25 years old · Character in Book 1
Podcast and university content
Álvaro Beltrán
He prepares interviews, looks for stories and checks how many people have watched them.
Audiovisual Communication; professional experience in digital production.
Álvaro is 25, studied Audiovisual Communication and produces a podcast about university life, science and opportunities. He can secure an interview, ask an understandable question and give a conversation rhythm. His audience can bring attention to work that had been difficult to see.
He works close to ATLAS as a visiting media producer, with access for specific purposes. He is drawn to people with something to tell and to the possibilities of being near them. Curiosity, affection, ambition and a desire for recognition can coincide in the same visit.
- What they want
- To make the podcast a source of stories people want to return to.
- What is difficult
- Accepting that familiarity does not guarantee access or the leading role.
- What they contribute
- Interviewing, editing and making a story understandable.
BACKGROUND AND CIRCUMSTANCES
Learning to use an open door
He comes from a family with money and contacts. He grew up with advantages in moving among people and opportunities, and has learned to present that path as the product of his own effort. His account does not always include whoever made the first introduction or opened a door.
He began creating content for campus associations. A video he had not expected to stand out brought him attention and helped him build a personal brand. He has checked the figures more often than he admits ever since. He likes feeling able to spot a story before other people.
ABILITY AND FRAMING
The craft of being understood
He can clearly summarise something its author explains confusingly. He prepares questions, holds silences and recognises an answer that deserves time. When the budget allows, he works with a sound engineer. His ease on camera involves practice and production decisions.
A short piece requires selection. The judgement that makes an idea accessible can leave out a necessary qualification. Álvaro becomes impatient when a doubt complicates the story he has already imagined. Asking, recording and editing are different parts of work in which the speaker does not control the final result. His visit to ATLAS has an authorised purpose and location: interviewing someone does not give him access to files or make every screen material for the podcast.
INTERESTS AND ROUTINE
When he does not have to work
He enjoys an interview that surprises him, a party where nobody asks him to record anything, and discovering music before it becomes well known. He has friends, sport and conversations that do not revolve around anyone in the laboratory.
He can help out of affection and be pleased by someone else’s opportunity. He also struggles to leave a situation without checking whether it has attracted attention. Leisure mixes with the possibility of finding content, and an ordinary conversation can start to feel less important than the story he might later tell about it.
AMBITION AND VULNERABILITY
Being needed in other people’s stories
He wants the podcast to be a familiar source of stories on campus and open doors to larger projects. He worries about becoming an intermediary nobody needs when specialists can speak for themselves. He usually answers that unease by offering visibility and defining what interests an audience.
Sometimes he turns his contacts and ability to attract attention into a hierarchy: deciding who is brilliant, which explanation is boring and when a concern is taking too long. He can listen with genuine interest and, in another conversation, try to steer the person towards a more comfortable version of what they want to say.
RELATIONSHIPS
Ease, attraction and independent judgement
He and Alicia share social codes, humour and attraction. He enjoys other people imagining them together. That ease does not mean they understand an important conversation in the same way. Alicia can enjoy his company and retain priorities he finds less entertaining.
Leo’s enthusiasm and the team’s work offer him a good story. Álvaro can ask a question that helps explain it, but loses patience when an answer runs long or introduces doubts that complicate the piece. The team needs to explain what it checked; he needs to prepare something an audience will want to hear.
VOICE AND GESTURES
A smile looking for a response
He asks energetically and seeks out the person who will follow a joke. His smile can be genuine or remain fixed when he loses control of a conversation. Turning towards somebody else before replying reveals impatience. His confidence is part of what he offers, and an image he struggles to let fall.
CHARACTER AND EXPRESSION
How their expression changes.
Four expressions of Álvaro. Read left to right, starting with the top row.
- Professional smile
His posture and smile welcome the person in front of him.
- Confidence
His chin and gaze show that he expects to be heard.
- Disappointment
The smile recedes and his gaze moves elsewhere.
- Listening
His attention settles on the other person and his mouth rests.
TWO SIDES OF A RELATIONSHIP
Who shares their world.
Alicia and Álvaro
From Alicia
She enjoys his humour, talking to someone who picks up a joke, and an attraction she does not need to justify. She also wants to bring a concern to the conversation without making it entertaining. She wants to choose which parts of her life she shares; Álvaro being able to tell a story well does not mean she always wants him to tell it.
From Álvaro
He appreciates her presence, conversation and the impression they make together. He enjoys feeling chosen and sharing social codes that make closeness easy. He can assume she wants to keep up the same pace. When Alicia needs attention without an audience or a good anecdote, listening calls for something different from him.
Álvaro and Leo
From Álvaro
He finds a potentially interesting story in Leo’s enthusiasm. He can help formulate an idea while growing impatient with an explanation that does not fit his format. He prefers a memorable sentence; Leo may need another question. An interviewee’s trust tests his judgement about which fragment to keep.
From Leo
Álvaro’s ease impresses him, and recognition from him can make Leo feel chosen. He has work and ideas to explain, but attention can lead him to promise or share something before asking. He can confuse a conversation going well with being fully understood. Having room to finish an unglamorous explanation matters to him too.
The biographies and relationships include the characters’ backgrounds; not all have been depicted in the story.
