AGAIN: WRITER INTERVIEWS ACTOR

A few days ago I posted here Leonardo Padrón's interview of Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramírez. Today I bring from the same TV interview show, "Los Imposibles", the conversation between Padrón and the Venezuelan actor who became the international symbol of Venezuelan telenovelas: Carlos Mata.

Carlos Mata began his acting career accidentally since his passion was the arts. At the same time he developed a music career that earned him gold records in the United States, Spain, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. His most recent work in telenovelas was as Facundo Montoya in Leonardo Padrón's "La Vida Entera".

Both Carlos Mata and Leonardo Padrón have a great sense of humor, which gives their conversation a lighthearted tone, amidst the many details it provides on the life and career of Carlos Mata:

A WRITER INTERVIEWS AN ACTOR

I'm in Oxford. Tomorrow I start teaching my class: "International Mass Communication." For this reason, I'll write (even) less on my blogs.

Today I bring you an interesting interview that affords us the rare opportunity of watching the conversation between two people whose careers are not limited by telenovelas, but who have been definitely marked by these melodramas: writer Leonardo Padrón interviews actor Edgar Ramírez.

Leonardo Padrón is the telenovela writer that I've been studying for a decade. He's a poet, essayist, and film scriptwriter, in addition to being the author of some of the telenovelas most watched in Venezuela, such as: Contra Viento y Marea, El País de las Mujeres, Cosita Rica, Ciudad Bendita and La Vida Entera. Four years ago, Padrón started an interview radio show, "Los Imposibles" where he interviews people who are "imposible to ignore". Last May, "Los Imposibles" jumped to  television, keeping the structure of these conversations that have also become a  literary success, because each season of interviews is published by  Editorial Santillana: Los Imposibles: Conversaciones al Borde de un Micrófono, Los Imposibles 2 and Los Imposibles 3.

Edgar Ramírez began his acting career in Venezuelan films. In the very successful telenovela Cosita Rica, he personified Cacique, whose love story with identical twins Verónica and María Suspiro obsessed the Venezuelan audience to the point of eclipsing  the protagonists' love story. A few months after the end of Cosita Rica, Ramírez broke into Hollywood with Tony Scott's film Dominó with Keira Knightley and Mickey Rourke. Afterwards, he participated in The Bourne Ultimatum with Matt Damon, Vantage Point with William Hurt and Ché Part 1 with  Benicio del Toro. He's currently finishing shooting a film with famous French director Olivier Assayas in which he stars as the terrorist that marked the lives of many during the 70s and 90s: Illich Ramírez Sánchez, known as "Carlos, the Jackal".

Unfortunately, the interview is in Spanish and without sub-titles. I still hope you can enjoy some of it:

Option 1 (Megavideo):


Option 2 (Viddler):

PRODUCING TELENOVELAS IS TEAM WORK

Everyone who works in a telenovela always emphasizes that telenovelas are team work. In my research, however, I continuously find that the audience doesn't perceive or understand it that way. People tend to personalize when they attribute a telenovela's "success" or "failure." For instance, in Venezuela "success" and "failure" are attributed to the head writer and/or the protagonists. In Mexico, "success" and "failure" are placed on the shoulders of the executive producer and the protagonists. These trends aren't exclusive to the public, since we can observe them in the entertainment press as well. 

For years I've been observing how telenovelas are "made." And, yes, the final product depends on the team work of writers, actors, producers, directors, wardrobe, art, set design, edition and post-production. I've also witnessed that everything happens very quickly. In the end, what we see on the TV screen is really a version of what was written in the script. 

Today I bring an example in which there were significant efforts from the director, cast and production team so that the scenes would be taped as close to what was written in the script as possible. But, due to sloppy/rushed editing what was broadcast ended up not reflecting the writer's intention or everyone else's hard work.

Context: These scenes constitute the end of Chapter 116 and the beginning of  Chapter 117 of Venezuelan telenovela La Vida Entera which had a total of 120 episodes. The scenes are previous to the much anticipated confrontation between Olimpia Duque (Beatriz Valdés) and her husband Napoleón (Gustavo Rodríguez), after he publicly humiliated her by revealing that she has a long standing affair with his professional rival,  Facundo Montoya (Carlos Mata). Olimpia is already home when Napoleón arrives with son Salvador (Jorge Reyes).

If you can read Spanish, you can see for yourself  how the scenes were written so that both the end of chapter 116 and  the beginning of chapter 117 tell us the same dramatic happenings, but from two different points of view. (Notice the fragments I've highlighted in yellow).

Last May I spent many hours on a Saturday observing how these scenes were shot from different angles and perspectives, so that the story would be told according to the script. Moreover, given the rushed nature of the last days of a telenovela, director Luis Alberto Lamata decided to tape the different shots in the same order that they would be seen. In this way he tried to facilitate the assemblage and editing of the material, and avoid any confusion by the editor regarding the two points of view that were written in the script. 

Following are two videos I took of the taping of two of the shots: 

Click To Play

Click To Play

Despite the amounts of time and effort that were dedicated to the taping of these scenes, the editor did not use most of the material and altered the order in which the shots were presented. The end result: the cinematographic quality and dramatic intensity that were present in the script were lost. What a pity! 

End  Chapter 116 (if you can read and understand Spanish, compare with the script):

Beginning Chapter 117 (again, if you can read and understand Spanish, compare with the script):

Conclusion: telenovelas are team work and the probability of imperfection is pretty high when you consider the industrial pace and quality of their production process.

A LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR OF DOÑA BARBARA

I've written before about the distance between the public's perceptions about a telenovela and what really happens in the show's creative process. In particular, there is considerable distance between what the audience knows about the writing process and what actually happens in the mind and soul of telenovela writers. 

Today I bring a document that bridges the latter distance in a significant way. This document is a window in to the mind (and heart) of the writer who tackled the very difficult job of transforming the Venezuelan classic literary novel Doña Bárbara (Rómulo Gallegos) into telenovela format: Valentina Párraga.  This Telemundo telenovela polarized its audience members, who were vocal in their positions regarding the main love story triangle of Doña Bárbara-Santos-Marisela.

After the telenovela's last episode was broadcast, Valentina wrote me a letter where she reflects on her journey writing Doña Bárbara. It's an honest analysis that illuminates the effort behind writing a telenovela and the ever-present tensions between the genre's commercial and creative requirements. Generously, Valentina has agreed that I share her letter with my blog readers. You can read it in Spanish or in English. And, then, let the conversation start in the comments section of this blog!