Pitchbox Interview: Gerard Rodríguez and Frank Lucas talk to us about the TV series project “WV$P”
A Madrid TV Pitchbox 2017 Official Selection
We interviewed Gerard and Frank, producer and screenwriter of the very fresh and original TV series project WV$P. We met up with them to see where was the project standing one year after its pitch at Madrid TV Pitchbox.
Brief Synopsis:
Toni, a teenager from a well-off family from Barcelona, discovers the underworld of urban street dance, ditching the world that saw him grow up, full of fake appearances and passiveness, he decides to pretend to be someone else, entering deep into the outskirts of the city, joining a crew of youngsters who street dance, where he will start to experiment with what it really means to be free…with all the consequences that that will bring.
FMH: We’d like to know a bit more about your trajectory, why did you choose this profession? Where did you study? Where did you start your career?
G.R: Honestly, I didn’t see myself working a 9 to 5 job. What I like about this profession is its everyday randomness: development is the most fun part, more so when you are working on various projects at the same time; one morning you’re deep in the world of trap music and you know everything about the latest beef between C. Tangana and Yung Beef, (no pun intended there), and in the afternoon you have to be an expert on flamenco and its influence in pop culture in the 60s for a documentary you’re preparing. And at the same time, you’re contacting with an animal wrangler to get a fox for a music video; true story.
When I chose studying film, I never imagined work would be like this. Then I was lucky enough to start working at Zentropa Barcelona, where I learnt everything I know.
F.L: Yes, as Gerard says, we both studied at ESCAC, which is where we met and started working as a combo of producer + director. My case is a bit atypical, as I initially studied economics, so, I was coming from the antipodes of being a director: I was working as a consultant and auditor in a big company at the time.
I had always wanted to study filmmaking, but for one thing or another, I didn’t and I finished working in the corporate world; I thought working in film in Spain was practically impossible…apart from other reasons. After some time working in consulting, I decided to give my life a 360 degrees change, so I started a career in film, working in the making of music videos, advertisement, fashion films etc. I write a lot as well, which I’ve always loved. Truthfully, when I look back, I don’t regret anything. I think I entered the field with a pretty clear and mature idea of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it; plus, all my previous experience helped my trajectory to form the person I am today, allowing me to be able to bring to the projects I work on more skills then the ones you’d usually expect a director to have, like starting off a production company, Japonica Films.
FMH: What other stuff have you worked on? Can you talk to us or show us your most noteworthy work up until now?
F.L: With Japonica Films this past year and a half we’ve been developing projects, so, the best is yet to come. We have some interesting projects ready to go into production: a documentary on pink flamingos, which is pure fantasy, the first film by BRBR films (for us, one of the most interesting audiovisual collectives here in Spain), which we have cowritten with them, Aurora, mi first feature film as a director…and much more!
G.R: Yes, as Frank says, what we are most proud of up until now is the projects we are yet to shoot. We are actually postproducing three music videos with AÛM Studio, a collective of filmmakers which try to make more edgy and experimental work. If they don’t get censored online, you will be able to see them on the net soon!
FMH: Talk to us about the project WV$P. How did you come about with the story? What is it about?
F.L: WV$P is the story of Toni, a well-off teenager from Barcelona, passionate about krump and urban dance, who one day discovers a gang of kids who practice it, and he’s fascinated by them inmediately. Fed up with the environment he’s always been surrounded by and where he has never fit in, he ventures to the outskirts of town, totally unknown to him, to join this crew, the WV$P, where he will discover a much cruder, authentic and real Barcelona.
The truth is that WV$P came up through an anecdote: my girlfriend at the time started taking classes on this weird style of dancing: it was a mix of street fighting and shamanic trance: krump. Youtube did the rest, opened up the doors to impossible choreographies, chaotic and impressive battles, a fascinating world which planted the seed in my head. I had to write something about that universe.
One thing led to another: I started researching on the streets, meeting people who dance krump…as a result of that, I started discovering many urban dancing styles, which took me to pay attention to the street codes used by young people (generation Z, very underrepresented in today’s fiction), from there I went on to the world of trap, which back then (2012–2013) was purely underground and for me, totally unknown…little by little all these connections and small coincidences ended up forming what today is WV$P.
Considering the narrative, it came about through all this research process I went through back then. I suppose Toni inherited all that feeling of not belonging, coming from my teen years, in an environment where I always felt like a fish out of water, and the transition to a new world is only a reflection of my transition when I entered the WV$P world. Almost all the situations in the show are inspired in real experiences that I had or the kids from the street I met had, who are the ones playing the gang in WV$P.
FMH: I find very interesting to take on a story with teen characters of this precise generation, which, as you say, aren’t very much represented in today’s culture, maybe because they’re still very young and only now we are starting to consider them like characters worthy exploring. What was the process of creating the show like?
F.L: It was very organic, taking into account how long and laborious it usually is. It was a show that wasn’t born from a concrete idea, but from an intuition about how fascinating and interesting this universe is. And also, that universe grew: it started out with krump dancing but it expanded to the street reality of Barcelona, becoming a grim and real portrait of generation Z: teens nowadays, a very interesting generation which hasn’t been yet exploited in Spanish fiction.
What I most like of WV$P, in terms of the process of creating, it is that it has been a project in constant evolution, in the interest of representing the closest to what’s that reality now. Working on this project has been a constant lesson in humility, in the good sense: and I must admit the project I feel I have grown most as a filmmaker. But the most key part of this whole process was finding the main actors for it. The show would not exist if it wasn’t for them; the show is them. At first I had a lot of stuff written, which I threw to the trash the minute I found them. I discovered that the experiences, lifes and ways of doing they could tell me about, run a hundred circles around what I could ever imagine and write. So, with each step, the project gave (rehearsals with actors, shooting the pilot, …), the narrative advanced in a very concrete direction: adapting it more and more to the real lives of these kids.
Summarizing, it was a continuous feedback between reality and fiction, with the ultimate objective of telling in an interesting and cinematographic way Toni’s story, without forgetting to portray a real portrait of this generation. Because of all that, WV$P breaths that very needed freshness in today’s TV fiction for teenagers.
FMH: How long have you been working on this project?
G.R: Truthfully, Frank has been at it much longer than I. I know about the project since its inception, but I couldn’t become a part of it from the beginning because I was working and I couldn’t give it all the attention I wanted, but once we got together to start Japonica, it was the first project we started together as a company.
F.L: The seed for the project started in 2012 but, as I said before, it had a long research and study process. The project was actually ready in 2015, when we shot the teaser- pilot, and its total consolidation has happened these last two years, when we finished our series bible and we started to show it around production companies.
FMH: Where does the project stand now? What does it need to further be developed?
G.R: Right now it’s at a very advanced development stage. We have a bible with all the episodes, a written pilot which works great. What do we need now? We are talking to various companies we met at Pitchbox to start writing the rest of episodes and to start production (fingers crossed!).
FMH: What other themes do you want to explore with this project?
G.R: I find very interesting presenting a new take on a generation which has been bullied in its fictional representation up until now; it has always stayed on the surface. Not all 16 year-olds go to posh high schools and resolve crimes!
F.L: Further from telling a good story that will entertain the audience, we want to break certain stereotypes and taboos, to be able to talk openly about realities which tend to be invisible in fiction. To show that not all is the touristy Barcelona, with its love stories and attractions, but a Barcelona like the one shown by Iñárritu in Biutiful, where, without getting too moral about it, exists juvenile luxury prostitution, traffic and consumption of drugs amongst all social stratum, home evictions, mental illness, immigration etc.
And, obviously, we seek to portray generation Z as never seen before in Spain: the new youth, heir of the economic and immigration crisis, economic scarcity, addiction to technology, sexual precocity, the growth of street culture (trap music, swag movement, street dancing, twerking, reggaeton etc.). A portrait still unprecedented in Spanish fiction, and which is more necessary every day.
FMH: What would you stand out most in the project?
G.R: What I personally love of WV$P it’s its rawness and uniformity. From Japonica we always try to give 110% of ourselves on each project we believe in, and I believe this is a great example of that philosophy. Also, I think the level of empathy the show can instill in the audience, is worth noting; portraying the conflicts within today’s youth, talking directly to them, on their level, it’s something that will, for sure, talk to them.
F.L: Its honesty and rawness, which, as Gerard says, directly speaks to the audience. To get to that level, where the audience can say: “finally, a show that talks about this!” or “it was time they introduced this theme in a TV show!”; using controversial subjects, but necessary ones to show and discuss, like feminism, race, real youth problems etc.
FMH: Had you tried to shop it around before getting to know us at Filmarket Hub? How was the experience?
G.R: Before knowing Filmarket Hub we presented the show to Movistar+ through a pitching session organized by ESCAC film school. The feedback we got was great but that was about it. TV Pitchbox was what put the show on the map.
FMH: What made you submit it to Madrid TV Pitchbox?
G.R: In my opinion, TV Pitchbox was a very good opportunity to, on a national level, test the waters with the project. To have almost all TV producing platforms in one room, listening to your project, it’s almost an occasion you can’t let go!
QUICK QUESTIONNAIRE
Three favorite screenwriters
G.R: Matt Groening, Quentin Tarantino, Seth Rogen.
F.L: Paul Thomas Anderson, Efthymis Filippou and David Lynch.
Three favorite screenwriting books
G.L: I could say “Script” by McKee or, the compulsory readings from university, “Hitchcock/Truffaut”, but I’d lie. The only one I read — Frank will pick on me for this — is “Save the Cat” by Blake Snyder.
F.L: I don’t believe much in screenwriting books, but, McKee is a basic one and it’s a great book to have a basis. Personally, it was very helpful to read short stories to learn structure — Foster Wallace and Ian McEwan were my teachers for that — and “Catch the golden fish” by David Lynch is my top book.
Three favorite directors:
F.L: David Lynch, Lynne Ramsay and Gaspar Noe.
G.R: Tarantino, Wong Kar-Wai and Denis Villeneuve.
Tres películas favoritas:
G.R:
Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994)
Spring Breakers (Korine, 2012)
Inherent Vice (Anderson, 2014)
F.L:
Lost Highway (Lynch, 1997)
Enter the void (Noé, 2009)
Morvern Callar (Ramsay, 2002)
