Marcos Cline and André Mortara of ALTERED.LA Brazil: “Being Global Only Works If You Are Truly Local”

ALTERED.LA has officially announced the launch of its operations in the Brazilian market, partnering with André Mortara, who joins the company as its new local partner and executive producer. With the expansion, the production company adds Brazil to its existing infrastructure in the U.S., Mexico and Colombia.

The move comes as commercial production becomes increasingly global and agencies move away from rigid geographic structures. According to Marcos Cline, ALTERED.LA’s model is built around having a real infrastructure in each market rather than relying on informal partnerships or handshake agreements.

The decision to enter Brazil now was also driven by the relationship between Cline and Mortara. After collaborating on a project and seeing the partnership work particularly well, the two identified an opportunity to build a more permanent presence in the market.

“This is a business of people and teams,” said Cline. “One of the things we have been seeing in recent years is the globalization of production and marketing. Agencies are breaking away from the idea that everything has to be regional or geographically structured.”

For ALTERED.LA, the model means creating a network similar to those of multinational agencies, allowing talent and production resources to move across markets. A brief coming into one territory can be shared across the network to identify the creative resources, talent and directors best suited to the project.

“Global doesn’t mean centralized; it means connected,” said Cline. “We use the concept of ‘glocal.’ Every time a brief comes into any market, we share it across the network to identify what resources and perspectives we have that can strengthen the creative proposal.”

Integration, agility and more budget on screen
For André Mortara, one of the biggest opportunities in Latin America is greater integration between markets. The region, he argues, needs trusted partners capable of moving quickly, understanding the current pressure on production budgets and delivering high levels of visual craft without the costs traditionally associated with international production.

“What is missing is integration,” said Mortara. “You need a trusted partner who is very agile, understands the current budget challenges and knows how to achieve productions with great visual craft without making them as expensive as they used to be.”

ALTERED.LA’s structure is designed to address some of those challenges by reducing the layers of subcontracting and intermediaries often involved in international productions. Instead of a production company being tied geographically to an agency and then outsourcing casting, locations or production services in other countries, *“ALTERED.LA operates through an interconnected network of locally led operations, owned and operated by us.

“Our proposal is not ‘we are cheaper,’ because that is not true. It is a proposition based on results and experience,” said Cline. “By eliminating unnecessary intermediaries, a much higher percentage of the budget ends up directly on screen instead of being lost to markups.”

The company also sees the relationship as a two-way exchange of knowledge. While Brazil brings a highly established creative and audiovisual industry to the network, ALTERED.LA’s other markets can contribute their own experience and resources.

“My Duolingo streak is growing!” joked Cline. “André is the local partner with an entire career as a producer there, so the teams in Mexico, Colombia and the U.S. have to listen to him and understand why things are done the way they are.”

A Portuguese-language bridge for Brazilian creatives
Mortara also sees value in giving Brazilian creatives and producers access to an international production network while maintaining a local point of contact.

“With the globalization of Brazilian creatives, having a production company with an international presence and agility is very well received,” said Mortara. “Agencies and producers in Brazil really value being able to communicate in their native language, Portuguese, without losing the fluency of the project when sharing briefs with Mexico, Colombia or the U.S.”

“Transparency and trust are also key to the partnership”, Mortara said, with the goal of combining ALTERED.LA’s international production experience with an approach that respects the established practices and particularities of the Brazilian market. “The idea is to bring the experience of the broader ALTERED.LA network while respecting the way the Brazilian market works. Every market has its own practices, and understanding those differences is part of being truly local.”

For ALTERED.LA, that transparency is part of a broader effort to create a consistent experience across its markets. The company has established formal operations in each country rather than relying solely on external partnerships.

“It is bidirectional; we learn from every market,” said Cline. “We have set up formal companies in each country to guarantee an equitable and unified experience, whether we are filming in Colombia, Texas, Rio or Guadalajara.”

Staying local while operating globally
The company’s expansion into Brazil ultimately reflects its broader approach to globalization: maintaining the particularities of each market while connecting them through a shared infrastructure.

“Being global only works if you are truly local,” said Cline. “You need a local presence that understands the culture and how the industry works, so that the internal communication results in better content on screen.”

For ALTERED.LA, the Brazilian launch is therefore less about centralizing production under one international structure and more about connecting local expertise across borders—using the network to find the right creative and production solutions for each project while preserving the cultural knowledge of the market where the work takes place.