Author: Tomás Barceló
One of the things I learned while working in film is that a movie only exists thanks to an unexpected alliance between artists and accountants.
A film operates like a vast organization made up of two perfectly coordinated armies. On one side is the creative army: art directors, actors, cinematographers, designers—people who decide how a scene will look, what color it will have, how a character will be portrayed, or what atmosphere a sequence will convey. But alongside them exists another army that is just as important: production. People with lists, schedules, budgets, and folders who make everything possible. They organize the work, coordinate teams, prioritize tasks, and ensure that every piece arrives at the right moment.
Before entering that world, I believed that artistic works depended solely on artists, but I was completely mistaken. And, at least in my experience, the relationship between these two worlds is not a war. Quite the opposite. I have always felt supported by production people, because their job is precisely to create the conditions necessary for creative work to happen.
When I speak of “artists” and “accountants,” I am not referring only to professions. The difference between these groups, I believe, has more to do with a way of looking at the world. Nor do I think the distinction lies in creativity. In fact, production and organization require a tremendous amount of creativity. Constantly solving problems is also a creative act.
Artists feel a natural inclination toward transformation. They enjoy breaking something apart and turning it into something else. “Accountants,” on the other hand, take pleasure in bringing order to chaos. And that is precisely why both profiles complement one another.
I, for example, need a certain degree of chaos in order to create. If all the pieces I work with were perfectly organized in boxes, I would find it very difficult to imagine new combinations. I need to take objects out, mix them together on a table, and play with them. Only then can I look at an irrigation component and see it as the ear of a character. But that chaos makes the work harder for someone who needs to classify and organize. When you transform an object into something else, it no longer clearly belongs to a category. It is no longer obvious whether it should go in “the sprinkler box” or “the ear box.” That is where tensions can arise, but also where mutual dependence becomes evident.
Bárbara, my wife, also works in film and belongs to the artistic world, but she has a mindset much more oriented toward order and organization. When we work together, I propose ideas chaotically and she organizes them, prioritizes them, and gives them direction. I am like a runaway horse with tremendous creative energy pulling in every direction, while she holds the reins and guides the carriage toward a specific goal.
Another important example for me is Bernat, who leads Artimia. I was the one who initially suggested the idea, but he is the person who truly built and directs the project. From the beginning, I knew I did not simply want “someone to manage” my work, but rather a person capable of leading a structure much larger than myself.
In recent years, we have seen many artists trying to be both artist and producer at the same time. I have tried it myself. And although it is possible, I believe it comes at an enormous cost.
The relationship between artists and producers has existed for a very long time. An art dealer, a gallery owner, or a producer is, in a sense, someone who helps guide and sustain artistic work. Visual art has changed enormously, and many traditional structures disappeared or stopped functioning. As a result, many artists were left alone, forced to take responsibility not only for creation but also for organization, sales, strategy, communication, and management. Over time, many artists end up lost or exhausted.
If you are an artist, I believe it is important to find someone capable of guiding you through order, organization, or production. Someone to whom you can delegate certain decisions and who can help sustain the project over the long term. In my case, people like Bárbara and Bernat are the reason I am able to keep creating.
And if you are someone more oriented toward organization, entrepreneurship, or building structures, I believe you also need artists nearby. I often see projects that are very well conceived from a business perspective but whose products feel empty or lack genuine creative force.
That is why we need to recover new forms of alliance in which both profiles can meet again.
Films work this way. Cathedrals were probably built this way as well. And I suspect that almost every great human achievement is born from that collaboration between those who transform the world and those who give it order and direction.
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