Elite school, death threats, and Nazis: Cordero, an audio thriller

Chilean screenwriter Catalina Calcagni had been writing detective stories for television for several years, exploring “the most rugged places in the human soul,” when Trinidad Pérez, director of Podium Podcast Chile, called her in the summer of 2020 to make a good novel together. . . They spent a few months discussing ideas until Calcagni came up with something: a sexual assault case at his school, in which Nazis and a cult were involved. Pérez, who wanted audio to play a major role, suggested including audio recordings of some anonymous-style videos with threats of a “school massacre” broadcast in dozens of Chilean schools after the pandemic. It gave the legs shape and depth Lambsa excitement The audio has collected more than 2.5 million copies.

“We put together a real case with anonymous audio recordings and changed the geography to southern Chile. “Obviously Nazism in southern Latin America is an interesting topic and we also wanted it to be international in nature for our Ibero-American audience,” Pérez says in his office in Providencia. It is a traditional neighborhood in the eastern sector of Santiago. The more global appeal has paid off. In addition to reaching first place in the most listened to podcasts on Spotify in Chile and Mexico, and having a regional audience, in Spain they have also managed to build a relevant audience. Production arrives — which consists of two seasons — headed into Wednesday's celebration of the 2024 Ondas Globales Podcast Awards with three nominations: Best Fiction, Best Actress (Elisa Zulueta) and Best Sound Design (Luciano Correa).

Once the script was ready, sound designer Luciano Correa joined the female duo. Your task is to think of texts from audio. Transform scenes into audio, create custom sound effects, and compose virtually. This is when they determine what things are said and what things are heard. After all this material was ready, the actors appeared. For five days, they locked themselves recording in an underground factory, with dim lights and with the sound gone. “I directed the live broadcast, Luciano provided the songs and atmosphere and Cata revised the script. “Then, the actors went completely into something that was set up for them, a working system that we really invented “.

The emotional tone is carried by Elisa Zulueta, who plays Victoria, an expert psychiatrist who specializes in teenage affairs. As he tries to figure out what's going on at school, his traumas also come to light. Calcagni wanted the fantasy to feel like a documentary, and Pérez added a more dream-like line, where the listener can get into the characters' heads. “We are committed to the narrative in both directions, and the interesting thing is that it works, you understand,” says the screenwriter. “Elisa has different moments. “She talks to herself, she talks to the recorder, she talks about the past… These narrative techniques were also created with Luciano, in a very collaborative way, and that's why Cordero's voice matches so well with the text.” Director.

Lambs Season 2 premiered in March: eight 20-minute episodes. The suspense continues, though on another record, freer, less linear, and more confident, say the creators, who describe the final product as “more powerful” than the first installment.

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