With the entire Spanish population locked up in their homes, producer Álvaro Longoria decided to "make weakness a virtue." And propose to Spanish Television a weekly comedy that reflects in a realistic, intimate and fun way the daily reality of our confinement in Diaries of the Quarantine . Produced in record time by Morena Films and RTVE, this fiction will debut this Tuesday at 10:05 pm on La 1, airing weekly the eight episodes that, for the moment, have been commissioned by the public.
"The series what it tries, with absolute respect, is to embrace the citizens so that they can endure, be at home and continue with this confinement in the best possible way," Fernando López Puig, director of content for TVE, explained today in the online presentation of fiction.
«We are practically 24 hours a day reporting the drama of this pandemic, counting the deceased, the infected, the people who are leaving the hospitals. And I think that now we also have to create content that gives hope and makes the viewer feel at home. One thing does not contradict the other », he continued saying in response to those who criticize the suitability of the premiere with hundreds of daily victims. "In the will and obligation of a public service is informing and entertaining, and that is what we are doing," he settled, and then insisted that it is also a very "cheap" series.
Directors and screenwriters Álvaro Fernández Armero ( Vergüenza ) and David Marqués ( Campeones ) have written the series in collaboration with a cast that aims to show the whole of society. In this way, Carlos Bardem and Cecilia Gessa play a weary marriage, Gorka Otxoa and Carlos Areces two separated friends, Carmen Arrufat a teenager, Petra Martínez and Juan Margallo two isolated grandparents ... thus up to 10 homes.
«We try to make the line between reality and fiction as blurred as possible because the actors play some characters, but at the same time the raw material is their experience, their home and their environment . This way of relating work to the personal is amazing, "said Fernández Armero, highlighting how all the interpreters also work as props , costume designers, makeup artists or camera operators. Although in total about 40 professionals work in the series making approximately one chapter every three days.
“We have created a basic shooting kit . When we started production, each actor was sent the same mobile, which has a high image resolution , a tripod and a microphone with a little more range to be able to move within the shot, "said the director about the technical challenges of the recording.
“There is no external lighting and the photographic notions are what we can indicate when we are rehearsing or recording via Skype . The actors show us the shot more or less, they take the shots and we correct live. But the shot, as is, we don't see it until they send it to us, "explained Fernández Armero.
Speaking of all these demands, Carlos Areces confessed: «I have it fatal. I practically do not change planes and every week a messenger comes to take my mobile and brings it back
because I don't know how to send it ». For his part, Fernando Colomo commented with amusement: «As an actor, the team makes me very nervous and in this case it is great because if I make a shit, I pick it up and erase it».
Being, most likely, the first fiction recorded under these conditions, Longoria said that Quarantine Diaries has already aroused interest in France, Italy, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. "In the end it is an innovative, different format and a good way of making fiction considering that there are no filming in the world right now," he said. In addition, he assured that they would donate the industrial benefit of the series to the Red Cross for the purchase of medical supplies.
In closing, Marqués insisted on the value of humor as a tool in these times of crisis and compared his series with the content that many people are spontaneously creating. «In all social networks people record themselves making memes to abstract themselves. People want to forget a little bit about this and we want to contribute to it, "he said, pointing, perhaps, to his main source of inspiration and competence.
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