A campaign for Playstation 2 (PS2) out of TBWA Spain offers an intro spot and several shoot-em-up/knock-em-down potential outcomes showing the unlimited variety of the console's gameplay, while Canal + "Ventana Indescreta" shows a man observing a pretty neighbor being strangled in her home. He rushes out, not to save her, instead to get a set-top box so he can watch the show that still flickers on the screen as she falls to the ground. It is work like this that has earned both Alcalde and Spain a slight reputation for violent imagery.

"I don't think Spanish advertising allows more violence than other countries. In fact, some of my ads have been pulled from airing. I don't do it on purpose, but everybody associates me with this style - action cinema - and agencies call me with these projects," he says. Spots like PS2's creepy "Cemetery," showing a little girl touring a graveyard filled with game titles murdered by software piracy, prove Alcalde's proficiency in other visual fora. On the cinematic and genre specific tip, Alcalde directed "Pregnant Cops" for Remo Asatsu (see pg. 20) and a grandiose action movie-esque Campsa campaign starring film star Javier Bardem for de Federico Valmorisco & Ochoa.

In a spot for ANESVAD through Remo Asatsu, which was filmed in Brazil, Alcalde draws attention to the plight of that country's vast number of lepers via a misdirect. The spot at first appears to be an anti-deforestation warning but then warns that if the forests are destroyed, Brazilian lepers will have nowhere to hide; shadowy, tragically destroyed features of various lepers then peak out of the shadows.

Regardless of style or content, Alcalde begins each project with the same foot forward. "I believe that if a spot is cinematic or not, the techniques and languages are similar. It is, of course, a script that makes a commercial cinematic. That's a course I try to follow when I select jobs because I feel more comfortable," says Alcalde. "When I prepare a spot, the first question is always, 'What shots do I really need to explain this story?' I first focus on the story and once it's clear, I define the aesthetic. I think sometimes the advertising industry follows the contrary order, and this damages the spot."

Currently, Alcalde is developing his first feature, "Fieras," the culmination of several years of learning the trades of moving images. In 1991, he founded DDT Efectos Especiales in Barcelona and worked as a physical effects technician, before directing his first short film, Doctor Curry in 1996. In 1998, he signed with Propaganda Producciones where he has worked since. Working with his usual DP collaborator Angel Iguacel, Alcalde says his shoots have arrived at an easy and free-flowing place.

"It's essential to have good casting and planning and later on, I try to get as many shots as possible to facilitate the editing work," he says. "I'd rather have more different shots even if I have less takes of each of them."

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