Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The Governor’s Office recently boasted of record-setting in-state spending from the filmmaking industry. And while a good chunk of that is going into the Rio Grande Corridor, where Netflix and other filmmakers have set up shop, smaller cities and towns are benefiting as well.
According to state figures, the film, television and digital media production industry pumped $855.4 million in “direct spending” into the New Mexico economy in fiscal year 2020-21, an impressive leap from $626.5 million in FY 2020-21, and eclipsing the $292 million spent in 2019-20. Moreover, outside the Albuquerque-Santa Fe corridor, spending rose to $50 million in FY22, up from $6.5 million in the previous fiscal year.
Credit some very generous state tax credits that make show business good business in this Land of Enchantment. Tax incentives include up to 35% in production tax credits and an additional 5% tax credit for filming at least 60 miles outside Bernalillo and Santa Fe counties.
New Mexico-based filmmaking is booming these days, but it’s nothing new for the state. About 100 years ago, Las Vegas, N.M., was “the Hollywood” of the silent film industry.
That’s right, “the original” Las Vegas was where dozens of silent picture shows were made, often starring Tom Mix, who took up residence in Las Vegas and made one cowboy and western movie after another — until the “talkies” took the industry with it to Southern California.
Las Vegas now lays claim to well over 100 films made in full or in part in this northeastern New Mexico town. Many of them are those silent movies made in the early 1900s, but there have been plenty more contemporary flicks shot there in and around town. The parade in the 1960s cult classic “Easy Rider,” the U.S.-Mexican border scene in “No Country for Old Men,” and the most remembered movie by Vegas locals, the Cold War classic “Red Dawn,” all have multiple scenes of Las Vegas and its surroundings in them.
And that’s just a few of them. Las Vegas is surrounded by expansive prairies and rugged mountains, while the city itself contains an Old Town filled with adobe homes and a New Town sporting Victorian-style architecture. There are good backdrops for most any kind of movie you want to make.
I lived in Las Vegas for nearly a dozen years and always enjoyed the filmmaking, but not for the money it brought in. In fact, sometimes it hurt local businesses. I remember when an “Astronaut Farmer” shoot closed the busiest portion of Douglas Avenue in New Town; amid the excitement of seeing star power like Billy Bob Thornton hanging around, a businessman loudly complained that, since customers couldn’t drive or walk through the “set” to get into his store, he was losing business. Not long after, the city came up with restrictions and obligations that film production companies had to abide by, including compensating stores for lost business.
Still, the filmmakers keep coming to Las Vegas.
Nowadays, however, the biggest benefits are going into the Albuquerque area, where Netflix and NBC Universal have built multi-million dollar studios and production facilities.
It seems to me there’s not much of a downside to a growing film industry.
New Mexico has a unique, creative side. Adding filmmaking to other artforms we already produce, and support, seems like a natural progression. So quiet on the set, and … action!
Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:
