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Latin American Writers'
Seedbed
Confessions
of a drama writer
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ONLY
TELENOVELAS, Fiction & Formats
interviewed in Peru the renowned
writer Eduardo Adrianzen, who apart
from analyzing the wide scope of
telenovelas in his country, explains
how a script is developed and reveals
some secrets of the industrial production
of his scripts.
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Peru
wants to see and sell its telenovelas
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f we take a look at the
main Peruvian screens, we will see that there
are a lot of telenovelas. There are fifteen
telenovelas shown every day, which start after
midday, and all channels include them at prime
time. There are seven open channels but only
five can be considered to be competition.
The truth is that for years people have been
watching Mexican telenovelas, which rule the
afternoons of America TV,
which presently broadcasts Gotita de amor,
Mujer de madera, El privilegio
de amar (repetition), Inocente de
ti and the serial episodes of Mujer
and Casos de la vida real.
Now showing are: on ATV,
Las Juanas, Amor descarado
and Floricienta; on Frecuencia
Latina, Gitanas and La
mujer de Lorenzo and on Panamericana
TV, a repetition of Leonela
and Pobre diabla, both of local production.
The
art of creating
telenovelas
Eduardo Adrianzen has a vast
experience in the world of telenovelas. He
was born in Peru and has been writing scripts
for 25 years. He was team leader and the main
writer in four Peruvian telenovelas, among
them Eva del Edén, and he
is also the original writer of other six telenovelas:
Los de arriba y los de abajo, Los
unos y los otros, Tribus de la calle,
Todo se compra, todo se vende,
Qué buena raza and Demasiada
belleza. But his experience does not
finish there, as he is the author of eight
miniseries, he wrote the book Telenovelas:
cómo son, cómo se escriben
and he has been a script teacher at Universidad
Católica de Perú since
1999. Besides, he is a play writer with seven
plays on stage and at present, he is also
writing essays. Today, this great Latin American
artist reveals a few secrets of this profession
to us.
What scheme do you use when writing
scripts for telenovelas and series?
I work with the same scheme used by Rede
Globo, from Brazil: if it is an author
telenovela, I present the original story (plot
or “bible”) together with the
characters profile. If the channel accepts
it, the next step is to write the first eight
episodes on my own in order to create the
style. It is after that that the co-writing
team starts working.
How is the team work divided?
I never work with more than four co-writers
and they participate in two ways: by giving
ideas at the story meetings we have every,
or every other week and by writing the dialogues.
Everyday, as team leader, I write the structure
of the episode and I give a certain number
of scenes to each writer so they write the
dialogues according to what was previously
said.
What is the secret for the story to
have one style without the personal touch
of each writer?
At the end of the day, each writer hands their
scenes to me and then I do the literary edition:
which means that everything must look as if
written by only one person. I make corrections,
add or take away things if necessary, and
then the episode is ready to be shot. In my
opinion, what guaranties excellent results
in quality and time is the team work.
How many episodes are written per
month and what is the relationship like with
the producers?
We write twenty-two episodes a month. The
leader-author of the team is the only one
to talk with the general producer and the
channel. It is exactly the same system when
you are team leader and not the original writer
(i.e. when the basic idea came from the producer).
That is how most of my colleagues work in
Peru.
What does the audience prefer? local
or foreign ones?
Local production is very well accepted, and
they are the most successful ones. At present
the first place in rating is for Así
es la vida, a local telenovela comedy,
with an average of 24 points, and among the
top ten is the miniseries Misterio
with 15 points.
In fact, the record in fiction in 2004 was
for the miniseries Dina, la lucha por
un sueño, which reached 35 points.
Regarding foreign telenovelas, the most successful
ones are from Televisa, scheduled
for prime time, such as Rubí, Apuesta
por un amor and the serial episodes of
Mujer and Casos de la vida real.
But also Pasión de gavilanes,
Mujeres apasionadas and Eva del
Edén have been great successes.
Is Peru a country where original stories
are produced or do you work with remakes?
Most of the scripts produced in Peru are original,
except at the times of América
Producciones (1997-2001) when many
original stories of Delia Fiallo
were adapted, and at the moment Iguana
Producciones is using some Venezuelan
scripts as part of its co-production with
Venevision International.
Are those original productions written
by Peruvian writers?
In general we work with local writers, but
in fact, many cannot be considered authors,
as certain producers participate actively
in the plot design.
In my opinion, an author is the one who suggests
and writes the original story, and this is
made without changes, apart from being the
team leader. And there are just two of us
who do this job: Gigi Aranda
and myself. It is worth pointing out that
presently two Peruvian writers have a contract
with Televisa as original writers: Pablo
Serra and Erika Johanson
(Daniela of Telemundo-Argos,
Amar otra vez of Televisa).
Among the difficulties a writer may
find in his job, which are the most common
ones and how can they be solved?
A professional TV writer must be ready for
any inconvenience as part of his job. He must
be flexible, constant, organized, keep the
quality of the script and follow deadlines,
no matter what. One of the most frequent difficulties
may be the lengthening of the telenovela,
as it implies stretching the story sometimes
to extents that impoverish the original idea.
Another problem could be the difficult relationship
with some producers. Sometimes they lose confidence
in their own production and pass that insecurity
to the scriptwriters, who have to write plots
that they do not agree with. As I see it,
the relationship with the producers must be
of complete mutual trust and very sincere
and clear at every moment, without fears or
secrets. Actors, directors, technicians, producers
and writers have to go in the same direction
and strongly believe that we all put 100%
of our talent in search of one aim: success.
| The
topping telenovelas of the last
ten years |
| Local
Productions |
| Los
de arriba y los de abajo
(1994-95, ATV) |
| Luz
María
(1997, América Producciones)
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| La
rica Vicky (1997-8,
Frecuencia Latina) |
| Escándalo
(1998, Iguana Producciones) |
| Girasoles
para Lucía
(1999, Iguana Producciones) |
| Milagros
(2001, América Producciones) |
| Mil
oficios (2002-3,
Panamericana TV) |
| Qué
buena raza
(2002, Frecuencia Latina) |
| Así
es la vida
(2004-5, América
TV) |
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| Foreign
productions |
Mexico:
Amor real, Rubí,
Amar otra vez, Mirada de
mujer,
María la del barrio. |
| Colombia:
Betty la fea, Pasión
de gavilanes. |
Brazil:
Xica da Silva, Lazos de
familia, El clon,
Mujeres apasionadas. |
| Argentina:
Muñeca brava. |
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Source:
Eduardo Adrianzen,
telenovelas writer and researcher.
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