With Two Who Love Each Other (Three): A Proposal by Amaury Pérez to Sit in Front of the Screen

September 10, 2018

"With Two Who Love Each Other," in its third season, will be broadcast on the Cubavisión channel, Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m., for 70 episodes.

The first guest will be Mireya Luis (volleyball player), followed by Jorge Martínez (actor), Dr. Patricia Arés (psychologist), Tony Ávila (trovador), Raquel Mayedo (TV host), Joaquín Borges Triana (critic), Silvia Rodríguez Rivero (plastic artist), Alexander Abreu (musician), Marta Rojas (writer and journalist) and Enrique Pérez Mesa (principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra).

The order is established to include diverse professions and also based on how the tête-à-tête with Amaury Pérez Vidal turned out, the conductor and general director of a program that has achieved a good level of acceptance among audiences in the first and second seasons.

"People who love antiques will find a reminiscence of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the vis-à-vis, those S-shaped seats that the groom's mothers-in-law used so that the engaged couple could be close, in intimacy, and yet prevented from going beyond a kiss on the lips.

"That piece of furniture on which Amaury Pérez Vidal will sit on seventy occasions to conduct the same number of conversations with his guests, was the first thing that caught my attention when I entered the studio where the third season of a program with critical and public acceptance in its previous broadcasts is being filmed.

"The vis-à-vis (Rafael Solís told me the name, being aware of every detail with the cameras and lights) will be green one day, mauve another, or blue, because the lighting is just right and so Amaury will take into account the color of his suit."

Amaury acknowledges that without the team, which works with dedication (continuing to do so in color correction and other details), the result we will enjoy would not have been possible (at least from what I saw), where everything from the lights to the interviewer's tie is well thought out.

Without María Teresa González (Petí), Carmen Rosa Báez and Nereida Ortiz, his assistants, photographers, and information researchers, it would be impossible for him to interview ten people, two each day, Monday through Friday, who, apart from whatever knowledge one might have of them, can surprise.

This team also includes, in addition to Solís on cameras, Iván Nápoles, Yamil Santana and Julio Simoneau, on fly cam Luis Najmias, Josué García, Julio Alejandro Hernández and Juan Antonio Hernández, who count on Alejandro Vázquez García as assistant.

Ronny Esteban Herrera is the production manager; Alían Hernández the data manager; Pedro Oscar Pérez is responsible for lighting; for makeup and hair, a magician, Aymara Cisneros, and for the dolly operator, Luis Juara.

The editor was Ariel Leiva; the electrician, Vladimir Pérez; catering chief, Alexis Álvarez; presentation designers, Andy Luis Ruiz and Sergio Valencia; color corrector, Julián Betancourt; editing assistant, Gabriel Daniel González, and the production team is made up of Mayté Zarraluqui, Yanara Nistal, Yohan León and Frank Cabrera; while the balance distributor is Alberto Alejandro Reytor; the set decorator, Raúl Pérez Ochotorena; the props master, Guillermo Roldán; the post-production assistant director, Roberto Viña, and as economic manager, Pura Pérez.

The art direction is by Aramis Balebona and in the exquisiteness I saw of the scenography, special mention deserves the Grupo Hiran Muebles, with carpenters Alfredo Castellanos and Yoel del Río, who managed to turn plywood into a smooth, perfect surface, painted, that looks like anything but… plywood.

Adrian García is in charge of editing, and after he does his part, and I see the program on television, I'm sure I'll confirm once more "the perfect illusion." Yes, because whoever has not been on a set has no idea of the cables, rails…; it can be a small place, and then, through that marvel that is audiovisual, it becomes a program that you imagine with width, comfort, and if seasoned with an entertaining conversation, sometimes spicy, it's savored at home. Ah!, all this has been possible because Francisco Álvarez has produced an adequate production.

I have not named the complete team work for no reason. When filming begins, you can't hear a fly, and I'm not exaggerating. Cell phones are turned off; alone, with appropriate shoes, Solís, more than walks, glides through the studio, and Amaury only receives time cues or some suggestions made to him by Petí or Carmen Rosa on behalf of Ricardo, Tato or Pérez (direct sound), because work is carried out with iron discipline.

It was filmed in HD, with four cameras including dolly and fly cam, a change in scenography: this one is more modern (not a living room like there are so many on TV today), but to give the background of the interviewee a sense of continuity, objects that identified the previous seasons will be visible.

I hope that, once again, each Tuesday a good part of the audience gets to know that person who sits across from Amaury so that he can ask them about almost everything and manage to get us, the television viewers, to know a little more about someone who, for one reason or another, we already had some reference to.