Who ever said the entertainment industry was all glamour and no work...?

This summer I was an intern in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve always aspired to work in the music business, and for a long time I was naïve enough to believe that the whole business was just a community of musicians and creative people, with businesspeople and planners being rare.

This summer, however, I learned how wrong I was. I saw just how many team members and how much time and advanced planning is involved in supporting a musical project of one artist. There are managers, financial teams, digital media strategists, distribution experts, tour logistics teams, promotional events teams, sound engineers-- the list could go on for ages.

The planning for a musical project-- whether it be a tour or a new release-- starts at least three months in advance, but usually it’s much further in advance. There is meticulous preparatory work put in by each and every member of a team, and it only continues once the project is up and running. Working on a new project in the music world is a very long, drawn out process with a defined beginning and ending point, and once you’re in the middle of the project, you can’t change the songs or the direction of the project without starting over completely. The public doesn’t know about your project, so you can change the whole thing without anyone ever knowing.

I’ve learned that the exact same concept is behind the production of telenovelas. Obviously, I realized that a team of people would be behind the production process, but I didn’t consider just how fast-paced the production process would be. Just listening to all the processes and team members that are involved in a telenovela is exhausting. Unlike the music business, telenovela production is incredibly fast-paced, and everyone has to adapt to each other and to audience reactions on short notice. The process is very different because some things, such as audience approval and ratings, cannot be predicted until you’re right in the middle of making the telenovela. The public is watching the project as it unfolds, and everyone involved must think on their feet in order to give the audience what they want and continue to win ratings.

Though the two processes are a bit different in pacing and structure, the common element of intensity and undying work ethic drive both the music business and the telenovela industry. Just like musicians have long days and late nights of recording in the studio or rehearsing, actors and telenovela production teams have long days and late nights of filming. Just like songwriters must fight writers’ block and force themselves to write constantly, telenovela writing teams must take the audience into account and force themselves to write something that will keep the audience watching.  

The music industry and the telenovela industry don’t necessarily have the same way of going about things. However, both have the same goal of ultimately creating a work they are proud to showcase to their audience, and they won’t stop until they have made that work a reality.