First of all, tell us a little about the work of an artistic director. It has many aspects: from the design and construction of decorations, the props to adapting already existing decorations.

The artistic director is, along with the director of photography, responsible for the visual part of the film. The art director thinks, looks, designs and decides what is seen, and the director of photography how it is seen. Each film is a concrete journey to a concrete world. Finding that answer is what we are dedicated to. In periodical and futuristic films, we do it in a textual way (because we recreate a certain past or invent a future), and in movies that happen at present, on a more subjective way. It is equally (or even more) important to work aesthetically and visually this type of films because without a strict control of what is seen, it is impossible to create the atmosphere, the tone that helps make the film unique and special.

How did you start in the art direction?

I am the son of a photographer and, therefore, I grew up on a set. My favourite days were spent holding cases of flashes going back on my father's Vespa in the way to a shooting or a location. I was a bad student so they put me to work as an auxiliary in a set without salary in an advertising production company with 15 years (we were in other times ...). I never wanted to leave that world again. I was completely poisoned.

From studio assistant I became production assistant (at the same time, I was working as assistant director in shorts). From there I managed to become a props specialist and assistant director (always in advertising). Little by little they began to give me work as art director in small commercials. Over time I ended up making big ads, and that led me to finally, make my first movie as art director: Hierro, by Gabe Ibáñez, in 2008.

What attracts you to this job?

The challenge of thinking, creating a complete, closed, autonomous world for each film. Find the tone, the key that answers all the questions that are asked by the director, the script or the characters. And use all my hobbies (obsessions) to answer those questions: painting, photography, architecture, literature, music, comics.

What is the first step in the work of an art director when the project begins?

Read the script and met the director. Try to decipher with him the theme (not the plot) of his film. What do you want to talk about? Go around with him. Talk, try to find clues to what you see or imagine. Avoid at all costs, after the first meeting, talk about certain films as a concrete reference work. Use the resources described in the previous answer in order to find clues to start assembling the puzzle of a new movie, which has not been done before.

You work closely with the location scouter, the director and the director of photography. You have an idea based on the script of a set, from that idea to reality, are there many differences?

I always try to start working with the location scouter once I have made reference dossiers of the spaces as I imagine them (and they are already approved by the director, obviously). They are the best starting point for the location scouter to understand what we are looking for. Sometimes it is functional, just as a starting point. The location scouter has much to contribute. It is not infrequently that I discover sites with the tone or spirit of what I think we need, but in a completely different way.

What difficulties can you usually find in your daily work?

The direction of art, in its executive phase, is a constant struggle between desire and reality. After a design phase in which you search, design and collect what will best suit the film (always in realistic parameters regarding the budget that has been given), it is necessary to put into practice everything you have thought about. From there, the art department will slog way to get as close as possible to the original idea. The reality of what exists and what you find, what you can allow and what you can make by time or budget, will determine the point at which you will achieve what you had imagined.

What would you improve in the profession?

I believe that the value of time spent in the development phase of the project is underestimated. An earlier incorporation of what is usually calculated, would allow to be more assertive and effective with the resources available. Getting to the pre-production with the designed project saves you money and makes you get closer to the visual objective that you have marked. You will take the film further in your proposal at all levels.

How do you create the identity of the characters through art?

The space and the characters that transit the film must be connected. When designing the house, we use the character profile as a guide and / or starting point. His personality, his profession, his family situation, his hobbies, his neuroses, are used to design the space in which he lives.

I guess the props are very important and you have to take care of every detail.

In this process of creation, I try to answer all the questions from major to minor scale: How is the world of the film? How is the city and its buildings? The markets? Cars? Houses? How are the interiors of those houses that we will see? What furniture will they have? What magazines? What books? Do they listen to music? Do they have curtains? How are the ashtrays? Where and how do they dine? What telephone do they have? Where do they keep the cash? When there is no light in the house, where they keep the flashlight and how is that flashlight? What do they keep on their bedside tables? All that is important.

What are the differences between creating a new space and adapting one that already exists? What challenges do you suppose?

Although in principle, create from zero brings you closer to what you imagined, and you have a greater sense of freedom, working with real locations is also very interesting. It forces you to formulate visual solutions that you would not have if you started from scratch. From a building or space and its size, you should think about a real site and modify or adapt it, either with real or virtual (3D) intervention. Another basic difference is that, in building from scratch, you design in coordination with the director of photography so the light works in favor of the space. The intention of light is much more controllable. In a real space, the director of photography is more limited to the geography of the place. In such cases, the design can help create the light solutions necessary for the director of photography to make his lighting proposal.

What has been your biggest professional challenge?

Last year, filming The Secret of Marrowbone. Convert Asturias to an undetermined point in the northeast of the United States during 1969. Convert a stone palace from the fifteenth century into a 500 m2 wooden farm closed in 1929. And create the main street of a small village on that coast in Oviedo.

What do you think the Barcelona Film Commission can help with your work?

By its contact with the institutions, through them we have access to spaces to which, otherwise, we would not have access. This ability expands and improves the visual resources that the Director of Art can offer the directors and, therefore, improve the form and the overall scope of the films.

What are you working on at the moment and which difficulties do you have?

I am currently preparing David Victori's first film with Ikiru Films. A thriller with supernatural elements (or not), in which we use Barcelona to make a new, unusual city.

What are your future projects?

I am involved in the development of a project of international vocation with the production company Nostromo. A project so beautiful and ambitious that I hesitate to talk about it.