|
| |
|
|
| |
This
time the Summit took place in the
wonderful city of Barcelona.
We had been eagerly waiting for this
event, with a great expectation generated
by the successful first meeting in
the year 2003 in Miami.
The
challenge: gathering
the most important men and women in
this industry from all over the world.
The
objective: debating,
analyzing, presenting situations
and exchanging ideas, opinions and
experiences on this important business
with more than 2 billion viewers in
more than 100 countries, and which
has been dubbed and subtitled in more
than 50 languages and dialects. This
business exceeds 2 billion dollars
per year in Latin America. |
|
|
|
| |
 efore
and auditorium of more than 220 key people
in this marketing decision-making business,
on the last September 30 we held the opening
act in the Hilton Hotel located in the downtown
business area of Barcelona, Spain.
Roxana Díaz, leading
actress of many Venezuelan telenovelas,
was invited as the official star and was
the hostess in charge of opening the Summit,
which lasted 3 days. After going through
her broad career basing on a video showing
her works, she said: “The telenovela
is one of the main export products in my
country, they’ve been seen in more
than 50 countries and on more than 300 television
networks. When we face with different situations
in life we tend to say ‘Oh, my life
seems a telenovela’ and for me that’s
the key factor because telenovelas, unlike
other genres, try to emphasize the real
facts of life in an average of 120 hours.
The viewers identify themselves with the
characters we perform. We express 70 years’
emotions performing them in 6 months. We’re
the television expression of passion, love,
affection and tenderness. In the name of
TVMAS I
welcome you to the Second Summit of the
Telenovela and Fiction Industry.”
Then it was the turn of the creator and
organizer of the Summit, the director of
TVMAS
and ONLY TELENOVELAS,
the producer and reporter Amanda
Ospina: “Since the last Summit
in Miami many events have taken place, our
owns and others, which affect us positively
and negatively as an industry. Today we’re
covering different aspects, from the academic
and substantial ones to the operative and
theoretical ones, aspects that will be topics
of analysis among the discussions that will
be carried out here. We’ll find clarity
by debating today’s reality adding
academic knowledge to the scientific discussion.
I’m afraid the most dramatic aspect
that has relentlessly been reached by the
companies’ economy is programming.
We can’t make progress with the only
purpose of selling without checking the
transformations experimented by the different
markets around the world, the migration
of audiences and globalization.
We’ll admire the presentations of
important companies in this business and
we’ll especially take this opportunity
to make magnificent business agreements,
since we have all-embracing proposals for
a greater development on the industry of
these fictions worldwide.
That’s the reason why your presence
here today is so important. You’re
favoring the best suitable space for a genre
that is a model all around the world and
supports many other important sectors such
as music, merchandizing and advertisement,
among others,” she said.
Before giving way to the important figures
participating in the opening panel, the
hostess invited the auditorium to see a
compilation video of the first meeting in
Miami in April 2003. Then came the greetings
and presentations of Francés
Escribano, producer and reporter,
general director of TV3,
Catalonian Television;
Ramón Colom, reporter
and television producer, president of SAGRERA
TV from Spain and Lorenzo
Vilches, director of the Films
and TV Script writing Master of Universidad
Autonoma de Barcelona and director of the
Fiction and Telenovelas Observatory in Europe.
 |
 |
|
| |
| |
A
moment during the debate between
the Spanish media and the
auditorium. |
|
|
Francés Escribano
said: “When we speak of telenovelas
we speak about passions. They say that there
are two words that define Catalonian people:
zen and raucha –that is moderation
and courage. I don’t know which of
those features made us enter the telenovela
genre and which is precisely the link between
us and the Latin American audience, but
I think that the telenovela has reached
every corner of the world.
That same moderation makes our telenovelas
the absolute leaders in audience in Catalonia,
besides having a particular style, different
from the Latin American telenovela even
though they have the same foundations, and
mainly the same motivation and the same
reason: building a general representation
of our own. For us, making these products
is giving a clear alternative to the most
powerful marketing products coming from
the Anglo-Saxon world.
Our teenagers putting up next to their beds
posters from one of the protagonists of
Corazón de la Ciudad –our telenovela
followed by Catalonians every afternoon–
is better than them hanging up a picture
of any American star,” he concludes.
Ramón Colom said
that “the telenovela is the television
expression of passion for life, feelings
and reality, and in many cases it represents
our roots. Catatonia is precisely a country
that is always questioning its identity.
We are one of the few countries that have
two nations: Catalonia and Spain. I’d
also add a third nation, since we’re
trying to build the great European nation
with the 25 countries forming it.
So we are in the suitable place for discussing
and work together for this industry that
we are so excited about, and if we don’t
make us of this opportunity, we’ll
have wide borders that won’t allow
us to see things right. In Europe there
are certain restrictions established by
the European Community that make it
really hard for the Latin American telenovelas
to enter countries like France, Italy or
Germany. In Spain these restrictions are
specially important because –like
Escribano said– we need to build a
general representation of our own. We need
to represent our own life in fiction series,
so I invite you to do business based on
the willingness to understand each other
better. Lets it not just be Catalonian or
Spanish or Mexican or from any other Latin
American nation. Let’s look for bridges
to link our industries and trade plans.
Let’s try to serve our clients –the
citizens– better.” He
also commemorated the efforts made by Gustavo
Basaló (rip), who represented
RCTV and Coral
International from Venezuela in
Europe. Colom also paid tribute to Carlos
Enrique Cisneros (rip) and thanked
both of them for being the links with the
word of telenovelas long before Colom was
general director of Radio Televisión
Española.
The next and last speaker of the opening
act was Lorenzo Vilches.
“I felt a bit uneasy when our star,
Roxana Díaz, said
that telenovelas last less than a year.
I’d like to say that here telenovelas
last up to 8 years, so you can see their
importance and the crucial role of the writers
who perform such achievements. That’s
why I’d like to congratulate the worst
treated caste in this business: the scriptwriters,
without them we wouldn’t be able to
do anything. I’m closely following
each step of the processing that goes from
the script to its network programming, thanks
to the European and National Fiction Observatory.
It’s a great idea to get the academy
closer and to make it get interested in
the international fiction industry, and
most of all it’s important that the
industry gets to know that the academy can
contribute a lot by analyzing the situation,
with no need to be only a trading company
interested in partial aspects of this industry.
I thank the organizer of this Summit for
this, and we’ll carry on, going beyond
the European and Latin American countries,”
he concluded.
After this act, they gave way to the different
panels where they discussed specific topics
and the protagonists gave top level presentations.
Next, an interesting summary on the development
of the Second Summit. Don’t miss it. |
|
1- Francés Escribano
2- José Ramón Colom
Esmatges
3- Lorenzo Vilches
4- Roxana Díaz
5- Amanda Ospina
 |
|
|
