{"id":8582,"date":"2023-01-22T15:15:39","date_gmt":"2023-01-22T15:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/our-berlin-based-film-production-in-latin-america\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T07:16:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T07:16:40","slug":"our-berlin-based-film-production-in-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/en\/our-berlin-based-film-production-in-latin-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Berlin-Based Film Production in Latin America"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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A Firsthand Account of a Unique Film Production in Berlin<\/span><\/h2>

In November 2022<\/span> , <\/span>we traveled to five Latin American countries<\/span> on behalf of MPC Energy Solutions<\/a>, a subsidiary of MPC<\/a> Capital AG <\/span>.<\/span> As a global provider of sustainable energy,MPC Energy Solutions focuses<\/span> primarily on low-carbon energy infrastructure, including solar and wind power plants, as well as other hybrid and energy-efficiency solutions.<\/p>

On this trip, we visited various solar power plants\u2014both under construction and in operation\u2014as well as a wind farm. The goal of the film production was not only to create a scripted, international promotional film but also to produce as much footage as possible for additional video clips. In addition to shooting footage for the promotional film, we therefore captured plenty of impressions from the construction sites and the surrounding areas, both near and far. <\/p>

To make the video snippets as informative as possible without having to write commentary or hire voice-over artists, we conducted interviews with more than 25 project participants. Based on these interviews, combined with the many photo galleries, we are currently producing a variety of short and long-form videos that MPC and its subsidiaries are using primarily on LinkedIn. But first things first\u2026 <\/p>

Our first three stops: the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Costa Rica <\/span><\/span><\/h3>

After filming in the Dominican Republic and El Salvador\u2014a country that feels much safer, both subjectively and objectively, following the wave of arrests of some 60,000 gang members in 2022 \u2014<\/span>we filmed at photovoltaic parks\u2014some under construction and<\/span>others already generating electricity\u2014for the promotional film on renewable energy. This exciting and varied film production<\/a> then continued in Costa Rica. It is one of the few countries that already meets nearly 100% of its energy needs with renewable energy. An interesting article on this topic can be found here<\/a>. <\/p>

In addition to hydropower, the country uses wind to generate energy. A good location for this is the windy highlands near Tilaran, located about 110 km northwest of San Jose. Even though that sounds fairly close, in Costa Rica that currently means a four- to six-hour drive<\/span>for the approximately 160 km route . The road network<\/span>is undergoing an extensive expansion and renovation program, which results in several long stretches where you can only drive at 20\u201330 km\/h. <\/p>

On top of that, Highway 1 \u2014<\/span>which, incidentally, is<\/span> also part of the Pan-American Highway<\/a> \u2014is often reduced to a single lane. Especially in the mountainous sections, a truck can then become a moving obstacle. If it rains as well, as it did on the return trip, conditions become unpleasant and even dangerous.<\/span><\/p>

So, as always, the goal was to give it our all on this Berlin-based film production<\/a> by PanFilm Wolfes & Landbeck GbR to capture compelling stories and striking images for the renewable energy promotional film! <\/span><\/p>

The Tilawind Wind Farm<\/span><\/h3>

On behalf of MPC Capital\u2019s Caribbean <\/span>investment fund, MPC Caribbean Clean Energy<\/a>, we developed the <\/span>Tilawind<\/a> in Tilaran, where seven turbines generate 21 MW, meeting the electricity needs of approximately 10,000 households. In addition to producing a promotional video about the wind farm, we conducted interviews with the asset manager and a female soccer player, and captured several aspects of MPC\u2019s community engagement efforts.<\/span><\/p>

This includes, for example, a bus that MPC financed, which takes children from the Tilaran area to kindergarten and back home. We would like to share two of the videos we edited from the footage here. <\/span><\/p>

Mariacruz Fern\u00e1ndez Barrantes<\/span> works in asset management at MPC in Costa Rica. In this video, which is just under 90 seconds long, Mariacruz gives us a tour of the facility and lists the key facts. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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A Passion for Soccer and Support: The Story of Alejandra Arias<\/span><\/h3>

Alejandra Arias lives and works in Tilaran. She\u2019s really good at soccer, which is her hobby. So good, in fact, that she was invited to participate in a tournament in South America as part of a state team. To help her cover the high travel costs, MPC provided financial support for the trip to Peru. In the video, she talks about herself and the wonderful support she received. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Next Stop: the cosmopolitan metropolis of Panama City<\/span><\/h2>

We flew from Costa Rica to Panama City, where MPC Capital\u2019s Latin American headquarters are located. There, we filmed footage of the office and conducted various interviews for the promotional video. At the end of our one-day stay\u2014we arrived on Monday evening and continued on to Bogot\u00e1 on Tuesday evening, in other words: a whirlwind trip\u2014we met with <\/span>HUAWEI<\/a> facility on site. From there, the inverters for the PV systems of MPC and many other companies in the region are monitored and controlled. A brief yet fascinating glimpse into this Chinese tech giant<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>

During our brief stay in Panama, we produced, among other things, these two video profiles of Gabriela Bergantino, who handles all legal matters for MPC in the region, and Fernando Z\u00fa\u00f1iga, who <\/span>serves as Managing Director for Latin America.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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And last but not least, exciting Colombia<\/span><\/h2>

The final stop on our film production<\/a> tour was<\/span>in Colombia, where we visited the local MPC Energy Solutions team in Bogot\u00e1 and conducted various interviews before setting off with part of the team on the highlight of the trip to the Los Girasoles wind farm, which is currently under construction. We hadn\u2019t realized beforehand, however, that this would turn out to be the highlight of the trip\u2026 <\/span> <\/p>

The Los Girasoles Solar Park<\/span><\/span><\/h3>

The Los Girasoles Solar Park is located in the Norte de Santander Department. This area, which lies on the border with Ve<\/span>Venezuela is considered particularly dangerous. <\/span>Although the security situation in Colombia has improved significantly in recent years, remnants of guerrilla groups (ELN, EPL), FARC dissidents, and organized crime groups, who commit acts of violence and engage in gang wars as they fight for dominance in drug-trafficking areas. This is particularly true in Colombia\u2019s border regions with Venezuela and Ecuador and in rural, sparsely populated areas. Government control is still not guaranteed in these areas. <\/span> <\/p>

To avoid becoming a target of such schemes, strict security measures were in place during the trip to Los Girasoles. The trip began with a one-hour flight from Bogot\u00e1 to Bucaramanga. We\u2019ll keep the details of our subsequent overnight stay at one of the worst hotels in the world in Gir\u00f3n, not far from Bucaramanga, under wraps. Let\u2019s just say this much: The five-hour stay, from 11:00 p.m. until our departure at 4:00 a.m., was more than enough to leave that impression. <\/span><\/div>
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This was followed by a roughly seven-hour drive to Los Girasoles. On this drive, and for the rest of the trip to Los Girasoles and back almost to Bucaramanga, we were accompanied by a <\/span>Security escort in a separate vehicle. Our request to pull over along the road here and there to take a few drone shots of the fascinating mountain and valley landscape didn\u2019t go over well with the security company employee, since there are reportedly cocaine farms in those inaccessible mountains. Obviously, the operators wouldn\u2019t exactly welcome drone footage of their illegal activities. But he didn\u2019t want to ban everything either. So we were allowed to stop twice and film for five minutes each time, including setting up the drone. That meant three minutes of flight time. <\/span><\/div>
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After what felt like an eternity, we finally arrived at the Los Girasoles construction site around half past eleven, where a group of soldiers was already waiting for us. Fifty heavily armed men had secured the construction site and the surrounding area against unwanted visitors! It was a bit of a surreal sight, but then again: Better too much security than waiting for a ransom in some jungle backwater\u2026 <\/span><\/div>
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To ensure a perfect shoot on location, our filming schedule was abruptly shortened from two days to just one\u2014the day we arrived. The security company deemed it too dangerous to visit the construction site a second time. And so we had to fit in impressions of the construction site\u2014photos and video\u2014as well as two interviews in about 4.5 hours. <\/span><\/div>
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Afterward, we headed to the nearby \u201ccapital\u201d of the municipality, where we spoke with the mayor. True to the saying, \u201cThe best is saved for last,\u201d word got out that November 17 is Felix Landbeck\u2019s birthday. The mayor didn\u2019t need to be told twice and asked us to accompany him to a nearby bar. There, we sat with Juan Carlos Valencia from MPC Energy Solutions<\/a>, as well as the mayor and his right-hand man. <\/span><\/div>
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It took less than ten minutes for two young men to show up. One was armed with a ukulele, the other blessed with a rich singing voice. They immediately began singing birthday songs for Felix for twenty minutes. And they sang well\u2014at a high musical level. <\/span><\/div>
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To perk us up, we were served a drink from a local startup that could best be described as \u201cBaileys for connoisseurs.\u201d It had a very chocolatey, well-rounded flavor and a decent alcohol content. It was a great mix, and we certainly helped ourselves to plenty of it! <\/span><\/div>
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Since it was already starting to get dark, our security guard insisted shortly thereafter that we get into the cars to begin the half-hour drive to Ocana, where we checked into a hotel in which all the rooms had windows facing the hallway\u2014and only the hallway. An interesting design, certainly not for travelers who are sensitive to noise. <\/span><\/div>
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The next morning, we set out on the seven-hour drive back to Bucaramanga, from where we flew back to Bogot\u00e1 that evening. <\/span><\/div>
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Our take on this unusual Berlin film production<\/span><\/h2>
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It was a grueling film production<\/a>\u2014we spent over 50 hours on the road, including travel to and from the location, just to shoot for five hours on site. That travel-to-shooting time ratio isn\u2019t ideal. But sometimes there\u2019s just no other way. We would have liked to stay longer, especially since we never felt uncomfortable or unsafe at any point. <\/span><\/div>
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But I suppose even in Colombia, people would rather avoid headlines about a kidnapped German film crew. <\/span><\/div>

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The Promotional Video<\/span><\/h3>

What are we going to do now with all the diverse footage from this film production<\/a>? First, we\u2019ve edited a promotional video<\/a> \u2014just under three minutes long\u2014for MPC Energy Solutions<\/a> about its renewable energy activities in Latin America. The video describes the business model and expected returns and ties them to the company\u2019s purpose. <\/p>

We had originally planned to create the promotional video using voice-overs from some of the company\u2019s key figures. However, in the first edit, we quickly realized that this approach robbed the promotional video of its pace and clarity of message. So we decided to skip this format and focus instead on a narrated promotional video about renewable energy. <\/p>

Click here to see the results:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Other productions from the Berlin film studio<\/span><\/h2>
Another goal of this multifaceted and elaborate Berlin-based film production<\/a> was to populate the content pipeline of MPC Capital and its subsidiaries with informative video snippets on a wide variety of topics. These can include video segments on individual facilities, the inauguration of a solar park, or \u201cget-to-know\u201d videos in which we introduce employees. Thanks to careful planning, we were able to gather enough footage from the approximately ten days of filming to create at least 20 video snippets in addition to the corporate video. This maximizes the return on the capital invested and ultimately reduces our carbon footprint, which is, of course, an inevitable byproduct of travel of this kind. <\/div>
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Given the growing demand for video content of all kinds ,<\/span> we plan to continue using<\/span> this production strategy in the future whenever appropriate. We present some additional results of this strategy below.<\/span><\/div>
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The Monte Plata Solar Park in the Dominican Republic is one of MPC Caribbean Clean Energy\u2019s assets. The park is currently being expanded. This construction work requires particular care, as there are approximately 220 palm trees on the construction site that are protected species in the Dominican Republic. These trees are meticulously marked, carefully dug up, and transplanted to another location on the expansive site. <\/span><\/div>
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In this video, Letizia Perez Mendez talks about this work and the importance of environmental protection in general:<\/span><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Cesar Herrera of MPC Energy Solutions works as a senior technical asset manager in the region. In this video, he talks about himself, his job, and the expansion project in Monte Plata. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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A Firsthand Account of a Unique Film Production in Berlin In November 2022 , we traveled to five Latin American countries on behalf of MPC Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of MPC Capital AG . As a global provider of sustainable energy,MPC Energy Solutions focuses primarily on low-carbon energy infrastructure, including solar and wind power plants, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[199],"tags":[216,215,225,217,200,224,220,214,223,219,221,201,222],"class_list":["post-8582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-promotional-video","tag-4k","tag-aerials","tag-central-america","tag-drone","tag-film-production","tag-latin-america","tag-photovoltaics","tag-promotional-video","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar-energy","tag-solar-farm","tag-video-production","tag-worldwide","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panfilm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}