“We want to be the center of film and TV outside of Los Angeles and New
York,” said Alicia J. Keyes, Secretary of Economic Development.
Article below is about a NBCUniversal Studio to open in Albuquerque. Which follows news earlier this year of Netflix also creating a Film Studio in Albuquerque. Likely this has been enabled by the current favorable tax rebates on film production costs for films made in NM. But it doesn’t hurt that the state actually is the Land Of Enchantment, with dramatic locations and wide open spaces without telephone poles, and lower land use costs, and also lower salary levels.
We have all seen so much of what the LA and NY areas have to offer in the way of locations, repeated ad nauseam. But that’s what’s close by to the production studios, and so that’s what they shoot. NM is fresh and different in contrast.
One of the appeals of “Westerns” was/is their settings in exotic locations such as Monument Valley. NM is chock full of similar places, and old western towns, and ghost towns too.
One can make a connection between our age of DIY video, the need for vastly increased video production for learning tools, and new studios becoming available in the state. Last we heard there’s a film studio to be constructed on NMSU Arrowhead property.
PSA supports doing what it takes to have production tools available, which also includes the trained personnel needed to use those tools. There’s a sort of virtuous circle that arises from aggregating talent and tools into one area.
People form communities where they share what they’re doing, and what they want to do next. This is very true in the world of local production companies, with small staffs, small budgets, but strong ambitions to grow their business and craft.
For example, if one wants to get together with other YouTube and similar video producers, one might find such a community to join in NY and LA. PSA envisions a time when such accomplished communities are also found in Las Cruces, and SNM.
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