Shubhabrata Dutta
When a World War III-level catastrophe is about to hit, finding a safe bunker to hide in sounds perfect, doesn’t it? The Spanish thriller series ‘Billionaires’ Bunker’ (‘El Refugio Atómico’) tries to answer that question, and it is far from satisfactory, much to the viewers’ intrigue. Created by ‘Money Heist’ fame Álex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato, the Netflix show centers on an ultra-luxurious bunker called Kimera Underground Park, 900 feet below the ground, that becomes the new home of some of Spain’s richest people. As a nuclear war looms, the billionaires are taken care of by staff clad in orange. However, when the clash between two families comes into view, a dark past reveals itself, setting off a string of morally twisted events as viewers are made to lose sight of who’s right and who’s wrong. Since the events take place inside a bunker, the visuals are curated to showcase the claustrophobia that can be said to depict the residents stuck in their own lavishness.
Billionaires’ Bunker Filming Locations
The first season of ‘Billionaires’ Bunker’ was filmed entirely in Spain, specifically in Madrid, the Spanish capital. Principal photography reportedly began in the first week of February 2024 and continued for several months before wrapping up in the last week of July the same year. It was an extensive effort of the cast and crew that resulted in a successful humongous feat. “We were looking for a strong visual identity. We’d learnt that from ‘Money Heist.’ Visual identity is a way to reach the international market. It’s a selling point as strong as the star system,” Pina told Variety. “The fact of shooting in a confined space enhances creativity…The romantic side is more romantic, the dramatic more dramatic,’ she added.
Madrid, Spain
The crew set up shop at Netflix’s Tres Cantos European Production Center, located in the premises of Ciudad de la Tele (TV City) at Poligono Ar, 86 in Tres Cantos. It is the streaming service’s biggest studio complex in the European Union. A megaset, AKA the Kimera Underground Park, was built in the nearby village of Colmenar Viejo. An estimated 4,800 extras contributed to the show’s fruition, but before that, the crew had to put to use over 7,000 square meters (75,000 sq. feet) of sets and more than 160 set pieces, requiring more than seven months of construction. The resulting multiset had a capacity for 300 people, enabling three separate teams to film simultaneously. “I think all this shows how much we are at the very top in terms of technology,” Pina told Deadline.
360-degree cameras were set up to give the show a dome-like feel. Within the soundstage, a Zen garden featuring an 8-meter-tall bonsai tree was also built over five months. The set had more than 100 interconnected spaces, offering the production team a more immersive experience. The bunker megaset was designed to represent post-WWII minimalism, claustrophobic in appearance but large enough to let the camera move around freely and capture the scenes as planned from any required angle.
The show is also the first Netflix series in Spain to fully use virtual production via in-camera VFX. A 30 x 6 meter virtual screen and an 8 x 4 meter ceiling screen served as the virtual backdrops for 160 sequences, enhanced by HDR, Dolby Atmos, and cutting-edge post-production equipment. Netflix’s own open-source tool, Open VPCal, which synchronizes color camera spaces with an LED panel, provided the advantage of moving more VFX from post-production to pre-production. “With showrunners, the potential of in-camera VFX means that their creativity explodes,” Migue Amoedo, Vancouver Media’s co-executive producer and visual designer, told Variety.
Netflix has been pouring tons of money into Spanish productions, having received huge viewership from its Spanish shows, which have been some of the streaming giant’s best. Shows like ‘Olympo,’ ‘The Lady’s Companion,’ and ‘The Gardener’ have all been shot in Madrid, among other Spanish locations. Madrid specifically offers tax benefits, making it a lucrative filming hub for international projects, too. Some of its most famous landmarks are Puerta de Alcalá, Plaza Mayor, Fountain of Cybele, Royal Palace, Almudena Cathedral, and Callao Square.
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