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Sunday, June 21, 2009
Some Bad Apples Have Impact on N.M. Film Industry
By Dan Mayfield
Of the Journal
Film crews are jerks, and small towns are saying, "Enough already, go back to L.A. — we don't want you here anymore."
First, it was a moratorium on filming in the village of Los Ranchos that's been going on for a year. Then later this week, the Las Vegas, N.M. City Council passed new restrictions on filming that could seriously impact movies there.
To be clear, not all film crews are jerks. Several have made great friends with locals, like the folks from "The Book of Eli," who were welcomed in Carrizozo, and "Terminator Salvation," which disrupted life but also made friends in Taos.
But the handful who have made life difficult for locals in Las Vegas and Los Ranchos have made a huge impact on how the industry is seen in both places. It's not a new story. Complaints are a regular occurrence for an industry that works hard, starting early in the morning and going late into the night, blowing up stuff, closing streets and unloading huge trucks in areas that aren't used to it.
In smaller towns, however, a little bit of bad can go a long way.
"When you have four (films) in a year, it's difficult, and when you have three at the same time, it impacts everybody," said Leith Johnson, owner of the Art and Stones gallery on the plaza in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas is a picturesque small town of 15,000 people with large boulevards, great old brick buildings, a railyard, two main streets, a middle-America plaza and more, so it makes a perfect set. "No Country For Old Men," "Beer For My Horses" and "Wild Hogs" all loved the look. Movie people say it has great "production value."
But when too many films try to shoot on those boulevards, it really disrupts life.
Some locals this week said film crews come to town and are simply rude and run roughshod through town like it's their own personal back lot with no regard for local life.
It's happened across the state, from Downtown Albuquerque to Santa Fe and Taos.
One of New Mexico's calling cards has been that we're friendly, and that's changing as locals are starting to feel taken advantage of. The industry is maturing in New Mexico, and film crews that were once a novelty and welcomed with open arms are now a major disturbance in popular locations.
"Then," Johnson said, "when a good film crew comes through town, we give them hell because of the last two."
For years, L.A. crews have complained about the difficulties they've had working in towns that don't like them. Places like Pasadena, Calif., are virtually off limits to filming.
Instead of a moratorium, the Las Vegas City Council passed an ordinance that everyone could agree on — but not everyone was happy about it. One of the key provisions in the new law is that filmmakers will be required to get approval signatures from 61 percent of the businesses and residences that will be effected by a shoot beforehand.
That type of law, however, opens the door for extortion. You want my approval for a shoot? Fine, give me a bunch of money and I'll sign off.
And on the plaza, the site of most of the problems, the fear is that getting approval from that many of the merchants will be so difficult as to cause a virtual moratorium on filming there.
But merchants said they're not out to gouge filmmakers; in fact they love the tourism aspects of the industry. Merchants said they just want to be compensated fairly for lost business.
Scarier for the industry, though, is that prime locations like these are becoming an endangered species. The state, as one location scout put it, isn't deep. While we have a wide variety of locations, we don't have many. There's only one Los Ranchos and only one Las Vegas. Film crews — and it only seems to be a few bad apples — have done their best to ruin the impression of the business in those key locations.
Las Vegas Mayor Tony Marquez said he's doing his best to let the film industry know that it's welcome, but that he's heard from several who feel they're simply not treated fairly or being compensated for lost business and the inconvenience.
"We're not trying to make money or be greedy," Johnson said. "We just want to be compensated."
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