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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Thanks to a unique set of circumstances, New Mexico’s film crew training programs offer one of the quickest entries into a well-paying career field, according to Jim “Grubb” Graebner, who heads the Film Technician Program at Central New Mexico Community College.

With the passage of financial incentives for the film industry starting in 2002, New Mexico has spent more than a decade courting the industry to shoot in the state, resulting in dozens of high-profile productions. One of the benefits for job-seekers has been a requirement that productions hire 60 percent of their crew in New Mexico to qualify for these incentives.

“That meant we had to expedite a training program,” Graebner says, “because in 2004 we only had about 250 members in (the film crew union) IATSE Local 480, so we could barely crew one movie.”

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Starting with Santa Fe Community College and CNM (then called the Technical Vocational Institute), the state poured resources into a fast-track training program that now includes Eastern New Mexico University, Doña Anna Community College and Northern New Mexico College.

The two-year, 28-credit Film Technicians’ Training Program provides entry into “below-the-line” positions, meaning all jobs except writing, acting, directing, producing and others involving creative or financial control. Within this category are more than 100 crafts, ranging from camera work to set building to costumes.

Waiting list

“The first term we teach you the whole work-flow process, and in the second term we guide you toward where your aptitude would lead,” Graebner says. The second year involves on-set training that helps qualify workers to be on the union “overflow” list and start working.

Alternative trajectories offered at CNM are two-year certificates in camera work (transferable to a four-year program), construction and post-production, for those who already have a chosen focus.

“The biggest challenge we have is keeping people in classes,” Graebner says, since demand for workers continues to be high as multiple television and film productions shoot in New Mexico at once. Entry-level wage in union jobs is around $25 an hour, he said – the state’s highest in the manufacturing sector – and almost always includes overtime hours, since shooting generally means 14-hour days.

Not surprisingly, there is now a waiting list to get into the film programs.

After the 2008 recession, many people signing up for the training program had been laid off or failed to find work in other fields, Graebner says, from Eclipse Aviation to home construction to oil-field workers. The program gives such career-changers a way to transition their skills quickly and make the connections needed to find work.

Transition jobs

But it is not the only route, says Nick Maniatis, director of the New Mexico State Film Office. “I didn’t go to school for that. I got a job as a P.A. (Production Assistant) and found an area that I liked and went from there.”

According to the film office website, nmfilm.com, the P.A. is an industry go-fer, the only position that generally does not require prior experience. Applicants can try their luck applying directly for such jobs, though competition is stiff and they need to find a way to stand out, Maniatis says.

Another route into the industry is through fast-track training programs offered by some film industry contractors that help workers transition their skills, such as in construction. Approved programs qualify for state reimbursement under the Pre-Employment Training Program.

Surprisingly, many in the film training program are recent graduates from four-year colleges who have not been able to find work, Graebner says.

“Most people, their families tell them to go to the four-year college to get a job. But four-year schools really don’t have the connections to the industry,” he says. “We don’t have those people working in the movie business. We need you energetic and having a certain kind of personality – adventure instead of home-bound. We’re looking for the ability to have stamina in an intense schedule. That’s what weeds most people out.”

Starting point

Each year, about a third of the students in the film training program decide to pursue careers in “above-the-line” positions instead, such as writing or directing. That means additional training in a media arts program, such as at the University of New Mexico, Santa Fe University of Art & Design, New Mexico State University or one of the community colleges.

But people on the creative side of television and film also can benefit from working in the industry first, Graebner believes. “That’s really what this program at CNM is about – getting the job first so you can pursue your dream later.”

Maniatis believes the New Mexico film industry – which just had its second straight record-breaking year – will continue to grow as long as the financial incentives remain in place. “It really is tied to the tax incentive, so more than likely without it the work goes away.”

But this also creates a fall-back position for trainees, according to Graebner. “If they can’t get a job in New Mexico, they could get a job tomorrow in Georgia,” he says – a state that offers much larger film-industry incentives. “That’s what I tell my students: I’m not saying it’s the career for the rest of your life, but it’s a starting point.”