After working for years on hundreds of commercials and six films—including the American film *Blindness*—María Zanocchi, a graduate of the Bachelor’s program in Audiovisual Communication at Universidad ORT Uruguay, took a two-year break from the industry.
The birth of his first daughter and his desire to spend more time at home were key reasons for that temporary break, which led him to launch a business making compostable planters—together with a friend—a project that was incubated at ORT’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). “That film work was very demanding, and at the time I had a daughter who was a year and a half old. I didn’t want to go three days without sleep or be tied up in pre-production where you disappear at the mercy of a client coming from abroad for just a few days. That’s why the opportunity with the plant pots came up, and I seized it. I first worked on developing the product with a couple of friends, and then we moved on to the marketing phase, but we had some disagreements there, so I went my own way,” Zanocchi explained.
Back in the Ring
Over time, she gradually returned to her first love. But one call in particular brought her right back into the world of film and television: it was an offer to work on none other than the blockbuster Netflix series *Conquest*, produced by Keanu Reeves.
“A friend who works in location scouting called me to offer me a job as a location assistant. I accepted because it was a huge production, but as fate would have it, I ended up becoming the boss,” said the ORT graduate.
According to him, his role involved obtaining permits to film in various public spaces, as well as handling the logistics of the shoot—a task he said was not easy. “You might be assigned shoots with 15 people, or sometimes more than 200, as was the case here. Together with the logistics team, I was in charge of organizing everything related to the venue’s capacity to accommodate catering for the crew, the changing rooms, makeup, hair, and vehicle logistics. It was like organizing a huge circus,” he explained.
As for choosing locations, the production team had already arrived with virtually all the locations selected, so in that sense, the task was simplified. The fact is that Gabriela Rosés, the series’ executive producer, is Uruguayan and the wife of *Conquest* director Carl Eric Rinsch, so they were already familiar with Uruguay and arrived in the country with most of the locations already chosen. For Zanocchi’s team, then, the work consisted of handling permits and all the necessary procedures with the Montevideo City Government regarding the changes to Plaza Independencia. “We also took care of the ‘viewpoints’—that is, balconies or windows that were mainly for the sake of the filming dynamics,” said Zanocchi.
According to him, despite the large number of people who worked during the week-long shoot in Montevideo, “everything turned out spectacularly.” “The dynamics of filming and the precision of teamwork required to pull off a production like this are fascinating—both in terms of timing and workflow,” he said, adding: “I think Uruguay is an excellent filming location because of its settings, but also because of the technical expertise of Uruguayans when it comes to decision-making, workflow, and other aspects.”
The controversy over the square
Every time the director called “cut,” the Blandengues would enter the square to guard Artigas’s Mausoleum. “It was funny and impressive at the same time to see how the local community became part of the filming alongside all that fantasy world that was being created on set,” he recalls with a smile.
Regarding the controversy sparked by the renovation of Plaza Independencia, Zanocchi said he thought it was good that Uruguayans felt that sense of civic responsibility. "I think it's something we really need: taking ownership of what's ours. We see all the time that people litter, that they don’t take care of their surroundings, that they don’t care for the environment. That sense of belonging that emerged among the people was a good thing,” he said.
According to Zanocchi, what upset people the most was the removal of the ceibo tree, which had stood there for over a century. “We didn’t kill the ceibo; it had been dead for years,” he clarified.
She said that many neighbors “hated them” and that many others encouraged them to continue with this type of project. The graduate recounted that one day she spent nearly half an hour talking to a woman who mentioned several of the problems the massive production was causing her. “Her grocery delivery couldn’t get through because the entire plaza was closed off, and she was right. But I told her that if she called me—since all the neighbors had our phone numbers—we’d make sure the deliverygot to her, ”the graduate said.
Teamwork as a cornerstone
According to Zanocchi, the best part of this kind of project is the teamwork. “It builds your leadership skills and instills a sense of responsibility and trust—you simply can’t let the team down. You have to overcome obstacles. It’s not an option for the shoot to be canceled because of you,” he said.
As for his time at ORT, he said it gave him many tools for working as part of a team. “In my class, each student directed a short film. We spent an entire summer filming our thesis shorts, and that gives you an incredible amount of know-how. The day we filmed the first short, we were one group of people, and by the time we filmed the last one, we were a different group,” he concluded.
