As we have continued to learn about the many aspects that make telenovelas I have become increasingly aware of their impact on my show. The plot has begun to develop as we learn who the father of the 5 girls are as well as the individual conflicts of each girl and how they tie together. Love stories have developed and past loves have resurfaced. The camera angles, switching of shots, and music have played an influential part in emphasizing the character dynamics, tensions, and emotions of the story.
In a specific scene, one of the daughters (Manny) confronts their dad (Simon) who also happens to be her uncle. She blackmails him for money threatening to leak his scandal and ruin his political career. Throughout the scene, she is shown at multiple angles, walking around, and making herself a drink. Simon on the other hand is fixed to one position and one close-up camera angle. He is pinned down and unable to make a move as he is faced with her situation. Similarly, later on, Manny has her feet up on the table and the camera shoots from the bottom of her shoe. Simon on the other side is shown with the shadow of her shoe looming in from the left. This, again, emphasizes her power literally showing the audience how he is under her foot. Throughout the scene, there is tense, intimidating music showing her power and his discomfort. After she leaves, the music switches to more pensive music as Simon thinks about what to do next. I'm not used to noticing things this detailed when usually watching a show, but after discussing their importance in class I've found a new perspective that appreciates these details.
In a later significant scene, Valentina and Frederico finally hook up after lots of tension. Immediately the music picks up into an upbeat pop song making this resolution after tension just that much more satisfying. The camera switches to them out of focus and instead Valentina's phone and an incoming call from Lorenzo (her initial love interest). This shot clearly illustrates their love triangle. The music sets the pace of the scene and a strategic camera shot incorporates this scene into the general plot.
Camera filters are also important. In a flashback, the colors are grayer to show this isn't in present time. The gray colors also emphasize the darker atmosphere of the flashback, whereas a happy flashback might be more orange and warm.
Sepereately, something to note is a level of censorship within the show. This doesn't apply in the sense it might've in Venezuela as government censorship but rather to things like nudity and how much is shown vs. implied. A specific scene showed Caridad completely naked. On cable TV, a scene like this wouldn't be allowed. Things would need to be angled this way and that to strategically hide her body. But on platforms like Netflix, it's a lot more free reign. For better or for worse, Netflix has broken boundaries with the type of scenes they include in their shows. This scene with Caridad is a clear example of that with full uncensored nudity. Also, the way directors incorporate scenes of two characters hooking up has drastically changed where, in the past, things were mostly only implied.
Without intentional camera shots and music, the show would feel unorganized, confusing, and amateur. These things play a big role in producing a story that's ups and downs are understandable to a universal audience.
This is a class blog run by Dr. Carolina Acosta-Alzuru and her students in the First Year Seminar about Telenovelas at the University of Georgia during Fall 2022
One of the things that made me think is the way you described how the woman was shown walking around while the man remained still in order to visually imply her power over him. It was almost a subtle way of displaying her entrapment of him. While reading that I realized that similar techniques are used in my telenovela to show power dynamics. There's a lot of scenes where the character with more power is taller when standing, or simply standing while the character with less power is sitting. It also reminded me of how when something really dramatic happens in telenovelas, like say for example a character is caught doing something they aren't supposed to, there tends to be a pause in the show (and then a break) and then the show picks up from that pause. During that pause it's almost as if the character that has been caught was frozen in that moment. I never realized before reading your post how prevalently body movement is used in telenovelas to show power dynamics.
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