsal when she slipped at the finca she has been staying at in Soller, has been to France to see a specialist. Here are some extremely uninteresting photos of people eating in the car park at Formentor, including Hanks, T.


http://comunidad.diariodemallorca.es/galeria-multimedia/Cultura/Cloud-Atlas-conquista-norte-Mallorca/32787/1.html

MALLORCA TODAY - Sa Calobra closed for Cloud Atlas filming

Tourists making their way to Sa Calobra, one of the main ports of call on trips to the Tramuntana mountains and the coastline, were unable yesterday to get anywhere near to the small coastal village. Access had been cut to allow filming for Cloud Atlas to proceed. Seven restaurants, denied their normal takings from visitors, have been indemnified to the tune of 3,000 euros each by the films' producers.

MALLORCA TODAY - Hotel Formentor booked for Cloud Atlas

The Hotel Formentor, says the ADN news site, is to be a beneficiary (to the tune of 25,000 euros) of filming for Cloud Atlas. Fifty people have been booked in for two nights, which would seem as though they may be 14 and 15 September, as the annual literary gathering starts at the hotel on 16 September. ADN also says that in August exclusive reservation of the whole hotel was made. As previously reported, 180 people associated with the film have been booked into hotels in the Pollensa area.

MALLORCA TODAY - Cloud Atlas filming starts

Filming for the Hollywood blockbuster "Cloud Atlas" started yesterday. Local firms are benefiting from the filming, with some 70 technicians being contracted. 200 extras have also been taken on. In addition to giving Mallorca as a boost as a location for filming, the island will benefit to the tune of just under 3 million euros from "Cloud Atlas".

The Wachowski brothers, the producers of the film, and the stars are now in Mallorca. Halle Berry was apparently out and about buying from a supermarket in Puerto Soller where she is staying

MALLORCA TODAY - Cloud Atlas: hotel spaces booked in Pollensa

Location filming for the Hollywood blockbuster version of David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" which will star, among others, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Jim Broadbent, is due to take place from the middle of September for two weeks. Sa Calobra will be one of the main locations, and Puerto Soller and Formentor are also scheduled to feature. 180 hotel rooms have been booked in Pollensa for the duration.

A thousand or so hopefuls attended auditions for roles as extras in the film in Palma yesterday.


More on this: The main road into Sa Calobra will be closed for one day (yet to be confirmed). Permission is being sought for a galleon to dock in Puerto Soller and has been granted to use military installations on the Puig Major in the Tramuntana mountains.

The Hornblower Effect?: Film and tourism

An old friend of mine used to return after months away on location and relate stories of derring-do and actors behaving badly. He was the producer of the "Hornblower" series of films, a highly successful franchise, to use an Americanism, and one that used a series of locations around Europe. The fifth film in the series, which aired in 2001, was mostly filmed in Menorca.

You can still find references to "where Hornblower was shot" on websites to do with Menorca. But what was the enduring benefit to the island of the film's location? Was there a "Hornblower" effect?

Perhaps there was, but if there was in tourism terms, it was shortlived. Menorca has spent the years since then confirming its position as the Balearics basket case. The island may still derive some kudos from "Mutiny" having been filmed there, but it has been worn away along with the memory of the film itself.

The relationship between film location and tourism is one I've considered before ("Lights, Camera, Inaction", 21 March). And the issue is cropping up again thanks to a burst of excitement surrounding the possibility that Mallorca might be a location for the filming of David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" (Tom Hanks, Halle Berry).

Note that I say "a location" and not the "the location". The distinction is important not just in terms of the use of the indefinite as opposed to the definite article. It is also important because, though the filming might indeed bring benefits, these would be as nothing compared with those which would be derived were it to be filmed almost entirely in Mallorca.

The most obvious example of a location benefiting in tourism terms from a film, as I mentioned in the previous article, was that of New Zealand and the publicity it attracted because of "Lord Of The Rings". The setting of Tolkien's trilogy was so well known that no one could have been mistaken into thinking they were really looking at Middle Earth and not at a land of sheep and rugby players.

The point is that, with a single location, the connection can be made and made very forcibly. With multiple locations, the connection is far less strong, to an extent that it may carry little or no force. Yes, a location could be promoted as having featured in a particular film, but it would rather depend on the prominence given to the location and to the extent to which it would be evident.

One site in Mallorca that is being mentioned is Sa Calobra. The problem is that unless you know what you're looking for, you wouldn't necessarily know what you were looking at. A dirty great arrow doesn't suddenly appear over Tom Hanks' head pointing to Sa Calobra with an accompanying legend announcing "Sa Calobra, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Tramuntana mountains".

The fact that Sa Calobra, on the coastal periphery of the mountain range, is in the running does raise the spectre of what happened when there was talk of the island of Cabrera being used for filming ("Betsy And The Emperor"). The environment ministry vetoed it because of the island's sensitive ecology. The Tramuntana are more robust but they are also ecologically protected. One can already hear the sounds of the enviro lobby preparing their complaints were there to be film crews trampling over the countryside.

This is premature though. No agreement has been reached as to the location. Croatia is another place that is up for the gig apparently.

But assuming Mallorca were to be chosen, what benefits other than to tourism might follow? One might be that to the island's film industry. Yet would producers from Hollywood and elsewhere suddenly descend on Mallorca with all manner of blockbusters to be filmed? Only if the locations are what they want. "Cloud Atlas" might help in putting Mallorca more on the location map, but you might be surprised to learn that film companies, producers, location managers and whoever are already well aware of the island's locations. As indeed they are of those in pretty much any part of the world you care to mention.

Location databases, full of thousands of images, exist for all sorts of places. They exist to promote the locations but also to aid the decision-making of producers from foreign lands. Palma Pictures, for example, has a database of some 30,000 images.

"Cloud Atlas" would be a feather in Mallorca's cap, but the benefits can be overestimated. A single-location blockbuster is what would really bring about the benefits, but, and notwithstanding the fact that the Hornblower films were made for TV and were not Hollywood, never forget the lack of the Hornblower effect in Menorca.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.


A comment about this article has been sent by an anonymous correspondent. The reason I ask for comments to be sent by email is that very often they are anonymous. Some anonymous comments I will post, some I will not. Into this second category falls the comment about this article which suggests that there is something "malitious" (sic) about it, though quite what escapes me. It is an article about what benefits might be derived from film locations; nothing more.