Telenovela Remakes are Causing the Industry to Die
While I do not believe that the telenovela industry is currently dead, I do in fact believe that the constant remakes of stories are causing a slow decline in telenovela popularity. After reviewing the "Future of the Telenovela" slides posted by Dr. A, it dawned on me just HOW many remakes there have been. While I did know remakes existed, even in American culture as well, the amount of remakes done of certain stories truly blew me away.
Looking at the three specific opinions from Salvador Mejía, Fernando Gaitán, and Alberto Barrera, the main thing that stood out to me was that both of the writers (Fernando and Alberto) shared similar negative opinions about remakes, while the producer (Salvador) had the opposing viewpoint. This is because, as Dr. A said in the slides, producers are the key component in a remake because they were not the ones that came up with the story, and instead are trying to change or tweak it.
In my opinion, I fully agree with the writers in this case. I feel as though writing a true and original telenovela is a difficult task, and only creative people can execute this successfully. It can take months and years to create such complex stories, and when successful, the credit is due to the writers. While in the past some remakes have been successful, (again, this is true in American society as well. ie. Cinderella) it is crucial for the telenovela industry to constantly be issuing new and original ideas. As Fernando said, "remakes don’t
give any space to tell the story of what happens in Latin America and impedes
telenovelas to transmit what Latin America is about." I do believe this to be true as well.
Definitivamente tendría que estar de acuerdo con este post. Hay tantos remakes de la telenovela que es difícil de contar. Entiendo el concepto "si no está roto no lo arregles" pero finalmente este contenido se seca. Es por eso que creo que fue tan impresionante escuchar del propio Leonardo Padrón sobre la industria de la telenovela y su perspectiva sobre la escritura de telenovelas. Parecía querer mantener toda su obra original y si no era uno de sus originales tenía que asegurarse de que tenía su propio giro en el programa. Definitivamente no creo que la telenovela vaya a morir tampoco, pero tendrá que haber un cambio para que una nueva oleada de telenovelas haga una gran ola en la industria.
ReplyDeleteEstoy de acuerdo que es importante contar historias nuevas y frescas. Es importante que las historias hablen sobre temas relevantes en la sociedad Latina hoy en día. Creo que el punto de hacer remakes hoy en día es que son telenovelas viejas es que han pasado muchos años desde la novela original, la audiencia ya es otra generación que la esta viendo como si fuera la original. También, si una persona pudo ver la novela original en su tiempo, probablemente quiera ver esta por nostalgia, eso es lo que pasa con todos los remakes de Disney.
ReplyDeleteDaley,
ReplyDeleteI thought you made some really good points in this post! I'd never really thought about how the rewriting of the telenovelas could be affecting the industry as a whole. I think you're correct that over the years less telenovelas have been written because it is so hard to write content that compares to the classics that have been written time and time again. I think stations and writers are afraid to try something new because they know that the old telenovelas work and they don't want to risk losing viewers and trying something new. I do agree with remakes being limited as to what the writers can do. I think it will be interesting to see if over the years the industry will continue to try to reuse the same old material, or take the risk of trying something new.