Pitchbox Interview with Celia González, author of “Ladies Game”

A Special Mention Madrid TV Pitchbox 2017.

We talk to the creator of the smart and suspenseful project “Ladies Game”, Celia González, a TV series project which got a Special Mention at Madrid TV Pitchbox 2017.

Discover how Gonazález managed to developed a series that focuses on modern themes and sensibilities, by setting it at the beginning of the 20th Century in Madrid.

FMH: We want to know a little more about your trajectory, why did you choose this profession? Where did you study? Where did you start your career?

C.G: I studied Audiovisual Communication at the Complutense University of Madrid. At the end of my studies, I went to do a volunteer of a year and a half in an orphanage in Guatemala. There I experienced a very intense experience that shook me from top to bottom. When I returned to Madrid, I felt very misplaced. I missed many things and had the need to retrace my memories and all that he had lived there. So, almost as therapy, I enrolled in a monographic course of screenwriting at the ECAM where I wrote my first feature film that had relation with things that I had lived during volunteering, and I discovered that the experience was super rewarding. When I finished writing the script I sent it to several competitions and was selected in some of them. And so it motivated me, even more, to continue writing and inventing stories, and from there, I discovered an escape route to dump my concerns. One way to let flow my creativity trying not to judge or put any filters on.

FMH: What other stuff have you worked on? Can you talk to us or show us your most noteworthy work up until now?

C.G: Over the last few years, I have developed my screenwriting career, although I have also directed some short films and worked in the postproduction world.

As a screenwriter, in addition to “Ladies Game”, I’ve written another series, “Mucha mierda” — A comedy about the world of television, that was also selected by Filmarket Hub for another pitching event

I have written two feature films, the first “Mara 13 Mara 18” is a social thriller that reflects on the world of gangs in Central America. And a second one, “Muna ojos de luna” — A children’s animated film about the life of an albino girl in Africa. Both projects were selected to participate in the screenwriting lab held by Cinefilia in Colombia, in the year 20 14 and 2018 respectively. At the national level, they have also been selected in several programs such as “Madrid Crea Lab”, “Filmarket Hub’s 3rd Pitchbox”, or the “Script Laboratory with Senel Paz “ at SGAE.

As director, my most notable work has been in short films “Las cenizas de papá”, which I wrote and directed can be seen on this website:

http://celiagb.es/corto-las-cenizas-de-papa/

FMH: Talk to us about the project “Ladies Game”. How did you come about with the story? What is it about?

C.G: Ladies Game is a thriller set in Madrid during 1905. Margarita is a scientist and a part of the high social class. She’s been living under the shadow of her husband and enduring of this all type of humiliations. One day, during a violent argument, Margarita kills him. Everything happens in the basement of his mansion, the noises are drowned by the storm outside and only a maid witnesses the crime scene, Ursula, a young woman who has lived all her life under the protection of Margarita.

Margarita is determined to surrender to the police, but Ursula convinces her not to. Together they devise a plan to get rid of the corpse and pretend that the lord of the house is still alive.

Margarita takes the reins of the house and of the pharmaceutical business that her husband directed, discovering it in a state of bankruptcy. Margarita handles this situation and decides to go back to work in the laboratories doing what she likes the most, and that her husband denied her during the last 20 years, to develop new drugs. However, to make use of their discoveries, they will have to invent a new person to represent them: Jaime Briz, the hypothetical nephew of the deceased man.

Everything seems to work, and the two women achieve their independence in a world of men, but a veteran policeman sees something strange and begins an investigation.

FMH: Taking into account the issues that the project tries to address: the working woman at the beginning of the 20th century, in a society that is still far from accepting this, all in a context of mystery and murder, How was the process of creating a series like that?

C.G: The truth is that the whole creation process has been a very nice and fun experience.

The first difficulty I found when writing this story was that whenever I tried to imagine anything, I wondered if that would be historically possible in 1905. Any small action I wrote in the synopsis like “Margarita turns on the light and finds a corpse” Made me ask myself if at that time the houses were already electrically lit. So my main task at the beginning was to document everything about how the world was at the beginning of the 20th century.

The second mission was to define the characters well. As it is a project in which there are so many female characters, it was necessary that they were very differentiated from each other so that they did not step on each other. This is how the two protagonists Margarita and Úrsula were born.

Margarita is a cultured, intellectual and very undervalued woman whose arch of transformation will be to become aware of her worth, and she will gain so much strength and security in herself that she will have to keep her ambition in check.

Ursula is the opposite, humble and illiterate, but a very good person. The arch of this character will be to become more cultured, to the level of Margarita. To demystify her mentor, and even face her for her lack of morals when Margarita starts to be betrayed by her ego.

The third mission was to generate the suspenseful plot to surrounds this whole story. Throughout the series, there is a “game” between the police inspector and the two protagonists, in which they will have to get rid of all evidence revolving the murder of Margarita’s husband, but he will always be on their trail.

FMH: How long have you been working on this project?

C.G: This project was born in November 2016. On that date, I went to a workshop at SGAE called “The feminine authorship”, whose objective was to promote series or films whose protagonist were women.

I liked the program and put my mind to work to find an idea to present there. Little by little, the essential ingredients of the story emerged.

When they selected the project to participate in their workshop and assigned Esther Martínez Lobato to advise me, the project grew exponentially.

In less than a year I already had an early version of the bible and the first chapter was very presentable. In the workshop, they had very firm delivery dates that made you focus a lot on the script. Besides, the advice of Esther was invaluable, since she saw everything with a very trained critical eye and detected the problems even before they arose.

After that, it has received some modifications, but no change of “base.”

FMH: Where does the project stand now? What does it need to further be developed?

C.G: I believe that the series is at a point where you can clearly see what it is about: its identity, its progression, and what the rest of the chapters are going to be about.

Any producer can see it immediately and adjusted to what they are looking for. Therefore, although it could admit many changes, (a project is never completely finished), Right now I’m trying to shop it around and see if it arouses the interest of a producer and manages to gain a foothold in the market.

FMH: What other themes do you want to explore with this project?

C.G: I wanted to explore three factors that separately do not have anything interesting in particular, but together they make a mixture that we are not used to seeing.

On the one hand, it is a thriller, a genre that is emerging in Spanish audiovisual fiction. On the other, we add that it features women, a trend both nationally and internationally with series like Vis a Vis, Sin Identidad, or Homeland. And to finish, we add that it is a period piece, so we moved this story to 1905 and submerged it in a context that has its own rules.

These three pillars were what made me create a world of my own. In fact, in a certain way, when I conceived this series, I took many references from the series Breaking Bad that I imported into my two female protagonists. And if we also transfer this concept to the last century, and we submerge it in the context of “La Señora”, what appears is an entirely new and exciting project to explore.

FMH: Had you tried to shop it around before getting to know us at Filmarket Hub? How was the experience?

C.G: Before Filmarket Hub I tried to move it with some producers. The notes and responses that I have had, in general, have been very good from the beginning, but I have run into many production companies that although they think it’s an interesting idea, they are very reluctant to take stories from outside. Some do not even tañe external projects.

FMH: at Filmarket Hub, we often find there are not enough women presenting projects as screenwriters/directors, as we’d like to see on our market. What’s your experience, as a woman filmmaker, in the film industry?

C.G: The truth is that the film and tv industry is a very complicated one. There is a lot of competition, projects are so expensive that they must through a lot of filters to become a reality. It’s emotionally draining, but I still think you have to try.

And in this sense, my experience as a woman in the screenwriting world has been pretty good, or at least, I think it’s as good as any man’s. I’ve never felt not taken seriously. On the contrary, there is now an awareness of giving opportunities to women in the world of cinema which I think is very beneficial and necessary, in many of the events I’ve been to they thank the presence of women specifically.

That’s why I think what you have to do is risk yourself and try it. Because in many competitions and workshops they receive far fewer women’s projects than men’s and that means that there are fewer women who participate. Probably from the belief that since the world of cinema has always been controlled by men, they are not going anywhere, and it is foolish to try. But I think that attitude of conformism is not to be taken, but the opposite: As the world of cinema has always been controlled by men and it is time to equalize things and get to a balance. Women still have a lot to contribute to this sector.

FMH: What made you present your project to Madrid TV Pitchbox?

C.G: I saw it an excellent opportunity. I think that in this industry it is as important to have a good project as to know who to take it to. And for that, you need to know people. Besides, the world of the TV series seems especially complicated since there are fewer producers that dedicate themselves to making them, and within them, many do not receive external projects.

In this context, Madrid TV Pitchbox seemed like an excellent alternative to contact people in the sector, have their attention for a few moments and expose your project personally.

QUICK QUESTIONNAIRE

Three favorite screenwriters:

• Alfred Hitchcock.
• David Koepp.
• Billy Wilder.

Three favorite screenwriting books:

• the Comic Toolbox, by John Vorhaus.
• Save the Cat, by Blake Snyder
• Making a good script great, by Linda Seger.

Three Favorite Directors:

• Steven Spielberg.
• Martin Scorsese.
• Pedro Almodóvar.

Three favorite movies:

• The Godfather, by Francis Ford Coppolla
• Gladiator, By Ridley Scott
• Life is Beautiful, by Roberto Benigni