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It’s easy (OK, a little bit easier) to make a film if you have millions to spend.
But for independent filmmakers, the going is much rougher. They can’t hire an army of folks to license music or to outfit a set or do special effects.
Instead, most independent filmmakers do it themselves, and often the hardest part is digging up the services and equipment.
MovieMaker Magazine, a trade publication for independent filmmakers, has for the past four years published a list of the 25 most interesting and important tools and companies for independent producers.
Two Albuquerque companies made this year’s I-List: New Mexico Lighting and Grip and Filmmaker Production Services Co. Both are subsidiaries of the giant NBC Universal Production services (which is also on the list).
New Mexico Lighting and Grip, which is housed at Albuquerque Studios, sells and rents gear such as lights, filters, tripods, generators, squibs and more — all that fun, and usually expensive, gear that it takes to make a movie.
“We definitely try and support indies as much as we can,” general manager Sean Buckler said. “The budgets aren’t there for everybody. We like to work for each show.”
Though the company has an exclusive deal for working with the productions at the Albuquerque Studios, it also rents to off-site productions.
Filmmaker Production Services has become known around Albuquerque as simply “The Prop Shop.” In a giant warehouse near Menaul and Broadway, FPS rents all the things that make a film look right, from clothing and furniture to period soda fountains and potted plants.
“We work with everybody, especially in this environment,” said FPS manager Meredith Stewart. “We reach out.”
Last year, FPS sponsored one of the ultimate independent filmmaker projects, the 48-Hour Film Festival.
The two local companies join a medical consulting firm in Phoenix, a Floridabased production-services job board, a special effects software firm in Indiana and others.
Many of the companies on the list are doing new and different things in the production world and catering to films with smaller budgets. Red Giant Software, for example, sells inexpensive digital effects software that competes with programs that cost 1,000 times as much, and Sqirrl is a Web company that distributes information about film festivals that cater to indie filmmakers and where film festivals are rated by a one-to-five acorn system.
The 4-year-old list is designed to help filmmakers with any budget, but specifically small budgets, find the resources they need to make their films come to life. Take the software Movie Plan, a program that writes a proposal for investors of small films, or the ingenious Sir Groovy, a company that licenses music for movies and works like iTunes.
Now if we could only do something to foster our own independent talent, maybe MovieMaker would take a bigger interest in New Mexico.
