NM does have a thriving film industry based mostly in the ABQ area, but slowly spreading southward to SNM as well. The “Land of Enchantment” has the myriad dramatic landscapes, low crew costs, and tax rebates that appeals to big time Hollywood productions. And the odd sound stage, and prebuilt “western” sets out in the open country.
We also have some picturesque towns, such as Las Vegas, which are also prebuilt sets.
To support this “industry”, the NM state government has established a NM Film Office, which works to find locations, and aggregate film industry workers and support services into a searchable database.
In pursuit of those goals, NMFO website contains many resources, including a searchable location database for the entire state, and a services directory. Don Gray, NMFO head honcho, recently visited CLC City Hall to lead a workshop on Location Managing and related topics.
Cruz Ramos, the CLC Film Liaison guy, moderated the discussion, which ranged over many topics. some of which are relevant to PSA video projects. Cruz would be a guy to meet with for help with gaining production access to various BLM, and NPS sites in SNM, for example. And potential grants.
Don would be the guy to discuss any future larger scale projects that could potentially qualify for the state tax rebate. (this is a big deal financially). Both Cruz and Don have a vested interest in supporting new film/video projects, and seem capable.
FYI, while Texas cannot be the location of NM tax rebate projects, it can serve as a sort of incentive for productions to come to Las Cruces, because El Paso has an accessible airport, and generally all the amenities a production might be looking for within an hour of Las Cruces locations
One more thing: Don said that the number one request he gets from productions looking for locations in NM is ” an old diner in the middle of nowhere.”