The Cabildo de La Palma, through the project La Palma Film Commission of the public company Sodepal, promotes complementary training for the island's audiovisual sector. The island councillor for Economic Promotion and CEO of Sodepal, Miriam Perestelo, together with the manager of the Audiovisual Cluster of the Canary Islands, Genoveva Ayala, has announced the training programme that will be developed in the near future.

"We are working hand in hand with the sector to advance towards its continuous training and, therefore, its greater professionalisation through an ambitious programme that we have agreed with representatives of the sector, responding to the demands that professionals and companies on the island have made to us to improve their chances of incorporating productions that come to La Palma to develop their audiovisual projects here", explained Miriam Perestelo.

In this sense, the councillor explained that this support action will also improve the competitiveness of professionals and companies dedicated to the audiovisual sector in La Palma, as well as increase their skills and abilities through the necessary training.

Perestelo also recalled that La Palma has shown that it can be the setting for any type of filming and host sectors linked to the audiovisual world. In this sense, he indicated that last year the impact of the filming that took place on the island had a repercussion of 3.5 million euros.

For her part, Genoveva Ayala highlighted the island's cinematographic tradition, highlighting the figure of Mercedes Afonso, who believed in the possibility that the Canary Islands could be stronger in audiovisual terms. Thus, she emphasised, laboratories have been developed to promote creativity, which have been carried out at the regional level and at different festivals.

Ayala pointed out that public administrations and the private sector have created a scope for action that helps to generate an ecosystem.

In this sense, Genoveva Ayala explained that the format of the training has a significant practical component, in order to bring the training as close as possible to real cases that can be found in the different departments of audiovisual production. In addition, she said, the students will have the chance to apply their knowledge in practical cases in locations on La Palma, which will allow them to familiarise themselves with the departmental processes applied in what could be a real case in the territory.

Miriam Perestelo and Genoveva Ayala indicated that the training courses also offer tools for professionals on the island to develop services for international production companies that are showing increasing interest in La Palma as a filming destination for their projects.

Training programme

The syllabus to be developed in this project will include different workshops covering various subjects related to the audiovisual sector, such as locations and location manager; costumes for film, television and advertising; eco assistant and eco manager of sustainable audiovisual productions; characterisation, character design and special effects in make-up and hairdressing; narrative writing and scriptwriting, as well as a masterclass in acting.

These subjects cover the whole process, from pre-production tasks to shooting and post-production.

The programme has the support of the Canary Islands Audiovisual Cluster, a linking entity that makes this training possible by selecting the profiles of the people in charge of teaching the different subjects, who are professionals in the sector with extensive experience in their respective audiovisual production departments. 

The training courses will be run by the Canary Islands Film Institute and the Institute for Film Training and Research, with the collaboration of the Manolo Blahnik School of Art, which will host part of these courses in its facilities. This will be an opportunity for students to join these courses and will be an introduction for those who want to dedicate their future to different departments of audiovisual production.