Jorge Elías, independent producer, writer, director, and president of Hollywood Channel, is developing a musical content space made with cell phones, titled Pasa o No Pasa.
Elías, the producer of the program Hablemos de Cine that already celebrated its 32nd anniversary on the air, is broadcast on Azteca America on Saturdays at 3pm, comments that Pasa o No Pasa has already shot the first 13 episodes, 30-minutes each.
The intention is to place it on a TV channel, probably on Azteca America, and on digital.
The production mechanism is simple: the applicants record their song on a cellphone, send the files via WhatsApp and they are uploaded and edited in Los Angeles. People vote if they “pass or don`t pass” (Pasa o No Pasa) to the second round through social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Due to the pandemic, Elías had to suspend the program Leyendas de la Música Mexicana that he was preparing with Univision, perhaps the project will take longer because the company has just been acquired.
Elías highlights that in this quarantine we must tap into our creativity. “Pasa o No Pasa is a format about race, the people, it reaches everybody. TV is going to change forever due to this coronavirus. Now if the content works and people are interested in it, it passes, regardless of its broadcast quality, but people have understood that you have to continue producing,” he mentioned.
He believes the moment has arrived when producers see channels as partners “because there aren´t millionaire budgets for programs,” he added.