Blog Post #3 Production of La Doña

La Doña is one of the most successfully grossing telenovelas in Mexico. Part of what makes the show so popular is it’s incredibly high production value. More and more, telenovela audiences are expecting more realism out of the novelas that they watch. La Doña broaches many complex, modern issues that viewers face in their daily lives such as corruption, gang violence, kidnapping, and sexual assault and other crimes. The cinematography of La Doña contains sweeping shots of real places in Mexico City where the audience can visualize. Time and time again La Doña provides crystal clear depictions of life in Mexico complete with scenes of street vendors and markets, corrupt cops, and tenement buildings with community living that is common in Mexico City. Another important aspect of production is the music. Like many other telenovelas, the music swells dramatically during climactic scenes to increase awareness to the audience that something important is happening. Something unique to La Doña is that the lead actress, Aracely Arámbula, also sings the theme song of the show which is catchier and more pop-like than other novela intro songs. 

Song link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfwSK1fqEwc 

The thing that interested me particularly in the production of La Doña is that it was inspired by a novel, Doña Bárbara. Therefore, the production team has to navigate the challenges of staying true to the original script of the novel versus creating new content, as this is not the first time Doña Bárbara has been remade to fit the screen. In 2008, there was another novela produced by the same name as the novel but it has distinctively different characteristics than the newer novela, La Doña. I watched some clips of Doña Bárbara and it is incredibly interesting to compare the two and see how drastically the production value has increased in a matter of a decade. The picture quality, while I know this differs by the streaming service, is ultimately of such lower quality as little as 12 years ago. 

The novela, produced by Argos Communication and Telemundo Studios, uses a multi-camera mode of production. This means that the team shoots the same scene on multiple cameras in order to show different perspectives. This alone, is an indicator of La Doña’s  incredibly high production budget and value. The team is also tasked with following a multitude of storylines at once, including the love triangle between Monica, her mother (La Doña), and Saul, the handsome lawyer who’s heart seems to get him into trouble. The show has been so successful that it is still currently airing with plans for more episodes in the future.