Mexico. Having to adapt to new technologies is nothing new for Ivan Rocha, CEO of Newlink, a prominent digital agency based in Mexico City. With a degree in sound design, Ivan began his career as an audio production assistant. Very soon, during his first job, around 1999, Ivan got the opportunity to work with the new non-linear video editing technology, and did his best to become an expert. This experience was very valuable and over time allowed him to land in creative positions at Univision, Intravisión, Televisa and CNN.
"The creative industry is different from the others," says Iván. "There are very few barriers to moving from one position to another. It's all about knowing how to tell a story, and for me that means telling the story starting behind the scenes until you get to the end in the editing room."
During his extensive tour, Ivan began to work more behind the lenses, honing his skills as a cinematographer. Despite the satisfaction of working for some of the world's leading brands and broadcasters, Ivan knew he wanted to form his own group. The best way to achieve this was to understand the mechanics of business management. An accomplished student, Ivan earned a master's degree in management in 2002 and focused on leadership, taking over a fledgling agency in need of direction.
"Like any entrepreneur, your risks are high, but you have all the chances of winning," he says. "When I joined Newlink, this principle was very true. It was necessary for that ship to change course, but the economy was unstable and projects were scarce in most sectors. In most, but not all. With a little research, we found that the Mexican government was constantly distributing digitally produced material, for the purpose of helping individuals and businesses benefit from public programs and services. So we positioned ourselves there to offer the government our content creation services. The door opened, we walked in, and we never looked back again."
Cut to the present. Newlink has grown from 5 to 50 staff members and has won seven awards in the production of short fiction films, including the renowned Pantalla de Cristal at one of Mexico's largest film festivals. The company also continues to work with the Mexican government on programming and strategic communications projects — and for the most recent campaign — on a short film and series of commercials designed to educate business owners about the benefits of new Mexican banking programs.
"Thanks to the current infrastructure, we can offer our customers the total complement of a production, as in the case of the project for Nafinsa, the Development Bank of Mexico," said Iván. "We conceptualized the project through storyboards and the presentation of our idea was a resounding success. Our team then wrote the scripts, organized the filming logistics, filmed, edited, color corrected and finished the final project."
To date one of Newlink's biggest projects, the Nafinsa campaign spanned 14 filming locations throughout Mexico and required 60 days for production and 30 days for post-production.
"I needed to convey the importance of a bank with roots in Mexico, highlighting its multiple capabilities, along with its responsibility to support the business world in Mexico," says Iván, explaining his vision for the project. "We wanted a fresh environment, one that would remove the stigma surrounding government-backed banks and dispel the belief that they don't support businessmen and women in Mexico. This was the reason that motivated us to carry out a broad multifaceted project."
The result was two 30-second commercials for Mexican television and a documentary film distributed online. The two columns to support this fast-paced workflow were the Blackmagic Design URSA for filming and DaVinci Resolve for color correction and fine-tuning.
For Ivan, technology is a fundamental cog in the storytelling process. The right tools can make a difference, not only in the overall quality of the project, but also in the balance sheet and viability of the company.
Ivan recalls that, "After the death of Steve Jobs in 2011, I thought our company wouldn't exist if it weren't for Apple and advances in Mac technology. At that time we had only one Blackmagic product. Today, Blackmagic is the foundation of our projects, and it has the same impact on our business as the Mac did. It allows us to compete in the digital market, where prices are lower and quality is better. With products such as URSA, ATEM and DaVinci Resolve in our agency, we are able to offer our customers premium products and services at reasonable prices."
After using DaVinci Resolve and ATEM for a short time, Newlink began to rely on and rely on the color correction and live event production capabilities offered by these products. The URSA camera is a recent addition to the company, playing its first leading role in the Nafinsa campaign.
"After working with so many compressed format cameras, working with Blackmagic URSA RAW and ProRes makes me feel like I'm shooting in cinema film," Ivan continues. "The 12 scales of its dynamic range are absolutely wonderful and produce the material needed for creative and dynamic color correction. If you add a good set of primary lenses, the image quality you can get is impressive. Achieve accurate color reproduction with amazing details. At Newlink we consider URSA as a strategic partner for many projects, and the cost-benefit has exceeded our expectations in every way, in terms of prices, quality and efficiency."
Ivan concludes: "For now, we would like to update our CCTV with the latest ATEM. We also want to increase our camera arsenal with the addition of the URSA Mini and the Micro Studio camera. With so much to choose from, it's becoming increasingly difficult to limit yourself to a specific product. For our company, this is a very positive factor."
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