U.S. HISPANIC Versión en español

Telemundo: Our international casting call yielded 4 thousand applicants

Maribel Ramos-Weiner| 6 de marzo de 2024

Ximena Cantuarias: We hope to find a lead, but surely we will find many guest actors who can grow on our screen and obtain a more prominent place in our productions

The international open casting call launched by Telemundo a few weeks ago was an idea from Ronald Day, President of Entertainment and Content Strategy at the network, born out of the importance of seeking new faces and talents, not only for scripted but also for unscripted content.

“Ronald presented me with the challenge of conducting an open casting call. We started thinking about Mexico and Miami and ended up in four different cities: Los Angeles, Miami, Mexico, and Bogotá. The basic idea revolves around these four cities, which are pillars for actors and talent in our productions,” Ximena Cantuarias, Senior VP of Scripted Production at NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, told PRODU.

Cantuarias explained that they selected these cities because, in the case of Los Angeles, it is the largest Latino market in the U.S. “It is super important to find people in Los Angeles who are Latino, who speak Spanish, but at the same time, represent our culture and Latino talent.” Regarding Miami, where Telemundo Center is located, she said, “For me, Miami is a priority. We produce in our studios and need local actors, both protagonists and guest actors daily. If we can have new faces and generate new talents in Miami, it is essential. Many times we have to repeat actors because they live here.” She added that in every project, there are main actors, many supporting actors, and guest actors per episode.

“We hope to find a lead, but surely we will find many guest actors who can grow on our screen and obtain a more prominent place in our productions,” she said.

As for Mexico, Cantuarias recalled that Telemundo now produces directly in Mexico. While acknowledging that this market has many actors, she admits that they often end up calling the same ones. “We all realize that when we enter a channel, a platform, we encounter actors that we identify from other places because we end up falling into the vicious circle of the same actors.”

Regarding Colombia, it is another place where Telemundo frequently produces. “This year we are going to produce in Colombia again. We have done Pasión de Gavilanes, La Reina del Sur, short series like Jugar con Fuego, El Barón with SPT, Operación Pacífico, and Colombia encompasses South America,” she said.

OVER 22,000 INITIAL APPLICATIONS
Cantuarias mentioned that the casting call was “crazy.” They expected to receive between 8,000 to 10,000 applications and ended up with more than 22,000.

By the time the casting call closed, the final number decreased to 4,000 applicants because they had to submit a self-tape performing a scene from a Telemundo project of their choice.

“As of today, we have 4,000 applicants who took the time to look for the project, select the scene, want to tell us who they are, where they are from, and why they want to audition, for which character and from which project they chose,” she said.

She mentioned that they aim to have these new faces ready for projects starting in June and August in the three countries – the U.S., Mexico, and Colombia. She noted that the casting call callbacks will take place from March to early April.

Cantuarias also shared some interesting percentages about the applicants’ diversity. The percentages of self-tapes received are 36% from Colombia, almost 30% from Miami, 27% from Mexico, and nearly 10% from Los Angeles.

Regarding the country of residence, 30% are from the U.S.; both Mexico and Colombia have 22%; Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela present a “significant percentage,” according to Cantuarias.

She mentioned that for the selection, they work with a traffic light system: red ones are discarded, they work with the green ones, and the yellow ones are applications with potential. Miguel Varoni is the director who analyzes the U.S. casting.

Another aspect that the executive highlighted is that this casting call also responds to a need for diversity in both nationality and age.

60% of the applicants are in the 26 to 39 age group, while those in the 19 to 25 age group constitute 25%. “85% are in the 19 to 39 age demo,” she said.

Cantuarias emphasized that this casting call will be for scripted, unscripted, and streaming productions. “We generate a catalog that is accessible to all areas,” she emphasized.

For Cantuarias, it is important to highlight that this initiative will not end only with the official casting call. “We will continue doing castings; we have offices in various countries,” she said and pointed out that to produce more than a thousand original hours this year, this casting call reinforces that objective.

Diario de Hoy

viernes, 27 de septiembre de 2024

Image

Comenzó la décima edición de SMARTFILMS con más de 1.200 cortometrajes hechos con celulares

Image
VIPS

• José Luis Sánchez de Natpe Global: Venimos a México a explicar qué es RealScreen Summit y las ventajas de participar en ambos eventos

• César Sabroso de A+E: Producir Huellas para celebrar 70 años de VW en México es ejemplo de unir esfuerzos con marcas para causar mayor impacto

• Productora Nidian Abella: SMARTFILMS me dio la posibilidad de difundir mensajes que resuenen con todos los públicos

PERSONAJE DE LA SEMANA

Roberto Stopello, showrunner y series developer de Netflix

Roberto Stopello es personaje de la semana en PRODU, tras la entrevista exclusiva ofrecida a Ríchard Izarra en #PRODUprimetime, donde reveló detalles de su nueva etapa profesional, después de dejar su cargo en enero de este año como VP de Desarrollo para México en Netflix. Ahora sigue trabajando en exclusiva para la plataforma, pero con mayor libertad y con la posibilidad de pasar tiempo de calidad con su familia. Además, puede vivir en Orlando, EE UU, donde están sus afectos.

Image
ACTUALIDAD

• Globo presenta al mercado internacional telenovela Manía de ti de João Emanuel Carneiro

• Shooting in Spain intensifica su presencia internacional para atraer rodajes a España

• Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias abrió convocatoria para la selección oficial de su edición 64

• ICEX España lanza la campaña Spain, Where Talent Ignites para potenciar la imagen internacional de la marca Audiovisual from Spain

El oráculo 35 años: Cecilia Gómez de la Torre

FIC Monterrey celebra vigésima edición con foco a reforzar su internacionalización

Diana Cobos del FIC Monterrey: Incrementamos la parte de Industria como parte del crecimiento del Festival

Arturo Sampson de Exile: Estrenaremos en Telemundo miniserie documental con J. Balvin que abordará temas mentales

Image
CONTENIDOS

• Mi pequeña princesa del catálogo de Latin Media lidera la audiencia en República Dominicana

• Netflix lanza documental argentino María Soledad: El fin del silencio el próximo 10 de octubre

Image
VIPS
Image

Natpe fortalece su propuesta como mercado con la incorporación de RealScreen Summit, dos mercados en uno, ambos a realizarse en la semana del 3 al 7 de febrero en el Hotel InterContinental de Miami. De esta manera, incrementa su propuesta de valor, al ofrecer un mayor acceso a distribuidores y compradores de EE UU y global, con el atractivo de nuevos contactos y negocios para el mercado latinoamericano. Otra ventana es que se distancia de Content Americas en el espacio de tiempo. Sobre estos temas habló en México José Luis Sánchez, gerente para Latinoamérica, EE UU y Global de Natpe Global, quien viajó a este país junto a César Díaz, en una cruzada de ventas y promoción del evento.

Image
Image
Image
ACTUALIDAD
Image
Gabz, Agatha Moreira, Chay Suede y Nicolas Prattes son los protagonistas de Manía de ti
Image
Image
Image
Image
CONTENIDOS
Image
Mi pequeña princesa
Image

Netflix estrena el próximo 10 de octubre en todo el mundo María Soledad: El fin del silencio, documental argentino de Red Creek y Néctar Films sobre el femicidio de María Soledad Morales, a 30 años de su asesinato.

PRODU
Resumen de privacidad

Esta web utiliza cookies para que podamos ofrecerte la mejor experiencia de usuario posible. La información de las cookies se almacena en tu navegador y realiza funciones tales como reconocerte cuando vuelves a nuestra web o ayudar a nuestro equipo a comprender qué secciones de la web encuentras más interesantes y útiles.