Our Top Film Productions in Mexico
WhereNext Mexico has worked throughout the country, including Mexico City, Oaxaca, and the Yucatan Peninsula. Our projects include urban fashion shoots, food and drink documentaries, and digital travel series.
Cat Footwear – One Location Delivers Two Campaigns
In 2019, our client, Cat Footwear, contracted our production company in Mexico to create campaigns for two of their new product lines, Advanced Walking Machines and CODE. The challenge: consolidate two productions into a single location that could showcase the sporty Urban Trekking vibes of Advanced Walking Machines and the sleek, refined style of CODE. This way, we would be able to shave off over 30% of their travel and production costs while still creating two world-class campaigns.
We selected Mexico City as the ideal filming location for these two distinct campaigns: as a booming megalopolis with both ancient and contemporary influences, we felt that the Mexican capital was perfect for telling the story of both Cat products. The city is cost-effective and visually compelling, with a culturally diverse population that represents the target audience of both Advanced Walking Machines and CODE.
Our production company in Mexico provided our client with expert pre-production services in Mexico City, including casting and location scouting and complete on-the-ground services during the multi-day shoot: wardrobe, catering, a full video production crew, and transport.
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) - Searching for the King Vulture in the Yucatán
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) contacted our production company in Mexico to work on a project at the Ejido Nuevo Becal in the southern state of Campeche. This project showcased our agency's passion for sustainability, conservation, and storytelling.
Our assignment was to travel to the remote location of the Ejido Nuevo Becal in the southern limits of Mexico's Campeche state, near the border with Guatemala. Our task was to explore the different sustainability and conservation initiatives in place, meet with and interview key stakeholders in the project, obtain a series of video and photographic assets of landscapes, wildlife, and people, and gather as much material and information as possible to tell the story of Nuevo Becal. The FSC wanted us to pay special attention to the wildlife emblem of the Ejido, the enigmatic King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa).
This project highlights our production company’s experience with filming wildlife and birds in particular. Such was the quality of our wildlife images that our client selected many more wildlife photos than they originally asked for from our final selection. Our work with the FSC also showcases our experience working in the more remote corners of Mexico and our ability to look beyond the tired stereotypes and tell new, dynamic stories of conservation, culture, and wildlife.
The majestic King Vulture, photographed on assignment for the FSC in Campeche, Mexico.
WorldNomads – Regional and Historical Storytelling
Our production company in Mexico filmed a series of videos with our client, WorldNomads. ‘Mexico Discoveries’ looks past stereotypical viewpoints of Mexican people and culture and journeys off the beaten track in search of inspiring stories of family, tradition, and history. We filmed mezcaleros in the dusty canyons of Oaxaca, discovered the living Maya culture of the Yucutan, and jumped into the ring with transgender Lucha Libre wrestlers in Mexico City.
Harnessing our founder’s extensive experience traveling in Mexico (read more about Gregg’s biking adventures in Mexico here), we scouted unique and off-the-beaten-track filming locations to fulfill our client’s demand for captivating local stories and unusual perspectives on the country and its traditions and history.
Challenging Cultural Stereotypes in Mexico City
For our first chapter of “Mexico Discoveries,” we hit the street of Mexico City to challenge, head-on, three common stereotypes about Mexican culture: machismo, tacos, and mariachi music.
We filmed with the ‘Exoticos’ of Lucha Libre, a group of trans and gay wrestlers challenging the traditional gender roles in professional wrestling; documented a new wave of hip, modern Mexican cuisine embodied by a new generation of talented young chefs committed to showcasing the genuinely multicultural threads that run through the country’s cultural and culinary tapestry; and filmed a young group of Mexican musicians aiming to challenge the tired stereotypes of maracas and mariachis through an ambitious and electric fusion of folk music with rock and electronic sounds.
This project showcases our production company’s knowledge of Mexico beyond the clichéd imagery and been-there-done-that cultural stereotypes – we understand the real Mexico and can create a video production that looks beyond the typical towards the unique and memorable.
Documenting the Power of Religion in Mexico
We were filming in Mexico City during the annual Festival of the Virgin of Guadalupe, so we produced a short cultural video for our client documenting the intense faith and devotion exhibited by devotees of the Virgin. What began as a video documenting visitors to the most-visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world became a profound meditation on the meaning of religion and belief, as our host, Patrick Abboud’s negative perceptions of organized religion are challenged in the face of the deep spirituality and devotion he encounters during his time at the festival.
This project highlights our ability to tell deeply personal stories through a cultural and historical lens and showcase diverse perspectives and backgrounds that make up a country as multicultural and complex as Mexico.
Meet the Living Maya of Mexico
For the third video in our World Nomads series, we traveled to the jungles and beaches of the Yucatan Peninsula to take a closer look at the living Maya culture that is still present in this corner of Mexico.
We explored hidden jungle pyramids, miles from the tourist trap of Tulum; we spent time at forgotten cenotes and jungle cemeteries, where the remains of the ancient descendants of the living Maya still lie; and we documented the work of an artisan community who are reviving ancestral Maya designs in needlepoint and embroidery.
This video looks beyond the classic tourist brochure image of Mexican culture and attractions and asks questions about identity and what it means to be Mexican.
The History of Mezcal in Oaxaca
For our final World Nomads ‘Mexico Discoveries’ video, we traveled to Oaxaca to learn more about the ancient art of mezcal distilling and how the culture of mezcal has deep roots in the history, traditions, and community of the region.
Yet we knew we needed to take our viewers beyond the hip bars and clubs of Oaxaca City to tell the real story of mezcal, so we headed off the beaten track to the windswept deserts of the Quiechapa River Canyon, where we filmed with master mezcal craftsmen fighting to keep the old traditions alive. During this journey, our Australian host forms an unlikely bond with an elderly mezcal distiller, and the video becomes an ode to the joy of cross-cultural exchange and the deep bonds we all share.
Providing Logistics, Pre-production, and Filming Services in Baja, California, for Hay Day!
The digital app Hay Day requested support from our production company in Mexico to solve all their logistical and technical needs for their “Meet the Farmer” video series in Guerrero Negro, Baja California. WhereNext Mexico producer Daniela Beltran assembled a front-line crew with people from Mexico City and La Paz, Baja California Sur.
Our team was first responsible for figuring out the logistics of a shoot in such a remote corner of Mexico. We also conducted an initial scouting trip to identify the perfect filming locations. We discovered vast deserts with perfect sunsets, salt flats with turquoise blue saltwater lagoons, silvery dunes bordering the sea, an abandoned lighthouse with a mystical beauty, the largest salt factory in the world, and a lagoon dotted with colorful fishing boats. In short, the ideal filming location.
Our client was extremely happy with how our Mexican team produced and managed this shoot, particularly given the logistical difficulties of filming in this challenging location. The smooth and seamless nature of the pre-production allowed them to maximize their time in the field without wasting a minute on unnecessary travel time or last-minute organization. Since everything was ready and in place for the client team upon their arrival, they could get right down to the business of the shoot.
The client feedback was especially positive for our WhereNext Mexico producer, Daniela Beltran, whose organizational skills, professionalism, and production chops were invaluable in the field.
Filming in the wilds of Baja California with our client, Hay Day!.
Learn more about our production company in Mexico here.
Read about the journey which led to the creation our production company in Mexico. WhereNext’s founder Gregg Bleakney cycled the length of Mexico, in four months, during the course of his two-year marathon traverse of the Americas, from Alaska to Patagonia.