THE PERFECT MOVIE SET
December 3, 2008
I’ve just returned from a nice mini break away from LA in the “land of enchantment,” better known as New Mexico. I went to spend Thanksgiving with my younger sister and her fabulous fiancé in Albuquerque, or “The ABQ” as my sister prefers to call it. There the three of us enjoyed a quaint, fun-filled time together exploring the area, as well as nearby Santa Fe, and eating lots of my beloved carbs!
I had passed through the area before on road trips, but never stopped for an extended period of time. The first thing everyone says, without fail, when I mention New Mexico, is just how beautiful it is. I can now express this statement myself and strongly back each of these people, because it actually is!
Although the landscape is relatively brown and earth toned, and those in the area want the homes, businesses, etc., to blend in with the surroundings, there is no shortage of color when it comes to the vibrant, breathtaking hues of colors that magically appear during a small window of time as the sun sets over the Sandia Mountains! Plus it is sunny 310 days out of the year, which makes for a crystal-clear, azure-blue sky almost daily.
Aside from the “magic hour” I experienced while in Prince Edward Island earlier this year, I have never seen such amazing natural glowing light! The crimson, persimmon, amber, rose, amethyst, gold, and cyan explosion of color is truly a sight to see and a unique charm I tried to capture in some of my pictures below.
Albuquerque actually has its own film studio and many feature films are shot “on location” there. These include the Oscar Award Winning “No Country for Old Men,” starring Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem; “The Eye,” starring Jessica Alba, released this year; and the upcoming “Crazy Heart,” starring Colin Farrell and Maggie Gyllenhaall.
I would love to get the opportunity to do just that one day and I could even save the film some money by camping at my sister’s place…any takers? OK, so regardless of the above and keeping with reality, the people are friendly, the air is clean, the space is vast, and the backdrops created during sunset are stunning, all of which make for the perfect movie set!
“Albuquerque has a wonderful quality of natural light that ranges from sun-splashed days to brilliantly hued sunsets. Almost daily, one can catch a spectacular sunset with velvety blue, pink, orange or red hues dancing across the sky!” – Don Peterson
Hi Lisl,
Thanks for the pictures! Now I want to go to New Mexico, too. Many crew members on the show I worked on last year (Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain”) had actually moved from LA to New Mexico to take advantage of the huge numbers of shows being done there. Their incentives require that a large percentage of the crew be local. I hope someday I’ll be able to film something over there, though. I’m not a local, but who knows?