"I came with my family to the Azores in early March and, being quarantined, I began to write several scripts. At home, in Achada do Nordeste, I found the tranquility I rarely have and ended up spending a lot of time researching and working on each of the stories," he says.
According to Fraga, by mere chance, Netflix launched a fiction series screenplay contest in partnership with the ICA and he decided to apply.
"As I was already writing a lot, it seemed like an opportunity I had to take advantage of, also because it forced me to establish a 'deadline', which is very useful in personal projects. I chose a story and 'Rabo de Peixe' went from a draft to a blank page in the Final Draft, the program I use to write," he explains.
After writing the first version of the script, Augusto Fraga joined Marcos Castiel and André Szankowski to develop the story, focusing on the village of Rabo de Peixe, in São Miguel.
"We started working on the structure, the dialogues, the rhythm and the depth of the characters. The version we submitted was the twentieth-first, finished the night before the deadline. A few days later, ICA revealed that they had received more than 1200 entries and then we lost hope. We're not exactly screenwriters, and the fact that only five scripts were chosen led our hope to a minimum," he says.
However, the director managed to be one of the prize-winners. Currently the dream is to adapt the script to a fictional series for the streaming platform.
"We will do everything to make this happen. Together with Netflix, we are going to figure out the best way to make it real. I believe it will be the most surprising series ever made in Portugal," he points out, despite wanting to keep the details of "Rabo de Peixe" a secret.
"The script, whose details we prefer to keep secret, is set on this village of São Miguel, being it a drama with hints of surrealism and black humor," Fraga unveils.
According to the director, responsible for several well-known campaigns in national and international markets, the future is about continuing to make advertising spots and writing fiction.
"I'm working on five projects in parallel, one of them a great Azorean story, still in the script phase. I'm also focused on a large American production of a feature film. But right now our energy is in 'Rabo de Peixe'. We will use the prize money to create a Writer's Room, a screenplay room to develop this and other fiction projects. And we're already looking for young writers who want to collaborate with us," Augusto Fraga points out to Açoriano Oriental.

Augusto Fraga works with major international brands
The advertising director Augusto Fraga grew up in Vila Franca do Campo and is the son of the Azorean artist Maria Antónia Esteves.
He studied journalism in Braga before moving to Barcelona and then to New York City to expand his studies in film.
As an advertising director, he has been featured in Shots magazine on several occasions, and he has even been nominated for best advertising director in Spain and Portugal.
He usually works in the United States, Germany, Italy, Canada, China and Japan for the main international brands Apple, Adidas, Mercedes, Asics, Coca-Cola, Playstation and Nike, directing athletes such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Rafael Nadal and Lionel Messi.
Recently, he won the award for best videoclip in the RTP Play awards with the project "Hear From You" by the Portuguese artist Branko.