NEWS
Posted 26 July, 2010 in NM News
Courtesy of the Entertainment Economy Institute:
The New Mexico Independent
Trip Jennings
May 31, 2010
New Mexico can be found a lot on the big and little screen these days. Watch AMC’s critically acclaimed Breaking Bad, featuring two-time Emmy winner Bryan Cranston, and there are the Sandias. It’s hard to tell, but, yep, there’s Galisteo in Legion, a thriller with a God-is-angry-with-humanity-so-here-comes-the-apocalypse storyline that was released earlier this year. That steady activity of film and TV shoots is raising New Mexico’s profile in Hollywood as several films or TV series shot here have racked up Oscar and Emmy awards in recent years. But the bigger profile is also raising the amount of money New Mexico is paying out to film and TV productions through a controversial tax credit program.
Over the past 33 months, 118 film and TV productions were paid $181 million through the program, including $60 million this fiscal year, state documents show.
This year’s payout appears likely to eclipse the $61,464,418.56 New Mexico doled out last year. This year’s total -$60,519,012.63 – was through April 14, more than two months shy of June 30, the end of the fiscal year, documents show.
The film tax credit program is wearing a bigger bulls-eye these days as New Mexico’s lagging economy, and a strained state budget, add urgency to critics’ calls for an end to the program.
Click Here for Full Article: http://newmexicoindependent.com/55748/nm-paid-out-181-million-in-film-tax-credits-over-nearly-three-years
Posted 26 July, 2010 in NM News
Courtesy of the Entertainment Economy Institute:
New Mexico Business Weekly
June 7, 2010
The New Mexico Film Office and the International Alliance of Theatrical State Employees Local 480 will launch the second film tour around the state this month designed to inform Hispanic and American Indian residents about potential careers in the film industry.
There will be free presentations between June 8th and June 17th at which professional crew members will share their industry work experiences. Representatives from the Film Office will be on hand to answer questions about training opportunities and other resources around the state.
Click here for full story: http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2010/06/07/daily12.html
Posted 1 July, 2010 in NM News
Courtesy of the Entertainment Economy Institute:
KOAT 7 ABC
April 27, 2010
(No writer credited)
Studios is headed to the auction block Wednesday. In a copyrighted article, The Albuquerque Journal reports that Chicago Investment Trust wants to cash in a $21 million note, but that may be the least of the company’s problems.The Chicago real estate trust company, which is a junior note holder in the project, is foreclosing on the studios for around $21 million in principal and interest it is owed. The firm will auction off its interest in the studio to the highest bidder.According to the Albuquerque Journal article, the the $91 million film studio project that was booked solid just a couple of years ago now has just one project on its eight sound stages, and at least one creditor breathing down its neck.Albuquerque Economic Development Director John Garcia said he doesn’t anticipate the studio going belly up anytime soon.”It’s just a settlement issue between two parties in a civil action, and we anticipate projects will continue to go,” said Garcia.A check with county online records showed that the studios also owes almost $335,000 in unpaid property tax.Garcia’s counterpart in county government, Daniel Gutierrez, said he met with the Chicago group last week. He’s not worried.”We’ve had potential investors call our film liaison this morning, so I think it’s looking at how government can partner to sustain the industry,” said Gutierrez.Amalgamated Bank of New York City holds a $78 million first mortgage on the studios. Calls made by Action 7 News to Amalgamated Bank have not yet been returned.
Posted 20 April, 2010 in NM News
New Mexico Business Weekly
February 12, 2010
The Coen Brothers are returning to New Mexico to shoot their newest film – or at least part of it.
“True Grit” is a remake of the classic that starred John Wayne. Paramount Pictures will shoot parts of the film in March and April in Santa Fe and employ about 100 New Mexico cast and crew members.
Joel and Ethan Coen filmed their 2007 film “No Country for Old Men” in the state and it went on to receive four Academy Awards, including best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor for Javier Bardem.
Jeff Bridges also returns to New Mexico to star in the film as Rooster Cogburn, the aging and cynical deputy marshal originally played by Wayne, who won an Oscar for his portrayal. Bridges has garnered rave reviews and his own Oscar nomination for his leading role in “Crazy Heart,” also filmed in New Mexico. He appeared in another recent New Mexico production, “The Men Who Stare At Goats.”
Matt Damon will play Le Boeuf, a Texas ranger who joins Cogburn to help a young woman find the man who murdered her father and avenge his death. The film is based on a novel by Charles Portis.
No other cast members were announced, although the Internet Movie Database lists Josh Brolin in the cast. He also starred in “No Country for Old Men.”
Since 2003, when Gov. Bill Richardson took office and began pushing the existing film incentives in the state, including a 25 percent tax rebate, there have been 135 film and television productions shot here, with an estimated economic impact of $3 billion, according to the New Mexico Film Office.
Posted 2 March, 2010 in NM News
Good news from New Mexico! The legislative session has ended without any changes being made to the film incentive program. You can still earn 25% with no per project cap and no statewide cap.
Posted 24 February, 2010 in NM News
http://nm-mediatalk.blogspot.com/2009/12/re-misp-santa-fe-new-mexican-article.html
Posted 1 February, 2010 in NM News
A new $6 million studio for Santa Fe County has finally been approved after five years of negotiations between the county and Santa Fe Studios. Santa Fe Studios has agreed to buy 65 acres of land from the county and build and eco-friendly, multistage production facility.
The studio will be built off of NM 14, near the state prison. It will also partner with local colleges and groups to provide film training opportunities, and provide 500,000 hours of above minimum wage jobs.
The county has agreed to pay for about $3.5 million worth of infrastructure improvements to the property and to lend the studios $6 million toward construction of the project.
The project was originally pitched as a four stage, $40 million complex, but it has been scaled backed to a two stage, $16 million project for now.
Santa Fe Studios has also been approved to receive a $10 million economic grant from the state’s department of finance.
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/business/business_krqe_santa_fe_negotiations_end_santa_fe_studios_a_go_200910181818
Posted 31 January, 2010 in NM News
http://newmexicoindependent.com/45279/repeal-of-film-incentives-dies-in-house-committee
Posted 31 January, 2010 in NM News
http://www.thelocationguide.com/news_detail.aspx?src=czech&id=343&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Email&utm_content=939293684&utm_campaign=TheJanuaryLocationReport+_+olilkt&utm_term=TheBookofElishootsinNewMexico
Posted 20 January, 2010 in NM News
New Mexico Business Weekly – by Megan Kamerick NMBW STAFF
Albuquerque has moved up to the No. 1 spot on MovieMaker Magazine’s list of the best places to live and shoot films, topping Los Angeles, which took the No. 2 spot.
The publication is a quarterly chronicle of the independent motion picture business. The article praises the city’s vibrant nightlife, 300-plus days of sunshine and diverse terrain. It notes that the Duke City is “fast becoming a movie mecca” in its Winter 2010 issue, adding that the city lured 24 film and television productions in fiscal year 2009. They took advantage of the city’s ability to “double for nearly every type of backdrop, as well as its proximity to Los Angeles and experienced crew base of 3,000 and growing,” according to the article.
MovieMaker praises the infrastructure, such as Albuquerque Studios – the largest studio in North America it notes – and Filmmaker Production Services, a 25,000-square-foot prop, costume and wardrobe shop owned by NBC Universal that opened in Albuquerque in 2008.
Independent Producer Ryil Adamson, who made “I Was A Teenage Dragonslayer” here in 2009, with the help of a slew of film students from Central New Mexico Community College, praised the help he got from the city and the local Screen Actors Guild office, as well as the depth of talent.
MovieMaker highlights the state incentives as well, including the 25 percent tax credit on production expenditures, the partial wage reimbursement for job training on crew positions and the zero-interest film loan program.
Shreveport, La., took the No. 3 spot on MovieMaker’s list, followed by New York City; Austin, Texas; Stamford, Conn.; Boston; Detroit; Philadelphia; and Seattle.
All those states have some form of tax incentives to encourage film production, including Michigan with a 42 percent tax rebate, according to MovieMaker. Gov. Bill Richardson in his state of the state address on Jan. 19, said New Mexico does not provide the most generous film incentives in the nation.
“But we do provide the most effective ones,” he added.
Richardson said he opposes decreasing any business tax incentives or credits that are working to create jobs and called the film industry a “singular bright sector” in the economy, bringing more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs here and a base of more than 250 businesses tied to production. More than 12,000 students around the state are preparing for careers in film and media production, Richardson noted. The economic impact of the film and television industry on the state has been more than $3 billion, he added.
“We have a unique opportunity over the next 12 to 18 months to make this industry an integral part of our state’s economy along with ranching, oil and gas, and other core sectors,” he said.
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