One of the most frequent questions we receive is whether New Mexico residency is required for two things: 1. To work on productions in New Mexico, 2. To list on crewnewmexico.com. This post should answer both.
Firstly, residency for productions. She short answer is No, you do not need to be a NM resident to work on productions in New Mexico. The New Mexico film incentive program does require a certain percentage (60%) of below-the-line crew be NM residents if the production is receiving financial assistance from the state. However, that leaves 40% of the crew spots open to non-residents, and, for example, LA and Austin-based crew are frequent members of our production. So, while productions first seek NM crew, there's often a lot of gaps to be filled. In addition, there is frequent reciprocity between local NM unions, and out-of-state unions when crew members are coming from out of state.
Secondly, for crewnewmexico.com. While the majority of the people and businesses listed on our site are New Mexico based, being a NM resident or NM registered business is not requirement to be on our site - in fact we welcome qualified members from any area. There are hundreds of crew and vendors who provide specialized services we need that are based out of state, and want to make sure that our productions have access to their information at any time. So, if you're based in Austin, LA, Phoenix, Denver, etc, and want to get involved in the NM Film industry, you're welcome to be a part of crewnewmexico.com.
Drop us a line if you have any questions membership@crewnewmexico.com
