Focused on the talents behind its projects, BuendíaEstudios (Spain) presented “Tan Veloz como el Deseo: why Literature is a trend”, one of the top VS Next conferences during Virtual Screenings Worldwide, gathering scriptwriters, authors and executives to discuss how books are becoming the fuel of the global audiovisual industry.
Moderated by Rodrigo Cantisano, executive producer at Utopia Media (Argentina), the session included Sonia Martínez, Editorial Director, Buendía Estudios, Mexican Laura Esquivel, author of Tan Veloz como el Deseo and the scriptwriter Marcela Fuentes, as well as Alex Lagomarsino, CEO, MediaBiz (USA).
Martínez highlighted the current searches of the platforms and underlined that the literary source is ‘one of the main ones’. She remarked: ‘I believe that it is always a merit of literature, but I also believe that the search for platforms derives from the fact that it is driven by the demand for content. The market is so large, that facing a blank project alone or creating a project from scratch represents a very big challenge for a company. That is why having an IP from where you can start, from where you can have an idea, is a lot of help. Undeniably, literature continues to be an inexhaustible source of ideas and stories’.
The executive also assured that the main differential of the Spanish Studio is the ability to ‘generate new points of view in the stories we want to tell, together with a level of production of the highest quality’. Buendía Estudios has new projects in different phases: ‘Some of them are in the pre-production phase and others are in development for various channels and platforms’.
For example, Esquivel’s Tan veloz como el deseo, a very rich text and perfect to be told in a series’. Esquivel was part of the panel, and she indicated: ‘the interesting thing about using literature as a source for series is that you can relive a story and even link the return to reading and even create or bring it to life a franchise’. On the other hand, she mentioned the importance of creative alliances to promote stories in the content industry.
Fuentes, scriptwriter of the audiovisual adaptation of the book, said that literature is a ‘inspiration source’ for television series: ‘We can relive a story and, link the return to reading and even bring it to life a franchise’. On the other hand, she mentioned the importance of creative alliances to promote stories in the content industry.
Lagomarsino, who represents writers and screenwriters, offered his perspective: ‘I think there is an oversight to the autor by the part of the platforms, where they believe that the distributor is the most important asset on a project. And although there are some players who give them the space they deserve. Stories must be repositioned as the center of a project. Taking care of a creative is something we should never lose’.
Aimed at young audiences Buendía Estudios and Malvalanda recently confirmed the adaptation of the book Conexo by Carlos García Miranda, who is working on the script of this 8-episodes series directed by Carlos Therón (Los Reyes de la Noche). Martínez, José María Caro (La Cocinera de Castamar) y David Troncoso (By Ana Milan) from Buendía, along with María del Puy from Malvalanda, are the executive producers of this project. Conexois about the search for identity in adolescence with ingredients of mystery and adventure, in which friendship and love are the engines of the story.
Martínez finished about the current trend in the number of episodes in a series, and said that ‘it is at the service of the story that you want to tell’: ‘That is why you can see series of between six and ten chapters in all the platforms’. About to the duration, she remarked that ‘the story commands’: ‘Usually the chapters move between 30 and 50 minutes, although now the duration is not ascribed to the genre, before you could not find a drama of 25. An example is Cardo, our production for AtresPlayer, a generational drama with six 25-minute episodes’, she concluded.
