Carlos Quintanilla: I like fiction that wins by knockout and not by rounds

Carlos Quintanilla, Future Originals Senior Development Director for NBCUniversal-Telemundo Streaming Studios and creator of Control Z, has a preference for fiction “that he wins by knock out and not by rounds.”

Quintanilla, who participated in the “Young, Wild and Free: Writing for 15-24 and Reaching Beyond” conference during Iberseries, highlighted that the frenzied pace of the Control Z series was a creative decision.

The conference also included speakers such as Laura Belloso, creator and scriptwriter of The Mediapro Studio and executive producer of El Internado: Las Cumbres; Yolanda García Serrano, screenwriter, Hit and director; and Carlos Moreno, creator and showrunner of Elite, El Desorden que Dejas and Feria Ponente.

Quintanilla noted that, unlike the other speakers, he did study all the series that came close to Control Z and its DNA. “At Control Z we try to make a structural game. The rhythm of Control Z was generated very vertiginous, chapters of 35 to 45 minutes.” he indicated.

He commented that the genesis of Control Z was based on his experience teaching high school and later when he had the opportunity to be the principal of a high school in Mexico City. “There I met Generation Z and the parents of this generation. When my non-compete clause ended, they approached me with the idea of making a Mexican Elite. And I already had a series focused on CDMX. That’s where Control Z came from,” he said.

Belloso commented that for El Internado, they created a fictional world, “a very hostile environment, very different from what an adolescent needs in order to be happy, so they can discover where the truth is. We set it out in a very dark way. Despite having a fantastic and terrifying point that amuses us, we combine it with these other themes of adolescence,” she explained.

They also discussed issues such as censorship to which Quintanilla pointed out that the platforms are paving the way for us to “tell the stories we want. It’s a great opportunity for streaming to allow stories to come out genuine.” Other topics addressed were the creation for international audiences and how to approach the adolescents’ language in these series.