TelevisaUnivision: We turned the first Mexican telenovela into a series that portrays the evolution of women

The producer Giselle González is responsible for upgrading as a series for ViX the first telenovela made in Mexico in 1958, Senda prohibida. It will have three seasons, starring Ela Velden, Raúl Méndez, José Manuel Rincón and Iliana Fox, and it will be released on Friday the 23rd. 

González explained the challenges, highlighting that this is her first series and her first project for a platform, so she had to rely on a crew expert in the production of this format and update the story without losing its essence.

“My idea of producing this story was with the intention of paying homage to the telenovela, but I realized the it’s a great responsibility because it’s centered in a 1958 production that gave birth to a great international industry and the challenge was how to adapt it for a series format and for a platform with a different audience. We wanted to pay that tribute, tell a story using its melodrama, respect its core, but leverage on the great opportunity to tell women stories for women and its evolution over the decades,” she assured.

Another challenge was to venture into making a series, such as a telenovela, a completely different format that they have done before. “You are faced with a very different format, technique, visual language and speed, which is why we surround ourselves with a great team that had experience in this, starting with director Gustavo Ron (Las chicas del cable and Velvet). We had to work with different types of cameras, focus pullers, photographers, but with the opportunity to mix elements of the production of a telenovela.”

ADAPTATION PROCESS
To produce this period story, Giselle and her team required a research process, a development stage of one month, pre-production of three months, and four months of filming with two crews in order to recreate a Mexico that today does not exist: “Post-production must start from the beginning, which is normally the last step. It is a melodrama that is not only for the generations of that time, but for the new ones that are used to watching different series.”

She stressed that an important moment in content creation is taking place, where “you have to change the way you do things. I have consistently made different products which had helped me to understand change easily and that each window has its way of telling things.”

During the desk work, they studied from what look they wanted to give the story, if it would be a 1958’s look or a story of that year would told with a current look: “We had to know the Mexico of that time, but to recreate it was necessary to study the social, political, economic behavior and more. The technology we used for this were cameras with other types of optics, framing, planes and times, you have a budget that you must manage in different ways. I needed to learn from people who are experts in this.”

To conclude, González said that with Senda prohibida, she understood the concept of showrunner. “In the world that is not of the telenovela, the producer fulfills a very different function. Here the showrunner is the great director of the entire orchestra. I have always played that role without realizing it, but that helped me to get used to being involved in everything from the script, the technical, acting, but without a doubt many things that I was unaware of and a process that today I know I can do with other types of contents, combining both worlds.”

The new version of Senda prohibida was written by Leticia López Margalli, Laura Sosa, Nayura Aragón, and directed by Gustavo Ron.