Director Álvaro Curiel: One of the challenges of Reputación Dudosa was to integrate the main character in both life and death worlds

For Álvaro Curiel, director of Reputación Dudosa (Dubious Reputation) (8×30′), a co-production of SPT and Claro video, one of the great challenges of the series is “to integrate Luis Arturo (Marcus Ornellas), into both life and death worlds.”

The “limbo” of Luis Arturo’s character was recorded in a single day, but it lingers in all the chapters and to accomplish this Curiel used a technique where a camera that never stops. “We had an amazing Steadicam operator. It is very similar to the camera and black humor tone of director Bergman,” he said.

Curiel explained that when doing an ensemble series like Reputación Dudosa “it’s not easy to create the atmosphere. It was made like a TV series where the scripts and the direction of the actors go first, and afterward, we looked for the camera that we would use.”

“When you do an ensemble series, with a camera that never stops, I’m not expecting to solve problems in the editing process. That generous act of the camera taking a stance was very difficult for the actors to follow. It’s a camera that does most of the taking,” he explained.

Jorge Sastoque, the producer of the series, highlighted the “incredible” work synergy. He recalled that this project was made in three locations: Miami, Mexico, and Colombia.

“Álvaro Curiel and Víctor Herrera, the two directors, who are totally different from each other, had an important work synergy. Sony allowed me to be present during all the production. The music was an important detail in the story,” he said.