Albuquerque Studios Gets Into the Incentive Groove For Music & Sound

Albuquerque Studios and Los Angeles-based house Groove Addicts have entered into a strategic partnership whereby the latter's music catalog for film and TV productions can be accessed for projects being made in New Mexico, thus tapping into that state's 25 percent rebate incentive.

Uses for the catalog include temp tracks, background cues, songs, music supervision, trailer music or sound design for commercial TV or film projects. More than 40,000 music tracks will be available for immediate download and license from Groove Addicts' servers at Albuquerque Studios.

Groove Addicts produces a dozen catalogs in-house, in addition to handling many leading music catalogs from around the world. The company continues to expand its libraries' inventories for film, TV, radio, video, audio, video game and multimedia producers.

The deal between Albuquerque Studios and Groove Addicts brings music and sound into the incentives arena at an opportune time given the state of the economy, resulting in tighter budgets and increased cost consciousness.

"This is a perfect complement to our existing production services. It is an extreme value that is unique to New Mexico, and fits right in with our plan to extend the broad range of services that are available to Albuquerque Studios' clientele. We look forward to working with Groove Addicts' principal Dain Blair, and the creative energy his entire team brings to the table of the New Mexico film industry," said Albuquerque Studios' COO Smerigan.

Blair, who has been an integral part of the acquisitions and licensing of rights for projects involving artists such as, Madonna, U2, and The Police, and feature films such as Iron Man, No Country for Old Men, and I Am Legend, stated "I see this as a win/win/win situation for Albuquerque Studios, their clients, and Groove Addicts....adding a first-class music solution for their [Albuquerque Studios'] clients."

SAG: Four Hardline Horsemen the Boardroom

from the Digital Media Law blog by Jonathan Handel.

Thursday’s SAG election was a victory for the moderate coalition. Yet, strangely enough, the leaders of the losing hardline faction will all find seats on the national board, and will continue to be a shadow government within the union’s Hollywood board—a board on which none of the key moderate leaders will be voting members.

Yes, the moderates (Unite for Strength (UFS) / USAN / RBD / independents) won the national offices – President and Secretary-Treasurer – and picked up additional national board seats and many on the Hollywood board as well. But with SAG, the story is never simple.

In fact, paradoxically, 1^st VP and failed Membership First presidential candidate Anne-Marie Johnson will probably continue as 1^st VP, ex-president Alan Rosenberg will almost certainly be back on the national board in a matter of days despite winning only an alternate seat, MF leader David Joliffe will probably be on the Hollywood board and effectively on the national board, and MF leader Kent McCord continues on the national and Hollywood boards.

Meanwhile, none of the key moderate leaders will be on the Hollywood board— Unite for Strength leaders Ned Vaughn, Assaf Cohen, Ken Howard and Amy Aquino are all off of that board, at least as voting members (the latter two will serve ex-officio, as non-voting members). Tough independent and former presidential candidate Morgan Fairchild remains, but she’s not a member of the UFS slate and thus doesn’t occupy a leadership position in that group. UFS-ers Adam Arkin and Amy Brenneman also remain, and perhaps will emerge to fill the gap.

To read the full post, click here.

White Sands Film Festival Call for Submissions!

As a sponsor of the White Sands International Film Festival, crewnewmexico.com would like to announce that the festival is now open for submissions!

The White Sands International Film Festival is now open for submissions for the 2010 program. Early Bird deadline is October 15th. Dates of the festival are April 15th-18th, 2010.

The WSIFF is currently accepting feature length and short films in the documentary and narrative category with particular focus on multi-cultural themes and background. Any films from any genres accepted from around the world. Please note that foreign language films should have sub-titles.

We are particularly interested in films that...

• · deal with contemporary issues
• · celebrate the human spirit
• · explore the Latino and or Hispanic World
• · have been made in New Mexico
• · combine good story telling, writing, acting and direction.

For complete submission information,
please visit www.wsiff.com