Apartamento is a production company dedicated to the production of spots and contents in all formats: advertising, photo shootings, video clips, fashion films, documentaries, etc; working mainly in Madrid and Barcelona. It also has Mosquito, a service production company.
The production company defines itself as “a collective of directors and advertising producers”, always committed to each project and collaborating with the best professionals to achieve what they are most passionate about: “producing and directing, contributing all our knowledge, talent, experience and enthusiasm”. They love to listen to new ideas, and make them grow into memorable pieces. They always put all their talent and creativity to achieve an optimal production design and the best realization.
We interviewed Laura Hachuel, Nacho García and Albert Marí from Apartamento.
-
- Laura Hachuel
-
- Nacho García
-
- Albert Marí
In the field of advertising films, how do you work to differentiate yourselves from other production companies?
The reality is that nowadays, the vast majority of production companies work with very high and good production standards. There are always exceptions, but the reality is that the work is very good. However, at Apartamento we like to approach the work from a “team” point of view, with respect and as humanized as possible. The day to day and the volatile and ephemeral nature of things in recent times, being even more accentuated since the pandemic, has led to a certain “dehumanization” and coldness in the processes of our industry. Here at Apartamento, we always try to reverse that, creating a sense of unity and teamwork among all parties involved, regardless of the role of each one. It sounds simple and “naïf” but for us it is of utmost importance.
When you get involved in a project, how do you surround yourselves with the best professionals to form a great team?
We believe that, precisely because of what we mentioned before, people are happy to work with us, and feel part of that “team” we were talking about. Therefore, regardless of the work to be produced, whether it is more or less interesting, we usually manage to surround ourselves with professionals of the highest level and whom we consider part of the Apartamento family. The truth is that one of the things we are most proud of is when professionals contact us to make themselves known and tell us that other directors, technicians or industry professionals have recommended them to contact us.
We have observed your different fields of work when it comes to production, can you tell us what is your specialty?
We do not consider that we have a specific job profile. Just like our directors. That is to say, like them, we are professionals prepared to direct and produce all kinds of campaigns and content. However, for whatever reason, by inertia, or by chance, it is true that there are times when we chain similar jobs in terms of type of sector or style of creativity. For example, during a period of time we have done a lot of food advertising, last year we did a lot of advertising for pharmaceuticals, automobiles and supermarkets. But that doesn’t make us a production company that specializes exclusively in those fields. What it does give us is experience and know-how in them. We would like to think that the creatives and producers of the agencies and the clients themselves, who end up choosing production companies and directors to share their projects with, are capable of seeing beyond the specific pieces to value the potential of the work and the production and realization capacity.
You have produced spots that have had a great success and advertising memory, such as “My father is an elf”, among others. How do you capture your unique essence in each project?
Undoubtedly, that project was very special for us as a production company. For several reasons. For working with an agency that we have always admired, since our time at Tesauro and Pirámide, Sra Rushmore. They are an agency with whom, and we return to the first question, we have always had that “team” feeling. Also because that was our first campaign with Gabe Ibáñez, director with whom we had already worked in our previous stages prior to Apartamento. And precisely the combination of all these factors allowed us to surround ourselves with a team of incredible professionals. The project was wonderful and one of those that allows all team members to contribute their talent to make the idea grow and to overcome the difficulties that every production has. And this one had them, mainly shooting in very adverse weather and away from home, in Lisbon. So we could say that our essence was that team feeling to win the game.
What differences have you noticed when working on creating advertising with Apartamento and offering services with Mosquito?
Actually, the only difference is in the essence of what is national production, in which we are the executive producer, and what is the production of services for foreign production companies, in which we are not the executive producer, since that part is developed by the production company that hires us, with its client and its agency. However, even so, we tend to be much more involved than usual in a service. It will be professional training.
Do you want to tell us about any project or projects you have been involved in recently?
The last projects we have worked on have been a national production and a service production for France. The national production, directed by Roger Fonts, was for the Flor de Esgueva brand. A production in which the challenge was to shoot in a location and with a photography that would allow us to later turn it into a moving painting, giving it the shape of a canvas with life, with a pictorial texture, as if it were a Vermeer painting; which we did with the help of La Huella. And the service was for the Institute of Health of France. A very visually attractive and striking execution with very colorful sets, directed by Nicolás Caicoya.
What is your vision for the future and what do you hope to achieve as a production company?
The uncertainty that is currently reigning throughout society makes it difficult to project the future with certainty, but what we hope as a producer is to continue to be part of this industry and grow professionally. We are experiencing the emergence of mega holdings that bring together a large part of the work and the opposite side, the incursion of many small, very guerrilla production companies. The middle part seems the most complicated, but it is the one that we believe can offer more pampering to agencies and clients and also to the technicians and suppliers themselves, returning again to the first point. Being more of a “boutique” than a large factory allows us to take care of that focus. Our work has something very vocational and engaging about it, and what we would like is to achieve, together, to make this work something that we all enjoy, acting as a team capable of facing any difficulty and facing the challenge that lies ahead.
Interview by Marina Carazo and Carla Lara
