Interview to Alberto Campón

Today we interview our Content Director Alberto Campón.

Founder and president of "Daltruim", a production company that has operated for more than 10 years producing audiovisual projects and an actor trained in ESAD.
He is one of the youngest members of the Med Films team, although not as far as his experience is related ...

Being the youngest of the team but not less expert ... At what age did you start your journey in the world of cinema and image?

I started as such at the end of 2005, and as an official date on January 13, 2006, which was the first publication of a short film of mine on the Internet. We are talking about 13 years, already.

How did this vocation begin / awaken?

The reality is that since I was little I was fascinated with the arts. I started drawing very early, and I always wanted to disguise myself with whatever I had at home, from disguises themselves, like simply knotting a blanket as a cloak and painting my face. Then, also quite soon, I took my father's video camera and with my toys I made small movies (the stages were my own drawings). Shortly after with my friends we created live role plays with sticks.

So, the slope of telling stories, acting and unlocking my artistic concerns was always in me.

However, it was not until the end of 2005 when my friends and me had the crazy idea to record the stories and sketches that we came up with, in due to share them with people.

That's where my production company Daltruim was born. Shortly after, from the local government of my town (Casar de Cáceres) they got in touch with us from the Leisure Center and they proposed us to formalize a youth association and even get in touch with the village theater association (the Perséfone group). It did not take me long to realize what I wanted to do, no doubt. In this way, I ended up studying the 4 years degree of acting at the ESAD School of Extremadura. These were the happiest years of my life. Although, perhaps I exaggerate, at least these years marked me the most as a person, as well. I admit and affirm I left more human from there.

What influences do you think have marked you the most?

I always tell (quite correctly, I think) that my family has already given me a structure. My father was very cinephile and he loved computer graphic adventures, as well as science fiction literature. On the other hand, my mother was an authentic book-eater forever. Carlos, my brother, played with me and created stories to follow as an adventure, and my uncle Paco always took me to the video store and we watched many movies. On the other hand, I was not a particularly sociable child, so I became very self-absorbed, creating what today is considered a lot of internal world.
And, undoubtedly, films like "The Fifth Element", "Dracula of Bram Stoker", the wonderful and inimitable Scorsese cinema or actors like Jack Nicholson, Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman or Siguorney Weaver marked me a lot.

What movie style / genre makes you crazy and why?

I guess somehow I feel especially linked to science fiction because of my childhood, but the dark and intense thriller has completely intoxicated me all my life.
Today I would say that the black cinema for its aesthetics and characters, the thriller for its atmosphere and surrounding history, and as a spectacle and entertainment the current superhero cinema, are genres that fascinates me. I do not count the Western because, although I love it, I am very purist and selective with it.

Theater, cinema, TV or all?

All, although by order cinema, tv and theater. The theater has given me everything, and to this day I can say that I have been more time in theater than in another place. However, I am very monothematic with the audiovisual medium. I can spend 24 hours a day talking about movies, and at least 14 television. No doubt… It obsesses me. I analyze it, review my favorite films a thousand times, look for its making of, investigate the actors, and look for common points to improve my work. I can say without fear that there are movies that have marked me and changed my life like nothing and nobody has done it.

Do you prefer to be in front of the cameras or behind?

My priority will always be ahead. Originally being behind was merely a means to be able to be at the same time. At first I swore and I perjured that I did not like to be behind, but I ended up getting the hang of it. Although there is a golden rule that I have respected today, and is to never direct / write anything that I do not appear. Whenever I direct or write, I am already thinking about which character is a challenge or that I simply want to incarnate.

Truly every day I respect more the work behind the cameras, and I think that in front of them that work has enriched me, but I hope that I will surpass in the future both work and actor that forced me to leave the world behind the camera a little aside, although never leave it of course.

Can you tell us more about your production company Daltruim? How did the project start?

Certainly, as I said, it came very naturally. My friends and I agreed in wanting to take our craziness to video. With the time it got consolidated. It stopped being a hobby for our free time and became something else. Personally, there was a time that I only thought about it. New projects. There was a time when we were doing 2 web series, shooting one or two short films and thinking about another shoot all by the same time... It was crazy, and I remember those times with a mixture of longing and a little tiredness. When it became something serious, many people left, others entered, and without realizing it, we already had two feature films and one of them with a team of more than 80 people and the help of an entire city. Crazy.

What stands out of those 10 years with Daltruim?

I will always say that my way has always been accompanied by people. I have met several hundred wonderful people who have helped me understand the world as well as the profession, and, more importantly, myself. I can consider myself a good person thanks to all that legion of friends, companions and magnificent colleagues. We have created stories, and… why not? Very endearing kids… (at the moment not literally, hahaha).

Any anecdote to confess?

There would be millions, but I'll take one that happened filming our first short film. In the first, called "108-3 an end" we were shooting as at 23: 00/23: 30 in a street in Cáceres, in Moctezuma. We had a humble display of spotlights to illuminate the location, distributed cables that were connected in a cultural house that was given up for us for this issue and a technical team of 12 people and 4 actors.

In hindsight it was something tiny, but for that moment and the means we had, it was very good. Some children approached the technical team, with their camera, the pole with the microphone, etc. They looked at us and asked "are you filming a movie?" We looked at each other and said "Yes", and they, very excited, looked at each other and called a couple of their friends who, very shy, looked from afar. When everyone arrived, they asked us "Here in Cáceres?", We repeated, very disappointed "yes". Cáceres is a city very far from the audiovisual world, of course. And, surprised, but excited, they said "Why here in Cáceres?". Without understanding at all the situation and what we should answer, we said "Because we are from here". They went respectfully to let us work. Beginning to laugh, we realized the situation and told ourselves "They think that this shoot is serious". To our surprise, the result was extremely serious (in terms of "technical-professional" execution).

You have won several awards. What did you feel when you won a prize for the first time? And which one of them marked you the most? Why?

I still can´t belive it at all. It may seem like false humility, but I never expected our work to be so well seen. Undoubtedly I love the results, and above all, the trips to those results, but that other people appreciate it too ... it´s amazing. I guess the one that gave me the most emotion, was the first one. The short film was called Ciodor, and it was one of the first ones I could show saying proud "there is a lot of work behind, and I think it's worth seeing". People appreciated it and welcomed it with applause as well as with a certain reticence.

It was a horror short film, and many, many people told us that after seeing it they were stunned. Even people who told me had dreamed about the demonic creature of the short film (which I played with incredible bodypainting). The award was given by the public at the Fanter film Festival in Cáceres in 2012. At that time I was studying at ESAD the first year.

How are you living your experience in Med Films?

Absolutely excited. I feel like a child on Christmas morning. Being with people who have my same goals, passion for film and acting, people who want to tell stories and who mark the difference in some way ... The horizon does not seem to have a limit, and from here only good things can come out. I am impatient to see a movie in a large chain of movie theaters, or to put the television on a national network and say "that's ours" or "there we are".