Presentations, Production, and Pleasing the fans!

So many things have been going on in our class recently that I could talk about. Dr. A is right: our class could really be a telenovela! I first must say that this is the first class in which I have been completely engrossed in everyones' presentations. I felt like I really learned something interesting from every presentation. I talked to a couple other people in the class about it, too. Everyone agreed that these presentations were different from any others we have seen in other classes!

I also have to comment about my fascination with the production process. I do not know how the people in the production crew deal with the high stress and time restraints of the telenovela world. I am stressed just listening to Dr. A telling the story about the scene that was turned in just hours before it aired. The great thing is that the cast and crew have a lot of faith in each other. They really don't have another option. I've learned that making a telenovela is a heck of a lot harder than it looks. And to get to the glitz and glamor, you must go through those high-stress times first.

As we've learned about production, I see the sets, cameras, etc and it seems to me like quite a grand production. It seems as though it takes a lot of money to make these Venezuelan telenovelas. However Dr. A mentions over and over again that their budgets are extremely low. This makes me think how much money the American soap operas must have! I'm sure nothing is off-limits for them or cuts too much into the budget. I think the bottom line though, is that the Venezuelans love their telenovelas. I think they'd watch their telenovelas whether the budget was a million dollars or a thousand dollars. After all, all of this production is for the fans.