Fidela Navarro de Dopamine
Fidela Navarro, CEO of Dopamine Studios, was on #PRODUprimetime with Richard Izarra to talk about the four and a half years since their creation and their accomplishments, mainly how they have become an international studio in Mexico for the world, as well as showing the company’s offices.
RESTRUCTURING
“That’s what we have actually become, a studio. We have evolved, we have advanced and right now we are restructuring Dopamine to be able to diversify and go even deeper into the different business models” said Navarro, after commenting on the different units: Originals, with Amaya Muruzábal, and Joserra Zúñiga leading; Coproductions, with Maria Garcia Castrillon and Camino de Valcarcel, Entertainment with Xevi Aranda, Sebastian Reyes and Begoña Marin (in Spain), because they are making unscripted entertainment formats for open television and for SVOD.
“In these last three months, I have started two new units: Film and Production Services. It is not a bad idea once in a while, if someone needs it, to do production services for big projects. There are many foreign companies that want to shoot here in Mexico, and we already have the experience and the capability to do it. And in film, there will be surprises. We’ll see what happens in the next few months, but we feel like making films” she said.
PRODUCTIONS IN 2022
Navarro commented that they are at a very interesting inflection point. “These have been four years of hard work and right now we are at the point where we wanted to be as a creative team and team work that is making and preparing two of the series, which, I think, are the biggest and most ambitious on both sides of the Atlantic. We are now in the middle of the shooting of Coyotl for HBO Max with Warner Bros. Discovery, with a story created by us and by Amaya Muruzábal and Genaro Quiroga, written by us and produced for Warner.
And in Spain we have finally managed to prepare a series for Amazon, that is the adaptation of Reina Roja (Red Queen), a best-seller, and wonderful thriller that is part of a trilogy and that is going to be spectacular; together with Focus, our partners are there in Spain. This time, we are leading all the writing and physical production part in Spain. And that for us is extremely important” she added.
This, along with the adaptation and production of the co-production with NBC, Supertitlan. Additionally, she commented that they have entered other international co-productions, such as Close to Me, with the NENT group and the shooting of the first film they make in the US in English.
“We are also about to travel to Scotland because we have invested in a co-production with an English company on a miniseries for the BBC. We will soon offer further details” she explained. Soon, they will have the debut of Camp Newton, co-produced with Grupo Secuoya.
She assured they are planning co-productions with Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the US, which has been a long path and a huge learning experience.
NOT ONLY CONTENT IS KING
Fidela Navarro expressed that not only content is king, because how that content is operated, financed, and managed, the clearance and all the operative part is also important. She says this is part of the natural selection of big projects by production companies and studios in the future.
She added that many women work in Dopamine. “I have a great team, I am extremely happy, it is a very hard-working, warrior team, very perfectionist. We are intense, and yes, it is true that a lot of us are women and that is not so different”, after mentioning that she has not intended for it to be that way, but instead it has happened naturally.
“I think that at the time, they were the bravest ones, who made the life decision to move forward with everything, with their families, their children, move to other countries, and all, and that is something we value highly” she explained.
She added that their work style is very passionate and responsible and they take that feminine sensitivity behind the contents into account.
Watch the interview with Fidela Navarro on #PRODUprimetime with Richard Izarra
Fidela Navarro: Azteca is a great content factory that can compete with products for pay-TV
