The help. This week: Mari Tato, film producer.

By Gonzalo López Martí – LMMiami.com

 

In this business we rarely ask the opinion of the artists-for-hire who help us bring to life our lofty, world-changing, award-winning ideas. Namely film directors, photographers, web developers and so on. We expect them to hit the ground running, give us exactly want we want, when we want it, at the price we set, no questions asked. This series of articles will humbly attempt to right this wrong.

Mari Tato is currently executive producer at Miami-based In&Out Productions*, one of the leading film production houses catering to the US Hispanic market today.

Mari has witnessed first-hand the explosive growth of our industry throughout the last twenty years or so, as an agency producer and on the other side of the counter as well.
She’s worked on hundreds of TV spots, shorts & web films for blue chip brands in various markets, across several continents and multiple languages. Plus, it was about time that this column invited a woman to express her opinion. And Mari has a few. Opinions, that is. Read on.

Q: When and how did you start in the business? Did someone mentor you or give you your break?

MT: Right after high school I took a job at Columbia Pictures working as a production assistant. I rode the bus to Manhattan every day with the person I consider my mentor: Bibiana Grau. Bibiana and I became friends chatting along our commute. At the time she was VP of Marketing at Conill Advertising (the original, owned and operated by Rafael & Alicia Conill and located at 501 Fifth avenue, across from the NY Public Library). It was through Bibiana that I was hired to be Rafael Conill’s secretary. Bibiana told me: “When I started here we were 3 employees, now we are 15. You’d better jump in, the sky’s the limit.” She was 100% right. After 3 months, I moved to be Manuel Martinez-Llorian’s assistant. Manuel was an account executive (these days Mr. Martínez-Llorian is president & general manager at NBC 6 South Florida, by the way). As I said, Bibiana’s prophecy was right on the money: when I left Conill a few years later we were 120 employees. They were acquired by Bates, Saatchi & Saatchi, the works. A hot commodity.

Q: What do you love about our business? What do you hate?

MT: I love to make things happen. This is what I do with every production.  Laser focus, as I call it. Wanting more at every turn.  Seeing endless possibilities in the day-to-day. Re-inventing and changing the game. Never a dull moment. Seeing opportunity. I really don’t hate anything. One thing I dislike is when things that have been approved and produced with the utmost care are changed and compromised to add an unnecessary copy line based on someone’s caprice or personal opinion.

Q: Mention the best campaigns you have seen recently.

MT: Dieste’s “#MuttBombing” for Dallas Pets Alive. I really liked it! Virgin Media Talent School for Virgin Media. Simple, real, captivating, beautifully shot. “We see abilities” by LatinWorks for Special Olympics Texas. Great concept, great visual solution. I also love a campaign for Cat Chow (Purina) by Publicis Buenos Aires and directed by Martín Carranza, whom we represent at In&Out. It is called “Siete vidas, siete historias” (“Seven lives, seven stories”). In some Latin countries, cats have seven lives, not nine, hence these seven promotional short films for web distribution. Great acting, beautiful storytelling with a social activation on the side too: the campaign invited viewers to share their own cat stories and win prizes. The short films have the brand incorporated in a very organic way yet the effort overall has a retail side too. Proof that branding and retail can live together.

Q: Mention the worst campaigns you have seen recently.

MT: I don’t want to be too harsh. There are lots of horrible campaigns out there but we can’t judge if we don’t know the reasons. Who knows what the circumstances were? It would really be very hard to say why they ended up so bad.

Q: What is the future of the advertising film industry?

MT: The future of the advertising film industry is to continue to think outside the box. Clients must invest much more in advertising and trust their agencies to move the needle. Thinking outside the box together and believing in that relationship. Some traditional ways of producing will migrate to new media to develop high quality content and storytelling. Without relevant, insightful stories we don’t have anything to connect with audiences. The good news is, nowadays we can shoot great stories with great production values with much lower budgets.

Q: What is the future of the TV landscape?

MT: TV will not go away. We have never seen so many great TV shows competing on broadcast and cable at the same time as we do today. Plus we need to generate content for the multiplicity of platforms that are popping all around us.  There is a lot of money on the table to create movies, short films, content advertising, commercials and viral work for tablets and smart phones. Our job is to continue concentrating on the message and on how to move the audience to buy and believe in products.

Q: What’ is your take on social media?

MT: Social media works, it is definitely not a shot in the dark. Unfortunately, many clients are spending their digital budgets with uneven results, still the only way ahead is for advertisers to continue taking risks, investing and hiring the best teams to produce fresh work.

Q: How are Latinas portrayed in the media today? Are we progressing?

MT: We are definitely progressing. Although Sofía Vergara reminds me of Cuchi Cuchi Charo with her accent and loud persona, I don’t take it personally as an offensive stereotype, she makes me laugh, she’s great at combining sultriness with comedy. Ultimately, we are all unique, no matter if the character is a maid or a bombshell like Sofía.

Q: How’s the acting talent pool these days?

MT: We used to have a bit of problem with overacting in the Spanish-speaking field. Little by little we are overcoming it and delivering better performances.

Q: What about the self-image &/or projected image of Hispanic men? Are Latinos finally dropping their tough macho guard?

MT: Most definitely, Latinos are loosening up and feeling less threatened by Latinas and women in general. It will be hard to strike a balance, though. Some women are adopting way too much of an “alpha female” role and some men are becoming too soft. At some point, exaggerated female aggression and male submission is not good either. Some women are going too far at disputing “male dominance”. This is another story altogether!

Q: What are the advantages & disadvantages of shooting in LA, NY, Miami, DF, Bogotá or Buenos Aires?

MT: Of course, when you shoot away you need local contacts. If one communicates properly with the crew to have them on board, it is possible to shoot anywhere. Clear direction and motivation for a crew are critical to achieve the best results. It is key for a production to count on a crew that believes in the work they are set to do. Otherwise you end up with a set full of disoriented and distracted people checking Facebook on their phones. This is part of our success at In&Out Productions, we work with people that believe in what we do. With big budget and small budget productions too.

Q: Do you see increasing crossover potential for Hispanic professionals? For example, are Hispanic directors being hired by mainstream agencies?

MT: We need to work hard to get our message across and reach out to creatives and producers at mainstream agencies. It really does not matter where you come from, it’s about the message and the contribution we can make to the idea. At In&Out we put the emphasis on representing directors who really bring an extra spark to the concept, regardless of the platform. This has been a plus.

*innoutshoots.com