Behind the scenes of the success of “ A PROMESSA”
Four weeks after its premiere, the soap opera A Promessa, produced by SP Televisão for SIC, is a ratings success, voted the favorite by Portuguese viewers.
At the root of this success is the hard work of a vast team, including actors, directors, producers and technicians, but which requires rigorous coordination, without which there is a great risk of failure.
Jorge Queiroga, who also directs, is in charge of coordinating this project and Francisco Barbosa is in charge of production, two professionals with a vast curriculum.
For both of them, the biggest challenge they faced in carrying out this project was time.
“Without a doubt time, the time we always need to establish strategies and planning at the start of the project. It was an extremely careful pre-production, but it had to start at cruising speed practically from day one. Optimizing the recording plans with a short cast (for a normal soap opera), the daily management of the various teams and the search for the best conditions to make a soap opera of reference are the daily challenges we face.”
A Promessa premiered on SIC on June 18th and immediately won over viewers, being the first program of the day with 1.1 million viewers. The daily average of viewers is currently over 800,000.
For Jorge Queiroga and Francisco Barbosa, the secrets of the success are “an impactful story, extremely well adapted, very well directed and with an excellent cast”.
“The start in Vilarinho de Negrões was very intense, because normally these outings are spread over many episodes and in this case they were condensed into the first one. Another important factor was that the writing focused on the main story in the first five scripts, which helped to clearly introduce the plot, the dreams and personalities of the characters, especially the main ones. The fact that we don't have a very large cast helps ensure that the story isn't fragmented, everyone has their role, their interconnected journey,” they added.
The soap opera, an adaptation of a Turkish original by Inês Gomes and Cândida Ribeiro, has a range of high quality actors, such as João Catarré, Victoria Guerra, Joana Ribeiro, Lourenço Ortigão, Ana Padrão, Sofia Alves, Custódia Gallego, José Wallenstein and Diogo Martins, among others.
The relationship with the actors was one of “friendship”, said Jorge Queiroga and Francisco Barbosa.
“They all understand the importance of the project for national fiction and are very generous to each other and to the whole team. Right from the start of rehearsals you could feel a different energy with this project, and this is felt across the cast. We've taken care to create the conditions so that the actors can best interpret the characters that Inês Gomes and Cândida Ribeiro have brought to life,” they concluded.