ABQTrib.com ARTS , Friday, June 18, 2004
Mentoring the state
Besides training fellow filmmakers, Christopher Coppola wants to help New Mexico get more movie business.
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| Toby Jorrin/Tribune
Christopher Coppola (left) - brother of Nicolas Cage and an independent movie director - has been in town this week mentoring filmmaker Ryil Adamson for Adamson's entry in the Digifest Southwest film festival, which culminates this weekend. New Mexico, Coppola says, needs to do more to promote its excellent filmmaking location. |
The arid landscapes of New Mexico and that alluring 15 percent tax cut are good starts to get filmmakers attracted to the Land of Enchantment, says filmmaker Christopher Coppola.
But if Gov. Bill Richardson and the New Mexico Film Office want to turn more Hollywood eyes eastward - instead of north to Canada, where Americans flee to make cheaper movies - they need to promote something more than the Valles Caldera and the lights of Central Avenue.
"The locations are fine, but it's not enough," Coppola says. "If you build soundstages here, people told me they'd move (productions) here in a heartbeat. The problem right now is you don't have enough stages."
Coppola, brother of actor Nicolas Cage and nephew of "The Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola, is in town this week as a mentor at the Digifest Southwest film festival, which ends Saturday night in Albuquerque. For five years, Coppola has come to New Mexico to train aspiring filmmakers as they shoot and edit a short film in six days.
This year, Coppola's supervising "Marvel and the Deliveryman," a story about an abused stripper who finds love with a manure salesman. The film, by writer/ director Ryil Adamson, will screen Saturday night with six others at the Kiva Auditorium in competition for the Palm D'Grease - that would be first place - and other awards.
Coppola, 42, hasn't garnered the same acclaim as others in his famous family, but he maintains that he's not out to win Academy Awards or appear on best-of lists. A die-hard independent filmmaker, his writing and directing credits include 1999's "Palmer's Pick Up" and this year's "The Creature of the Sunny Side Up Trailer Park."
The next two projects on his list, Coppola confides, are on the fast track to being shot in New Mexico: a pilot for "Biker Chef 351," a cooking show featuring a traveling biker; and a retelling of "Macbeth" in the world of motorcycle riders.
An interview at the Wyndham Hotel is one of the few relaxing moments Coppola had this week. Besides helping out with "Marvel and the Delivery Man," Coppola's objective during his weeklong stay in Albuquerque was to give the New Mexico Film Office a boost in its efforts to get more films shot here. He has been on this bandwagon since he pitched the idea to former Gov. Gary Johnson in the late 1990s and is pleased with the results since the tax breaks went into effect in 2002.
Film companies can apply for a refundable income-tax credit based on 15 percent of a production's costs while filming in New Mexico. They also can deduct the gross receipt tax costs from such expenses as salaries, facility rentals and construction.
Last year, 19 theatrical and television movies were filmed entirely or in part in New Mexico, including Ron Howard's "The Missing" and "21 Grams," according to the New Mexico Film Office. About that many are lined up for this year.
"New Mexico was fortunate that it got 'The Missing,' " Coppola says. "But if you want to get the kind of work they get in Canada, you need to have the resources."
A surge could happen in about five years, Coppola says. But only if the state's film budget of $12 billion is invested wisely.
One way to spend the money is educating New Mexicans about film production, which would create a larger local film crew base. Others could be trained to build quality soundstages and studios for productions that require a look that New Mexico can't provide.
"You want to have a studio where you can build a street that looks like New England. That's what they do in Canada," says Coppola, adding that a full-time studio set would entice Hollywood production companies to set up camp in the state for more than a few weeks.
Coppola knows people might not agree that New Mexico can compete with Canada's $40 billion annual film revenue. But the word on the street - from those in the business Coppola has spoken to - is that anywhere in the United States that opens its doors to filmmakers will see film crews come.
"They don't like Canada," Coppola says. "The people up there don't like us. But it's just too expensive (in the United States).
"I love shooting in New Mexico. I love that magical landscape, the people, the wackiness, the carnival aspect of (Albuquerque)."
