Telenovela

A television soap opera often a Latin American soap. A Telenovela is a enhanced world which is more unrealistic than typical soaps and is often used as pure escapism for the viewers. The first recorded Telenovela was Mexico's The Price of the Sky, in 1959 and has since had a rise to fame and is now the number one sub soap genre in Mexico and Brazil. One of the most popular Telenovelas in the UK is Ugly betty which was originally based on the famous Columbian Telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea.

What is Telenovela
A telenovela is a limited-run serial dramatic programming popular in Latin American, Portuguese, Filipino, Spanish, and North American television programming. The word combines tele, short for televisin or televiso (Spanish and Portuguese words for television), and novela, a Spanish and Portuguese word for "novel".

editing
Editing is a major part of Telenovela's as the use of reverse angle editing creates relationships between characters which is essential in a Telenovela plotline. For example in this ugly betty clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXAIoHEicV4 the edit allows the viewer to clearly see how both characters feel about one another giving them a clearer understanding as to how everyone in the show is feeling.

Another way in which Telenovela is different to other soaps is its different edits such as the one in this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqIhisx4FVo. This takes away the realistic aspect of the soap whereas using a quick cut would help to keep it more realistic, the edit along with the dramatic music used during the edit creates the enhanced, hyper real world.

Most popular

Telenovelas are widely popular in Latin America and Iberian countries such as, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, and in Hispanic speaking communities in the United States. An example of this is in Ugly Betty where the main character is Hispanic.
One of the most well known and popular telenovelas is Dallas. Dallas was first aired from 2nd April 1978 to 3rd May 1991 it was shown on CBS. The series revolved around the Ewing family who were a rich Texan family who owned an oil plant. The show had 14 seasons and 357 episodes. From Dallas other Telenovelas emerged one being Knots Landing aired in 1979 which aired for 14 seasons. The Dallas legacy still goes on thanks to TNT which have decided to create a modern Dallas for todays audience. The first episode premiered on 13th June 2012.

Cinematography
The reverse angle shot is used a lot to track conversations. This is used a lot throughout Ugly Betty.

Close up's are used to show the over dramatic facial emotions used by the characters. For example happiness shown by the character here.

Tracking shots are used to watch the drama unfold. As well as giving the audience a live action aspect to what they are watching.

A telenovella is a soap opera which shows a slightly unreal, enhanced world. It uses colours, costumes and scenarios within the drama which are also enhanced. It uses pure escapism, which litterly relates to the idea of an on screen novel. (hyper real). Finally it uses music to enhance this hyper real world.

Background colours all enhanced.

Over the top facial expressions

Bright, vibrant lighting to Enhance the mood lighting.

Bright colorful costumes

 Has the same setting mode to enhance the same over the top scenarios which all occur in the same place. Sometimes occurs in other settings to over dramatise the scenarios presented.