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Bernalillo County's New Film Liaison Has Big Movie Ideas Permalink comment E-mail
By Dan Mayfield   
Sunday, 15 November 2009 07:42

Just call him The Film Guy. Charles L. Ashley III doesn't quite have a title yet, but he's Bernalillo County's new film liaison.

As cities across the state have added film liaisons to their staffs, Ashley is working to make sure that Bernalillo isn't left out. Ann Lerner at the city of Albuquerque, for example, helps films find locations, get permits and puts them in touch with all the right folks in town. Though Bernalillo County hired Ashley as only the second employee in its Economic Development Department this August, he's already full of big ideas, even if he doesn't have business cards.

"We're trying not to just do movies out here. We want to be players in the industry," he said.

Ashely said it's not enough that productions come here. He's taking a larger view and wants to recruit some postproduction facilities and develop our local talent pool of directors, writers and producers.

His ideas certainly echo those of the New Mexico Film Office and others.

He's starting with the small stuff, such as establishing a streamlined policy for film permits. The county needed to have every agency sign off on permits, Ashley said, which took up to five days. With new policies, he said, the Bernalillo County permitting process for films now takes, at most, three days. By next year, he said, Bernalillo County should have a new Web site up for FilmBernco, which is what the county is calling its film office.

Ashley owned an entertainment consulting firm and worked in student retention at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before his wife brought him to New Mexico. He's settled in quickly, and leaned on his chops as a college bas ketball star in Colorado and this fall started a second job as coach of Albuquerque High School's varsity basketball team.

But the learning curves in the film and economic development worlds are as hard as learning a three-point jump shot.

"I'm just now meeting everybody and learning all about it," he said. "I've reached out, and I hope people will do the same. I don't want to sit here and wait. I want to recruit films now."

New flight

Forget about all of the rankings. Forget about the lists.

Finally, New Mexico's film industry is getting attention from where it's deserved: airlines.

Starting Thursday, American Airline's American Eagle will begin nonstop jet service between Los Angeles and Santa Fe.

It doesn't sound huge, but this may be one of the biggest things to happen to the local film industry since Gary Johnson discovered tax incentives. This means that enough people have asked for the flight that the airline gave it the go-ahead, though the flights are on small, 100-seat jets.

Santa Fe's small airport has never been the site of major jet service. The folks who fly here have had to come through Albuquerque then drive an hour to Santa Fe. The two-hour flight certainly beats the six-hour flight that American has offered, which goes through Dallas, of all places, after leaving Albuquerque.

Funnyman in town

If you're in on the joke, Zach Galifianakis is funny.

If not, watch out.

But Galifianakis, while in town to film parts of the movie "Due Date" with Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, is becoming quite the local. After shoots he's been stopping in the Downtown watering hole Blackbird Buvette. If you missed Halloween at the bar, Galifianakis hung out and posed for pictures with the rowdy crowd of ghosts, goblins and Obi Wan Kenobis.

"I recently discovered him, and I think he's really funny," said Blackird co-owner Dandee Fleming, who has some shaky pictures with the comedian from Halloween on his iPhone.

Galifianakis rose to stardom after he was in the surprise hit "The Hangover" this summer and for his role on the HBO comedy detective show "Bored to Death."

But for years he's been an underground comedy sensation for his goofy humor. He's an artist of the awkward and an inelegant virtuoso.

But at the Blackbird, he comes in late after shooting, Fleming said, and just chats with the staff and the regulars and has a couple of beers. He doesn't pull any of the awkward jokes he does on his Web series "Between Two Ferns" or try to make anyone uncomfortable, like he did on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

Instead, Fleming said, he seems happy to talk about movies, acting, music and booze, and doesn't trade on his celebrity for free drinks.

"He wouldn't let any of us buy him a drink," Fleming said.

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 15 November 2009 07:44 )
 
Making Magic In Town Permalink comment E-mail
By Dan Mayfield   
Sunday, 01 November 2009 07:18

In the summer of 2007, Sony Pictures Imageworks broke ground for a new building at Mesa Del Sol.

 

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 01 November 2009 07:20 )
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A Film Truce In Ranchos? Permalink comment E-mail
By Dan Mayfield   
Sunday, 25 October 2009 07:21

Larry Abraham had enough of the latenight phone calls, the complaints and the grief he got because of moviemaking.

 

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 25 October 2009 07:25 )
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Filming On The Rebound Permalink comment E-mail
By Dan Mayfield   
Sunday, 18 October 2009 08:13

The promise of the film industry heating up once producers and directors wrapped their heads around the economy and the new Screen Actors Guild contract are finally coming to fruition.

 

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 18 October 2009 08:15 )
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Mayor-Elect: Albuquerque Open for Moviemaking Permalink comment E-mail
By Dan Mayfield   
Sunday, 11 October 2009 08:19

Though Richard Berry was elected mayor only last week, he already wants to make it clear that film is a priority.

"Let's get those incentives going and show them that Albuquerque is open for the film business," Berry said.

Sure, he's a bit of an unknown quantity. For the past eight years, Mayor Martin Chávez has been a booster of film and hired Ann Lerner at the Albuquerque Film Office, someone the film community loves.

Berry, though, said he's new, and he hasn't had time to look at the Film Office yet, but he is a fan of economic development.

As a Republican state representative, most of Berry's capital outlay requests dealt with schools and senior centers, but, last year, he helped the Media Arts Collaborative Charter school with some capital appropriations money.

It's anybody's guess right now what, if anything, he will do as Mayor Berry with the Film Office when he takes over in December. But he's already made it clear that he's a fan.

Second home

Albuquerque Studios is quickly becoming a second home for Hammer Movies.

Just two months after the production company wrapped shooting "The Resident" at the studios, it's back with the new film "Let Me In."

"We didn't even move the furniture out of their offices," said Jeremy Hariton, senior vice president of Albuquerque Studios. "It's nice they've come back so quickly."

The new film is a remake of the Swedish film "Let The Right One In," which was adapted from the book "Lat ded Ratte Komma" by John Ajvide Lindqvist .

But this isn't "Twilight."

"Let Me In" is a much darker tale of a vampire girl, played by Chloe Moretz ("The Eye"), and her young friend, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee ("The Road").

"Let Me In" sounds like an ambitious project, leasing two studios at Albuquerque Studios and is expected to hire 500 extras for crowd scenes. It starts shooting this week, along with two other movies at Albuquerque Studios.

The movie "Due Date" has been prepping at the studios, and many of the stars are on their way to the set from the first round of shooting in Georgia.

The film is being directed by Todd Phillips, whose film "The Hangover," broke box office records this past summer. "Due Date" stars Robert Downey Jr. ("Iron Man") and Zach Galifianakis ("The Hangover") as two unlikely companions who are thrown together on a road trip. Oscar winner Jamie Foxx is also cast in the comedy.

Iowa troubles

Though most states agree that film incentive programs bring film work, Iowa may have gotten more than it bargained for.

This week, Iowa shut down its state film incentive program after some serious allegations of fraud, sloppy bookkeeping and more surfaced after an audit.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver suspended the program after the state attorney general launched a criminal investigation into the office's dealings, The Associated Press reported this week.

The fallout in Iowa is huge. The state jumped in with a generous tax credit program that reimbursed investors and producers each with a 25 percent tax credit. But an audit released Monday said the program's books were rife with questionable purchases listed as production expenses, and there were questions about some signatures on contracts. Some of the films that received rebates never submitted the right invoices.

But now that the governor has suspended the program, films that have applied for tax credits won't receive them, at least any time in the foreseeable future.

Usually with a tax credit, a film company has to sell the credit to a local company, which adds one more step to the process than New Mexico's simple 25 percent rebate.

Though the program has turned many off to filming in Iowa, several in New Mexico are seeing an opportunity for us. Already, a few recruiters have traveled to Iowa to persuade film companies to shoot in New Mexico.

But one bad apple could spoil how the nation looks at the incentive industry.

"It looks bad," Hariton of Albuquerque Studios said. "I liken it to 'Independence Day' where the producers are the aliens and they take all the resources. It can be devastating."

Here in New Mexico, auditors scour the reports and individual receipts producers submit. In New Mexico, if you buy a car for the film, it better be in the script.

The New Mexico Film Office's auditors have thrown out receipts for nonproduction expenses and limit the rebates to only those expenses. Wrap parties, for example, may be a common courtesy for films, but they're not eligible for rebates.

This summer, the New Mexico Film Office changed its policy regarding its own bookkeeping and will release an aggregated report showing what film companies spent their money on in the state. It won't go into detailed info.

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 11 October 2009 08:22 )
 
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