Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Cheap Production

The production aspect of telenovelas is my favorite by far. I think it would be so fascinating to be a fly on the wall like Professor A and just watch a telenovela be made. I especially would like to compare the production of a low budget telenovela with one of a high budget telenovela and those with high budget American tv shows. I know next to nothing about Hollywood's big budget production, but I can imagine that it is much more organized and elaborate (especially if they only film 10 shows max a season).

Watching the show at the beginning of class and the telenovelas written by padron, I understand that there is a wide range of show quality. Padron's plot lines are interesting, his characters are complex and his show does not remind me of the stereotypical telenovela. The show before class screams stereotypical at the top of its lungs, in the most stereotypical way of course.

I think that a lot of this has to do with budget. Obviously a telenovela aired in the middle of the day is not going to have the same resources poured into it as one aired at primetime. But I want to know how the environment changes in the studio of a low budget telenovela. Do they know their product is inferior? Are people motivated differently? How does the studio cut costs? Does the inferiority cause a lack of funding does the the lack of funding cause sub-par programs. I suspect it is a little of both.

1 comment:

  1. I have always wondered about your question "Do they know their product is inferior?" I feel that as long as it gets good ratings, they do not care. I don't know details of course, but I assume that there have been very successful low budget telenovelas, as well as high budget ones. Think of a TV show such as The Office. It doesn't take a lot to produce, but it is extremely successful and I'm sure the production crew and actors are very satisfied. Although I agree with you in that money plays a big role in telenovelas, a hit will be a hit no matter what.

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