Mariano Calasso de Tempo
Mariano Calasso, IP creator and showrunner at Tempo Media has been among the pioneers, creating lockdown reality shows for US Hispanic and the region, the first of which was Protagonista de Novelas more than 20 years ago.
“The reality is a genre that has existed for more than 25 years, and it has grown a great deal. I had the opportunity to be one of the creators of Protagonistas de Novela which was one of the first lockdown realities in the region, but realities now go beyond lockdown. For years they have also been part of the storytelling evolution of traditional talent contests and game shows” he explains.
When consulted on the direction in which the Hispanic content industry is heading, Calasso commented that it will continue to grow and diversify, “especially due to the boost Hispanic has in the US Anglo market, which is the largest market”.
He feels that the opening of platforms has given way to a variety of fiction genres and entertainment formats “that in the past, open TV in Spanish did not give it any space, and now, with all this opening, they have the opportunity to develop. It is enriching for the industry and the viewer”.
Regarding the differences between producing projects for streaming platforms versus traditional ones, Calasso commented that they are different types of storytelling, and budgets are also different “and that allows how carefully products can be made in the visual and in the content aspects. Traditional TV seeks massiveness and streaming not only seeks massiveness, but also gives niche products the opportunity to find a space to develop”.
As for what changed during the pandemic and will not go back to how it was in the past, he mentioned face-to-face meetings. “Although I have been working remotely as a writer for more than 20 years, with Teams and Zoom, among others, boundaries have expanded and opened up opportunities to work remotely in different countries and different markets” he added.
Calasso believes that virtual production “is a great resource to enable production and improve budgets”. Regarding the impact of ChatGPT, he says you can’t fight with technological progress. “ChatGPT is a useful tool that is going to contribute a great deal to the development of content. Now, it is not only necessary to have good proposals, but it is also useful to know how to ask good questions” he furthered.
In terms of artificial intelligence (AI), he did suggest “taking into account the recommendations of AI programmers and creators and the technological world on the need to regulate this instrument so that it is a tool to support the industry and not a threat to the people who work with and use it” he ended.
Tempo’s Mariano Calasso: The game is on for independent production
