Friday, September 26, 2008

crewnewmexcio.com Hits the Airwaves - KSFR Tonight!


crewnewmexico.com founder Daniel Taras was interviewed tonight (Friday 9.26) on KSFR Santa Fe Public Radio, for the Program "Cinema Scope." A special thanks to show hosts Matt Page of Riff Raff Entertainment and Monique Anair of Santa Fe Community College for the invitation and for being such great hosts.

Daniel got to talk all about crewnewmexico.com for 15 minutes straight! Thanks again. And be sure to check out Cinema Scope every Friday from 6:30-7pm, on 101.1FM!

New Mexico Women in Film - "Finance, Budgeting, & Incentives for the Filmmaker"

NEW MEXICO WOMEN IN FILM ANNOUNCEMENT
NEXT GENERAL MEETING: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28th IN SANTA FE:
"FINANCE, BUDGETING & INCENTIVES FOR THE FILMMAKER"
2:00 PM
New Mexico Film Museum
Jean Cocteau
418 Montezuma Avenue
Santa Fe, NM 87501
$ 10.00/ non members
Refreshments served after Q & A.

Guest Speakers:
Karen Koch - Producer, Luminaria Films
Lisa Strout - Director of the New Mexico Film Office

If you can attend please RSVP to nwwifinfo@gmail.com by Friday, September 26 @ 5 PM.

Governor’s Council on Film and Media Industries to Hold Town Hall


(if you're interested in the film industry, we highly recommend you attend this meeting.)

SANTA FE – The Governor’s Council on Film and Media Industries will host a Town Hall for New Mexico businesses, local governments, neighborhoods and any other interested parties to gather input on the future of the state’s burgeoning film and media industries. The Town Hall will take place Saturday, September 27th at the State Capitol Building.

“This is a great opportunity for the public to have input in updating the Governor’s strategic plan for developing media opportunities and industries here in New Mexico,” said Council Chairman Michael Kaye.

The Town Hall will focus on three areas: Education and Career Training for film and digital media; Impact on Communities - Location Concerns & Entrepreneurial Opportunities; and Incentives and Economic Impact.

The Town Hall is free. Registration is required. You can register on the day of the town hall or pre-register online here.

WHEN: Saturday, September 27, 2008
TIME: 9:30am-4:00pm
WHERE: State Capitol, Santa Fe, New Mexico!
If you have any questions please contact Executive Director, Rochelle Bussey at rochelle@nmfilm.com or call 505-476-5604

AGAINST the Grain ; N.M.'s Economy Continues to Buck National Trends

Thursday, September 25, 2008 12:54 PM
(Source: Albuquerque Journal)trackingBy Copyright 2008 Albuquerque Journal By Winthrop Quigley Journal Staff Writer

New Mexico continues to buck national economic trends by posting stronger employment and personal income growth than the rest of the country.

While the national economy registered virtually no growth in nonfarm employment year over year, employment in New Mexico grew 1.1 percent in the 12 months that ended June 30. Personal income in the 12 months that ended March 31 (the most recent period for which income data are available) grew 5.5 percent in New Mexico, compared to 4.8 percent nationally.

Job growth in Albuquerque, hampered by slowing residential construction and job losses in manufacturing, was just 0.4 percent in the 12 months ending June 30.

The scope of state-level job growth "is a little weird," said Lee Reynis, director of the University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research. The BBER produces Economy Watch, a quarterly snapshot of state and local economic performance, for the Journal.

New Mexico was able to overcome some serious manufacturing job losses and continued flat performance in the residential construction sector to achieve the growth.

More surprising, Reynis said, is that the second-quarter growth is a reversal of a more than yearlong trend. Year over year job growth was an anemic 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008 and the rate of growth had been declining every quarter since late 2006.

"There continue to be a number of sectors that are doing fine," Reynis said. The health care and social assistance sectors of the economy added 3,800 jobs in the 12 months ending June 30. Local government jobs grew 1.9 percent in the period, most of the growth thanks to Indian casino hiring. Indian casinos are tribal government- operated enterprises, so casino jobs are classified as government hiring.

Information sector hiring was up 1,300 jobs year over year. Some of the hiring was in call centers, but film production contributed a good share of jobs, Reynis said. She added that film production is probably a bigger contributor to the economy than the hiring numbers show. A lot of the production workers hired locally are self- employed, so their activity isn't completely captured in payroll data, Reynis said.

Construction continues to be the economy's weak spot. Reynis said statewide job growth in the construction sector year over year was a paltry 300 jobs. In the heady days of early 2006 construction was adding thousands of jobs, she said.

Still, even that performance is an improvement on recent activity. It's the first time the sector has added jobs in four quarters, Reynis said.

Commercial construction is propping up the sector, she said. The value of residential building permits issued statewide and in Albuquerque have declined each quarter year over year for almost two years.

One slightly positive note in an otherwise dismal housing sector picture is residential real estate prices in Albuquerque, Reynis said. The Albuquerque Board of Realtors reports that home prices shrank 6 percent between August of 2007 and 2008. "We have seen nothing like Las Vegas or Phoenix or Tucson, which have had plunging home prices for some time now," she said. "We also didn't see 40 percent increases in prices."

Manufacturing employment statewide is down 2,000 jobs in the 12- month period, hit by reductions at major employers like Intel. Job growth in the mining sector, which includes oil and gas extraction, has been flat.

Reynis is sceptical of the amazingly low unemployment rates for Albuquerque and New Mexico, which are 3.8 percent and 3.9 percent respectively. Unemployment rates are based on surveys of people who say they are actively looking for work. When people stop looking for work because jobs in their field are impossible to find, they are excluded from the calculation, which skews the rate downward.

Reynis expects the state and local economies to continue to outperform the national economy, but growth will remain sluggish.

(c) 2008 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.