Setting the Scene for Romance

Is a moment romantic without setting the scene? 

Telenovelas say no.

At this point in the semester, I am on episode nineteen of Pasión de Gavilanes. As you can imagine, there have been plenty of romantic moments between the main characters in the story. I expected this. What I did not expect was how the production of the telenovela would so intentionally set the scene for romance between our characters not only with dialogue, but also with the audio and editing.

I’ve now heard the theme song nineteen times at the start of each episode. However, I do not know Spanish and Netflix does not translate the lyrics so I was unaware of what they were singing about. Regardless of me not understanding the lyrics, I noticed each time the protagonists looked into the eyes of their love interest, the theme song would play in the background. Just from the music, the audience could tell that this meant a love connection was happening between the characters. In Pasión de Gavilanes, this happens often between Juan and Norma in the first twenty episodes and helps emphasize to the audience their connection to each other.

Not to mention, when you do translate the lyrics into English, you see how fitting the song represents the relationship between Norma and Juan and their passion for each other - especially Juan's. From the video below you see some of the lyrics are: Your smile is the caress that moves me and makes me go crazy. He repeatedly tells his brothers that he cannot get Norma out of his brain and that she is driving him crazy. As their love progresses, he even tells their housekeeper that he would sacrifice anything for Norma - even his hate toward the Elizondo family.

Below you can find a link to a video where you can watch and listen to the song with English subtitles:

However, the music is not the only way the production sets the scene for romance. The scenes that are shot between love interests or are very key moments in their passion for each other intensifying have a specific filter. These scenes have almost a golden, warm color filter on the scene that helps heighten the loving emotions the actors are conveying. Even with no subtitles and the audio muted, you would be able to tell these scenes are key moments in the love plot line based on the visual addition of filters, no to mention the eye contact and body language of the actors. 

Golden Filter

Normal Filter

I think telenovelas catch a lot of hate for being overdramatic, but the over dramatization of these scenes are what has kept all the characters and different plot lines straight for me. If these writers and producers did decide to be subtle in their cues, I would miss it all together because of the amount of drama happening.

The intentionality of the producers in setting the scene for romance helps draw the audience into the scenes and emphasize the love timeline of the show. This emphasis also helps overcome language barriers in my case and I think works to create an even more global engagement of telenovelas. Other media (movies, tv shows, etc.) could learn from this concept and help gather an international audience through setting scenes in every aspect of the media consumption.