Miguel Escribano, Executive Producer and Partner of Harold Entertainment
Harold’s creative universe has transcended the conventional boundaries of entertainment. Being a film and audiovisual advertising production company, it has a very consolidated trajectory due to its work with agencies and advertisers from all over the world. Although they do not like to talk about formats, but about sensations and stories, this production company covers the fiction area with feature films, documentaries, virtual production works, 360 video… and much more!
With offices in Madrid and Barcelona and an international network, Harold has won numerous awards in advertising film and branded content, among others. Something that would not have been possible without a great team full of talent.
We spoke with Miguel Escribano, Executive Producer and Partner of Harold Entertainment.
Covering a wide variety of formats, what challenges do you face when working in so many different genres?
This variety of genres and formats poses very different challenges. For example, the production times of an advertising spot, with those of a fiction feature film or a documentary feature film, the search for financing for the latter or the contests for the awarding of the production of the former makes the way to deal with one and the other completely different.
However, there are multiple commonalities in the production process of these genres that make it very positive to have production teams with experience in different genres.
One of the great challenges we have faced over the years is finding common ground between advertisers and entertainment content creators. Handling two very different languages and putting them to work in the same direction is one of the challenges we have had to overcome, it has made us specialize and has helped us to make advertisers trust in producing this type of projects with us and our directors.
IG documentary series commissioned by Sony music, conceived and directed by Pastrana and produced by Harold Entertainment.
How is the audiovisual narrative of stories affected by technological evolution?
Technology has revolutionized audiovisual stories, providing more immersive experiences and absolutely changing the relationship of viewers with the content. From virtual reality to 360-degree videos or interactive series where you can choose what will happen in the next episode… Now we can completely immerse ourselves in the narratives and be part of the action in a unique way and we have a capacity of choice that is undoubtedly changing the way we tell stories. Times are shorter, formats are very different and the offer of content and media in which to enjoy them is much greater. All this means that audiovisual narrative is in a moment of constant and frenetic evolution.
In the reality format, how do you approach authenticity in this type of production?
Each project has different keys to focus on to ensure that it works. In this type of production it is undoubtedly very important on the one hand the casting and on the other hand to be as less invasive as possible when it comes to the approach of cameras that will record the images. A real casting that we have previously been able to test how they perform in front of the cameras and a production approach that helps the people involved in the shooting.
Looking back over the years, how have you managed to adapt to the new trends and demands of the audiovisual market?
You have to look around you, analyze the market and be clear that learning, the search for young talent and constant evolution are the best way to take advantage of and complement all the experience of these years to continue growing.
Sustainability is increasingly valued in all industries and we also have to adapt, have you incorporated any innovative approach in your productions in this regard?
For years we have been trying to be as sustainable as possible in our productions. The evolution and use of tools to manage all project documentation without using paper and the implementation of a sustainability protocol in filming have been the two points on which we have focused our efforts in this area.
Looking to the future, how do you see the role of advertising film in the future?
As we mentioned, there are more and more windows of consumption of audiovisual content and advertising cinema has to continue evolving and adapting to the new times. Making sure that the number of brands that definitively bet on adopting new genres and formats in their communication continues to grow and consolidating the recognition of advertising cinema as an entertainment option are undoubtedly some of the main objectives of our industry in the medium term.
