The main objective of FACES is to create a geo-referenced image bank from movies and fiction series filmed in Spanish cities. It seeks to analyze imaginaries associated with these areas, drawing from their audiovisual heritage, study the link between these productions and tourism, and explore the relationship established between pro-filmic places and diegetic places.

For that purpose, we have created an inventory of fictional audiovisual productions shot in Spain up to 2018. Based on that, a ranking has been established according to IMDb user ratings. The highest-rated productions make up the corpus, which, through viewing, analysis and geo-location of their scenes have resulted in the Spain Audiovisual Map, a map viewer of exterior locations in urban areas corresponding to towns and cities with a population over 10,000.

The material analyzed enables many other different studies to be made. These include identification of audiovisual landmarks and their correlation with iconic tourism locations; analysis of urban transformations; studies on narrative-spatial relationships; analysis of the links between tourism and film productions set in urban spaces; the possibility of using information obtained to design cultural tours; and studies on the audiovisual image of large-scale urban settings, among others.

Our team is made up of 20 researchers from the fields of geography, audiovisual communication, and tourism at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad de Valencia, Universidad de Vigo, Universidad de Barcelona, Universidad de Sevilla, Universidad de Alicante, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Universidad de Murcia, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, and the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Objectives

• To create a general audiovisual fiction map by autonomous community and province.

• To create a filming location map for different Spanish cities.

• To create, based on previously developed mapping information, definitive documents on urban imaginaries created by audiovisual productions.

• To develop partial mappings for pertinent spatial areas.

• To document urban architectural transformations in Spanish cities during the past century.

• To examine the touristic and media impact of audiovisual productions set or filmed in Spanish cities.

• To carry out studies linking the connections between narrative and urban space.

• To undertake transfer processes for the project’s documentation and main results.