Production

When thinking of the production differences in the U.S. for movies and Spanish-speaking countries for Telenovelas, I’ve realized that everything about the productions are different. In America, movies are the biggest productions that provide the most profit. On average, most Hollywood movies take about 45-60 days of production, but post production can be from around 6 months to a year. They also have many opportunities to perfect scenes and time to watch the movie from start to finish to see what they want to change about the characters or the scene.

With telenovelas, we have learned that sometimes a telenovela will air every day with a new episode, which means that the actors are busy continually shooting their scenes with little to no breaks on their tight time schedule. Even on the weekends, if their show doesn't air, they are preparing for new week's shoots and writers are writing more of the scripts. As telenovelas are the biggest productions in Spanish-speaking countries, it’s a very different production world than what we are accustomed to here.

One thing that is similar is the actual process of shooting the scenes. To us in the audience, it looks very normal and comfortable for the actors. To us, it seems as if they are perfect at their jobs. In reality, some scenes are shot many, many times sometimes only to fix miniscule things such as a piece of hair in the way or to have their makeup running down their face just right. Or when we are watching a very raunchy scene, thinking that both characters are naked, they actually are not and are wearing sticky boobs or little pieces of clothing to cover themselves up. Or when actors have to kiss in a scene, one actor might have a breath mint inside her mouth to distract her from thinking she is actually kissing the guy. With today’s production, special effects and deception from the angle you’re filming can make anything look real.

What I found most interesting is that social medias for the telenovelas and producers oftentimes show what’s really happening backstage or on the set. Sometimes, it’s very awkward. Other times, it’s really fun. There are definitely different scenes that look more comfortable than others.

Worldwide, production is a very popular topic and is needed in every country, whether it’s for telenovelas, movies, or TV shows. However, I’ve learned that what you see in the final production might not have been exactly what happened live on the scene.