Day 9 - TVGlobo
Baby...I'm a star! Who knew I'd be in pictures? Ok, touring a movie studio...ok so I wasn't actually in any scenes...stop hating! :-)
Telenovellas & a language admission:: I didn't pick up Spanish or Portuguese before I left, and I've never been dedicated to watching the Spanish/Portuguese soaps. So going into this, and with Rede Globo (TV Globo) as the company I needed to write a mini-dissertation about, I had to do a bit of background research. Oh, and try to pick up some Portuguese along the way.
For you, the quick and dirty: the novellas are very popular in many Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries, more popular than other programs, and translated into many languages...so their market penetration is off the charts. More people will probably recognize Paraiso Tropical than will recognize Flight of the Conchords, even if it is my new favorite show, but I digress. I had to get a leg up on the telenovellas, and one of the companies responsible for their popularity.
theTVGloboPresentation:: we got some background on the company, it's founder, it's signifigance to the Brazilian culture, and the many shows it produces. TV Globo's the leading network in Brazil, responsible also for the Live Earth broadcast in Rio, Jornal Nacional - a national news program (that also tried to sink President Lula's chances in the 1989 election - more later), the telenovellas, futbol (with contracts with many soccer tournaments and championships), the Pan American Games 2007, World Cup, and Formula One Racing. Whew, that's a mouthful. It's imitated by Rede Record (who's also trying to steal their talent), and President Lula isn't happy with the programming - hence the Brazilian Broadcasting Company (a state-owned competitor).
More pics after the jump....
aside about the 1989 election:: well, apparently they recorded a debate between then candidate Lula de Silva and his rival Collor de Mello, then broadcast an edited version of the debate that place more favorable light on Collor. Despite this, Lula won, and the station later apologized about the incident. The whole story was recounted in the Jornal Nacional offical book, published in 2006. But back to the tour....
theTVGloboTour:: after the presentation (coffee, presunto e queijo, and biscuits), we took a tour of the facility. It was fascinating seeing the level of detail they put into the sets, costumes, characters, scripts, etc. We even got samples of the fake food they use on the show.
Never thought you'd see ya girl in motion pictures, eh?The picture at right is the pool at the Hotel Duvalier, a fully built 3 story hotel used in Paraiso Tropical. It has a full lobby, sitting area, elevators, bars, the pool...it was like being at a resort. To see more pics, click the pic.
The studio facilities also build their sets, and have a tile-making facility (although the tiles are made of melamine resin, but they are pretty), and artists studio (for portraits of the stars hung inside the sets), and several "remote locations" that are actualy on-site.
later that night... we check out the shopping areas near our hotel. We stayed at the Ipanema Towers which was very close to the Ipanema shopping areas. Now, the shopping here (IMHO) was better than Argentina, because Brazilians have booties, which meant I could find things that actually fit. (Argentines are generally shorter than me, and really fit, with avg to small booties. No shopping in Buenos Aires for me.)
We turned in early - with all of the running around, traveling & shopping, my roommates and I were tired - so it was an Uno night. That pic is from the hotel lobby, which was the hotness - even if our room was not. There were 4 humans there, but we boarded with a bunch of sugar ants (bleh) due to a formerly minimalist, but mostly nastiness couch that hadn't been cleaned in years. Good thing we're never in our room ;-)
More on the beach, the bodies, the helicopter, and the Samba later......