Luis Zelkowicz de Telemundo Global Studios
Telemundo Global Studios (TGS) presented a half-hour virtual chat with Luis Zelkowicz, TGS Chief Writer, as part of a series of workshops and talks titled “Inside Telemundo Global Studios”, where top creatives offer a look behind the scenes of the creation process of some of the Telemundo series.
Zelkowicz kicked off last Wednesday with his workshop “The Art of Storytelling”, about the process of writing for a TV screen centered in Malverde.
He gave a brief account of its beginnings. “I grew up in a home full of books. It was the beginning of an adventure to become what I am today, a TV writer.” He recalled that it was in Mexico that he had the opportunity to write his first novel. Then came the super series with Telemundo, “a symbiosis between an action series and the fundamental pillars of a novel,” with El Señor de Los Cielos being the first (7 seasons), followed by El Chema and now Malverde. “And I still keep looking for a new language with the super series.”
He mentioned three stages of TV writing: the plot, the dramatic roadmap, and creating compelling characters.
He explained that he had been thinking about how to make the historical character of Malverde for a long time. “I decided to put together my version of what Malverde was. We set up a town that did not exist. We set the story in 1910, at the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution because it gave me the conflict. We live by telling dramas. The viewer has a curiosity that writers must exploit. We build for them a story of love, of adventures, a character that transforms into a kind of Robin Hood.”
Zelkowicz also mentioned another story that he is working on, but this time it is about a fictional character, framed in the universe of scams and gambling.
