“If you want jobs and want them now, rewrite the motion picture incentive regulations to make them simple and clear. Make the tax credits easier to lend against. Exempt TV series since they create long term employment and reach out to potential projects to assure them we want and need them and will do what it takes to help them make their pictures here.”
We are looking for an in-state Director and production team for a commercial production to shoot in New Mexico in January of 2013. The shoot will be 2-4 days. MOS. We are looking for a Director who has national, award-winning experience shooting outdoor/adventure sports and activities. In addition, this Director must be highly skilled in pulling authentic moments of humanity from all cast members. We would like the production team to be a tight group that has worked together, can maximize production value with a small footprint, move quickly, and get a lot of coverage using multiple cameras. Extensive experience shooting with an RC helicopter is mandatory, as well as other ways to increase production value with a limited number of team members. Please respond by EOD Monday, September 24. Send resume’s and questions to Martín Leger at martin.leger@state.nm.us.
To quote myself just a few moments ago when a fellow New Mexican sent over the news that a whopping $180,000 New Mexico Tax dollar payment has been APPROVED to go out of state, “ARE YOU FK’N KIDDING ME!?!”
From the state department who brought you a whites/light skinned casting call for a New Mexico commercial shoot, helmed by a Texas firm, produced by a California company for a $2M NM price tag comes the latest development to further New Mexico Tourism.
KRQE reports that the state Tourism department is again citing their own arbitrary ratings system to award our tax dollars elsewhere – this time to Missouri, the “show me state”.
“The department paid $180,000 to a Missouri-based company, MMGY, to redesign its decade-old website.”
Perhaps the underlying goal of this administration’s Tourism Department is to send as much New Mexico money out of state, employing hundreds of people anywhere but here…to encourage them to visit?
Since nobody wants to hear me whine about this anymore, we’ll let a true professional break it down. Click here for this week’s News/Opinion from the Weekly Alibi, written by Gene Grant.
On the long and winding road of missteps, wherein New Mexico industries and the very fiber of our cultural make-up as New Mexicans had first been underutilized then flatly insulted, a path to amends is taking shape.
This week New Mexico Film workers business agent, Jon Hendry had a successful meeting with the Governor’s cabinet members in regards to their handling and handing out of the state’s multi-million dollar ad campaign, which has recently grabbed some unflattering national and international attention due to the Tourism Department’s casting gaffe.
Tops in priority to many are bridging the gap between the high dollar, high visibility contract utilizing local trades, businesses and people, for this all important media package set to launch beginning next month with the goal of showcasing New Mexico to the world.
As forwarded to OHI from the office of IATSE 480 Business Agent, Jon Hendry to locals in film; the status of New Mexico Film, New Mexico Tourism, and New Mexicans going forward together stands as follows:
I just met with Cabinet Secretary of Tourism Monique Jacobsen, the Director of Tourism Development, and the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff on the outsourcing of crew on the recent tourism commercial.
I feel we had a frank and open discussion of our positions. I believe the Department and the Governor’s office now know that this is something that should not have occurred. I also believe that they are willing to make every effort to prevent this from occurring in the future.
We discussed three things which I think will be positive steps forward.
1. We will work together to ensure that as many New Mexicans as possible work on these projects in the future.
2. We will work to form an advisory group of people from around the state to assist in achieving that goal.
3. We will jointly create a promotion to showcase New Mexicans’ own stories.
I strongly believe this meeting was a positive first step. Everyone in attendance took this matter seriously. I’m making a commitment to the NM production community that I will do everything that I can to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The Governor’s office and the Tourism Department will work with us all to make sure as well.
Having said that, the recent commercial is in the can; continuing to gripe and complain about it, while therapeutic, does not help. We’re all New Mexicans here regardless of what side of the fence we sit on, where we originally came from, or what we look like. Our goal should be to promote jobs through sustainable and respectful tourism. I know a number of you told me earlier you’re willing to work with me on this and I will hold you to it.
Don’t cry, kids decorate pics like this all the time…the software comes on their “baby iPads”.
As we’ve been covering for you since the original RFP was released back in August 2011, the then recently appointed face of the New Mexico Tourism Department was poised to launch a new brand of New Mexico to the world…One that perhaps would eventually lend locals the luxury of not having to explain that New Mexico is in fact a part of the continental United States, to everyone from Washington State to Timbuktu.
New Mexico may perhaps be best known as an extra terrestrial landing strip or that dusty land which one passes through en route to another destination, but brand new leadership handpicked and handsomely paid is now at the helm to “rebrand” New Mexico, USA. The rally cry chosen by our new leader in branding, State Tourism Director, Monique Jacobson, to entice the world over to make New Mexico their destination of choice: “Adventure steeped in culture.” Okay. First question, whose culture?
Next, putting the reins of representing New Mexico to the world in the hands of a Texas Co. were enough to ruffle more than just a few local feathers. When Job Creation is touted as being a top priority of the sitting administration, sending a $2M job to a neighboring, tourist destination competitor state was perplexing at best, especially taking into account the plethora of skilled ad agencies all over the home front who no doubt KNOW New Mexico.
Regularly citing a seemingly “gold standard” of criteria, that the Tourism Department herself/itself either devised or adopted, the Texas firm won out over the many locally based firms who applied, even over the few NM firms which allegedly made it into the “final round” of “scoring” despite their in-state “preferential” allowances. Vendor Inc. ultimately won the dough, and apparently unabashed contract, creative and casting control.
Herein lies either the genius or the critical downfall of a campaign that has yet to air, New Mexico is already making news; First in the few rumblings about the Texas award, then almost under the radar the contracting started to go out. Initially with the multi-state (CA, NV, TX, NM) staffed casting outfit based out of Santa Monica, CA, which sent out the campaign devised casting call…(Back to that in a hot minute).
First round of FREE ADVERTISING begins here, where in a state which had worked, and risen to world-renowned ranks as tops in film production the mighty Vendor picked California filmmakers to jet in and out of the state with their own crew to film a weather ravaged four day shoot. The story of “irked” local filmmakers and production houses went from viral to news worthy, then broadcast all around the country painting New Mexico as a state set to advertise themselves without much faith in themselves.
To today and into mañana’a news, as dictated by the aforementioned ad campaign casting specifications, we shall only be represented by the “light-skinned” and fit among us. By these standards not even the woman who is our top elected official need apply to appear in this first round of advertisements requesting that the world take a look at New Mexico as an “Adventure steeped in culture.”
Where New Mexico is already hurting in some circles as appearing steeped in gas & oil interests and enriching corporate culture (see SB9 tax veto here), we’re now a step further to the right to most, elitist/racist or just plain out of touch at best. Because unlike a feature or indie film casting call which may rely on scripted requirements for certain characters – this is destined to be a multi-million-dollar motion picture representation of our great state, broadcast to the world.
All excellent moves if subscribing to the old adage that “any press is good press”, or aiming to flagrantly fly insensitivity in the face of the majority of your product/state’s population, or if politically angling to shine a spotlight on our state leader’s already dubbed war on immigration – good show.
Click here for the adults cast as Caucasian or “light-skinned” Hispanics in the ad, as released by the contracted casting director.
This just in: Expect NM Tourism select, Vendor Inc. to be without comment on this debacle just as they seemed to be in this 2011 Super Bowl bust.
Special thanks to our media “partners” and certain “whispers in the wind” in covering these developments…
UPDATE: Vendor Inc. has issued the following statement to Gabriel Escobar of The Dallas News:
“The focus of our shoot was on showcasing to the country the many amazing experiences and adventures one can have in New Mexico. The casting call you referenced was for the role of “tourists” who could be coming from any number of states. This is the first of many spots which will feature the wide range of people who are drawn to New Mexico.”
-Tom Hollerbach, Managing Director and COO, Vendor Inc.
So, as the statement(s) would suggest, we’ve got it all wrong. The cast are not New Mexicans, they are tourists. Caucasian or “light-skinned” Hispanic tourists.
Perhaps they were actually making special concession in allowing local “lights” to be considered to portray the desirable white market…
UPDATE 3/2/12: OHI has just obtained the following document, as sent out last month, requesting that state leaders consider utilizing local resources to produce the upcoming NM State Tourism multi-media campaign.
GUILTY – We’re all guilty of corporate chain store shopping and franchise restaurant dinning over the local mom & pop businesses who are struggling to survive in our community.
Does this mean we shall all remain passive in allowing our state funds, though humble by national standards, to follow the same path on a still multimillion dollar scale, by way of whatever cryptic and elusive measures may or may not be ordained?
In what looks a lot like an ever increasing tally of slights to the local film & media industry by the Roundhouse, this particular money train (aka NM State Tourism contract) starts in New Mexico, runs through Texas (to drop off the cash) and only creates local work or pays back to New Mexico what is allocated by the out of state firm.
You don’t get to be the 498,660 ranked website in America (1,411,247 worldwide, insert “lol” here) without recognizing that there IS as much passion and interest as there is talent in this great state and its epic film industry that thousands have worked and lived to embolden over lo these many years.
From those of us who watch and report, to those in the trenches who literally implore the powers that be to lend their support to growing the industry, we all want to know – If we’re truly working to bring productions home, why wouldn’t we produce a production set to represent and draw the world’s attention to us with ample local talent?
IATSE Local 480 Business Agent, Jon Hendry proactively set out to offer his industry know-how and resources to the state’s Governor, Susana Martinez and her applicable cabinet members in the above letter dated Feb. 14, 2012 – which all but begs the root question here: If the industry has the support of the current administration why isn’t it being utilized by it?
YOUR “meager” 2M State Tourism dollars are at work on Job Creation, for out of state companies.
The decision to go with the small and relatively new Texas firm, Vendor Inc., may already be generating some tourism revenue, by way of maybe filling some hotel rooms and buying local meals for the out of state advertising firm and their crew*, when they visit NM to execute our new multimillion dollar marketing campaign.
Too bad factoring small business and peripheral spending locally is not taken into any meaningful account by the current administration (oh wait, that’s only when asserted by the evil film industry – Tourism gets carte blanche on claims of grandeur and bloated assertions of ROI – seeCatch the Kid). And ~again, in this case, any dollars the Texas firm spends were already New Mexico dollars to begin with.
Though beloved by many (including yours truly), even the casting co. hired by the firm to fill roles for the multi-media ad campaign being shot locally, is not New Mexico based.
At least the gig pays ~well, and so long as they pass the “bag test”, it seems a few New Mexicans will be getting paid as a part of this whole shebang right out of the shoot.
*Unconfirmed – duh, this is a blog not the NY Times
NOW CASTING THE FOLLOWING PROJECT in ALBUQUERQUE/SANTA FE, NM:
Project: New Mexico Tourism
Type: Regional COMMERCIAL. NON-Speaking Principal roles. NON-UNION.
Shoot dates: March 5-8th, 2012 (4 days)
- All 4 days will be full (12 hour) days – Travel between one location to the next is part of the storyline so you will travel with the production crew.
- Call Time: March 5th – Early morning in Albuquerque (Exact time TBD)
- Wrap: March 8th – Late afternoon/evening in Santa Fe (Exact time TBD)
**MUST BE AVAILABLE ALL FOUR SHOOT DATES!!!
Usage: All media, including but not limited to broadcast, internet, print, new media and industrial.
Terms: Date of first use until June 30, 2013
Territory: Southwestern states – US
Compensation: NON-UNION. $300.00/day plus expenses (meals and lodging). Travel provided by production. Possible buyout, rate TBD. (NO Agency commission)
Talent Specs:
FAMILY
REAL FAMILIES: Caucasian or light skinned Hispanics.
MOM & DAD – 35-40 years old, fit and attractive, brown or black hair. Mountain biking, hiking and climbing experience is a plus, but not necessary. Ability to swim is necessary (for safety). NO professional acting experience required!
KIDS – boy and girl, ages 8-14, fit and cute everyday kids, brown or black hair. Mountain biking, hiking and climbing experience is a plus, but not necessary. Ability to swim is necessary (for safety). NO professional acting experience required!
COUPLE
REAL COUPLES PREFERRED but NOT required: Caucasian or light skinned Hispanics.
MAN – 30-40 years old, fit and attractive, brown or black hair (a little bit of grey hair is nice but not critical) . Mountain biking, hiking and climbing experience is a plus, but not necessary. Possible water play (wading, boating, river, lake scenes). Ability to swim is necessary (for safety). NO professional acting experience required!
WOMAN – 30-40 years old, fit and attractive, brown or black hair. Mountain biking, hiking and climbing experience is a plus, but not necessary. Possible water play (wading, boating, river, lake scenes). Ability to swim is necessary (for safety). NO professional acting experience required!
Overall Talent Considerations: Element tolerance is a plus (cold weather, etc.) Possible water play (wading, boating, river, lake scenes). Ability to swim is necessary (for safety). Looking for athletic, outdoor adventure types.
Submissions via email ASAP to: onlocationcastingNM@yahoo.com subject line NEW MEXICO TOURISM.
All submissions MUST include the following:
-First & Last name of each person being submitted
-Recent individual photo taken within the past (6) months of each person being submitted
-Couple or complete Family photo depending on which category submitting in
-Two working contact numbers
-Statement that you have checked your availability and are available for all dates (3/5/12-3/8/12)
-For each person, please provide a list of experience and level of expertise in any outdoor activities (hiking, climbing, biking, boating, swimming, etc.) as well as a list of outdoor gear they own.
**PLEASE ONLY SUBMIT IF YOU FIT THE LISTED CASTING SPECS. THERE ARE NO OTHER ROLES AVAILABLE!!**
A KOB-TV viewer has SCORED the first pic of the now CONFIRMED Johnny Depp New Mexico sighting!!!
Come on people!!! He’s just a man!
A precious, delicately featured, angel voiced man of a million emotions and hues of GORGEOUS that every man, woman and child WILL eventually dream of…
Annnnnd, I digress (I’m talking to YOU, seventh grade me! SIT DOWN and have the composure of the ol’ gal you have become)…
Eh, hmm. This pic is of The Lone Ranger star, reportedly placing him in Gallup, NM last week…
p.s. I love my husband and reality, and my reality based self is (cliché alert), OVER THE HERNANDEZ MOON that Depp is here because no fewer than THOUSANDS of reporters and subsequent press coverage of our beau-ti-ful and extraordinary state will follow.
p.p.s. Thank you Johnny for inspiring emotions I haven’t felt since I last looked into your BIG, brown eyes behind my bedroom door circa 198something. xo
In yet another blow to the sanctity of the ways of “Old Hollywood”, New Mexico steals the show in nabbing the number one spot for…Millionaires.
Per The Associated Press:
A northern New Mexico city is No. 1 one among the places “Where Millionaires Live in America.”
The November edition of Kiplinger ranks Los Alamos the top millionaire town based on a recent report by Phoenix Marketing International, a company that follows wealthy residents.
According to the report’s findings, there are 885 millionaire households among Los Alamos’ 18,000 or so residents. That gives the city an 11.7 percent concentration of millionaires.
Los Alamos beat out Naples, Fla., and Bridgeport, Conn., which were ranked two and three respectively.
The report says nearly 130 Los Alamos households had at least $5 million in investable assets.
Los Alamos is home to a government nuclear weapons laboratory and a number of chemists, engineers and physicists. It’s about 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe.
DATELINE AUSTRALIA, (not part of the USA) – No wonder no one can find NM on a map of North America (I’m looking at you USA Today of the early 90s, which reversed NM & AZ…At least you had the pre-cognition to cite the future likeness in immigration “standards”).
Anyhoo, SPACEPORT AMERICA has had its grand opening…complete with celebrity, actual astronaut and Royal sightings alike. NM Tourism much? No? Well it happened, with but a blip (à la the AP/Associated Press news wire in most cases), on the NM news scene back on Monday.
From a current 500 jobs, sky rocketing (wink) to a whopping 2K future (forecasted) jobs, the NM spaceport has been officially christened! EVEN our own Governess was there!
The “Keys to a New Dawn” event has already gone down but the future upscale launches can only take NM up!
You can take the Native American out of Tonto, but can you take the West out of this western?
The Lone Ranger project has been all but laid to rest once already, to that end producers are now addressing ongoing budgetary concerns. Specifically, Jerry Bruckheimer deconstructs the approximate $10M price slash for The Hollywood Reporter, including the back-and-forth possibility of breaking-up the NM portion of the shoot, hauling it out of the West and into Louisiana where incentives are higher.
“We redid the production plan. We originally laid it out to avoid winter. Every single location we had, there was winter — 30s at night, 50s during the day, best-case scenario. We were jumping around. California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah. If we had a big crowd scene and then the next day we were shooting just Tonto and the Lone Ranger, we still had the crew “on” because you have them weekly. So we bunched the sequences that were big together, and for the smaller scenes [we] laid off the extras, the effects people, the makeup people. It costs an enormous amount with 150 extras on the set. It’s not the extras, it’s the people that support the extras. You’re still carrying all the wardrobe, makeup and hair people. We bunched together scenes with Tonto and the Lone Ranger, so we had a much smaller crew. We saved about $10 million just by doing that.
Then we looked for the best break in tax incentives. We found that Louisiana gave us a better tax incentive than New Mexico — that was another $8 million. We’re still shooting in New Mexico, and we might [also] go to Louisiana. We’re asking New Mexico to come closer to the Louisiana incentive.
We dropped our California location not because they didn’t offer a tax break but because it was another production office that we had to open. Every time you have a new location, you have to use crew time setting it up for you. There are a lot of expenses.”
Bring it all the way home New Mexico, get a piece of this epic Disney Western with some back-end action or something in exchange for meeting the request…Keep our hotels loaded, tourists coming and our cast & crews employed…and maybe a little global PR to follow, so maybe the rest of the country learns in this century that NM is part of the continental UNITED STATES AND that we have better skiing than AZ.
N. Mex has already lost Quentin Tarantino’s Spaghetti Western Django Unchained starring Leonardo DiCaprio, NM Fave Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz, which starts shooting this November in NOLA.
My friends {sarcasm} at The New Mexico Department of Tourism say nay to the re-upping of contracts with advertising co. M&C Saatchi of Los Angeles and PR firm Development Counsellors International of New York to rep. NM.
State Tourism Secretary Monique Jacobson has announced that a NATIONAL search will get underway next week for the state’s approx. $2.5M annual contract to sell NM to the world!
“The ad contract will be for about $2.5 million a year, and the public relations contract will be for about $120,000, both of which are roughly in line with what the department pays now for the services…Because of our limited budget, ideas matter most. We are looking for folks who really get the essence of what we believe is New Mexico.” – Jacobson to the AP
Of course we have to ask – Who knows New Mexico like New Mexico? The request for proposals (RFPs) for these two hot tickets is expect
to go out next week with the full campaign slated for debut early next year!
We will update you here with where and how to apply – if you’re New Mexico and you want to toss your 2 cents into this multi-million dollar decision CONTACT the department and ask them to keep this J-O-B local!
Previous campaigns have left NM languishing at the #38 spot in the country as a tourist destination – we can do better. Just say Middle Mexico, USA no more. Business Week
National news outlets covering the sitting New Mexico Governor’s summer tourism promotion are calling foul at rattling at the proverbial grave of the long lored, long gone “outlaw” Billy the Kid.
From rabid condemnation of the former Governor’s talk of a pardon for “The Kid” to launching a Palin style publicity stunt/hunt, replete with high cost billboards, television radio and print ad campaigns, propping and popping “The Kid’s” likeness, where’s Waldo style, into all form of New Mexico tourist destinations….Classy.
Local news thus far is lobbing out a far rosier spin of the “promotion”…up to and until possible investigative reports are to follow if this surely very costly campaign is a bust…If and when that forecast comes to fruition a culprit other than the Governess will likely be locked into the cross hairs of blame – NM Film perhaps?
Where are the Avengers tourism promos (Royals style)??? The NM Film destination packages? THE BREAKING BAD Winnebago tours?!?!?! FARK!
On this morning’s episode of LIVE with Regis & Kelly, Mark Consuelos was pinch hitting for Regis Philbin alongside his real life, real skinny wife Kelly Ripa where the pair announced their impending trip to Nuevo México with all their chitlins in tow.
Mark made the call this year to bring the annual family Way Out West trek to our fair state in T-minus 5 days, when we’ll be tasked along with him to make it great for Pipa & Co.
While Ripa may be a tough customer for our dept. of tourism to impress Consuelos extolled his passion for the Land of Enchantment which undoubtedly took hold when he was here filming ’08′s Husband for Hire.
Roll out the welcome mats and face masks! Bienvenido Consueli!
On the eve of the biggest movie to hit New Mexico holding their world recognized, open call right here in the Land of Enchantment, comes this – the first official Captain America trailer as just released by MARVEL.
