Alfredo Valenzuela I Seville, (EFE) when it is well done it is not seen; what you see the most are the errors”.
Nominated for this Goya in three previous editions for “Group 7”, “La Isla Mínima” and “El hombre de las mil caras”, Manuela Ocón has assured that when something goes wrong on a shoot, “if she is not to blame, it is our responsibility; and it does not always have to be a failure, it is also necessary to comply with the times, with the budget and with the standards that have been set”.
Regarding the artistic and technical teams that come together in the work of a film, the production director has assured that “on a shoot you see the best and the worst of each person because you live in a moment of constant tension”, while as worst of his work he has pointed out the circumstance that “you never have a sufficient budget”.
Perhaps accustomed to making a virtue of necessity, she has qualified that this circumstance also has its positive side because “you are always aware that these are the resources that exist, and that makes you make the most of them in the best possible way”.
magical moments that happen
Carmen Award, from the Andalusian Film Academy, also for her work on “Modelo 77”, Manuela Ocón believes that although her work is technical, it is not devoid of creativity: “I want to think that when you manage all the human and technical resources, and You are also doing teamwork, you need creativity for everything to go ahead; maybe not artistic work, but creative.
That is why he has considered that, for his work, “more than patience what is needed is serenity, serenity in the face of the tsunami that comes upon you when you have to organize the shooting of a film” and, in terms of improvisation, he has affirmed that “for it to work, you have to start from a very well organized plan”.
“Ours is a very organized job, which follows a strict order, even though there are factors that cannot be controlled such as the weather or the human team… For example, during the filming of ‘La Isla Mínima’ it started to rain and we decided to shoot in the rain; Everything was very organized and the artificial rain was prepared because it was September and it was not expected to rain”.
“At that time we shot with the rain and also with artificial rain, but that can be done when everyone is very organized and prepared; Those moments are amazing, they are moments that arise like that and they are very magical”.
A Goya of “the companions”
“In the end I don’t know what it is about cinema that forgets everything bad”, he pointed out about what could have been the worst filming of the more than twenty whose production he has directed, and he recalled that perhaps the moments of greatest uncertainty and anxiety were lived during the filming of the series “La peste”, because “it had such a high budget that there was no role model”.
The filming of that series was also “impressive” for him because from working with the usual technical team for a feature film, made up of eighty or ninety people, he went to five hundred, “and if the team multiplied by five, everything else tripled , in addition to the fact that it was shot in period costumes, with many exteriors and a level of digital post-production that was also very high”.
Regarding his Goya Award, he has indicated that “it is a fantastic recognition; What makes me most excited is that my colleagues give it to me, but above all I consider it a boost to the film, which tells a story that if it is not essential, it is necessary. Professionally I don’t know if it’s something that puts you in another place, but it is the most important recognition of Spanish cinematography. It is very difficult to have a Goya… But I do not lose the perspective that what we do is work”. EFE