... at least, it's now hit the news.
A company official said Wednesday that Sony Pictures Imageworks will not renew its lease in Albuquerque when it expires in July.
The Albuquerque facility integrated very successfully with the studio’s Culver City base and made significant contributions to such productions as “I Am Legend,” “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” “G Force,” “The Green Lantern,” “The Smurfs,” “Men in Black 3,” and “The Amazing Spider-Man,” the official said in an email. ...
Sony Pictures ImageWorks set up its Albuquerque outpost in 2007, when New Mexico offered tax breaks and hearts ... plus the economy ... were joyful and bouncy.
The company, we're told, is shifting willing volunteers to Vancouver, Canada. (The pursuit of tax incentives never ends.)
As always, the question of "Is all the work going away?" looms up like a thunderhead. I tend to think the answer is the same that it's been for the two decades I've been doing this:
Some of it will, much of it won't. There is a large talent pool in Southern California, and companies tend to set up shop where they can tap into large talent pools.
In any case, Sony ImageWorks Culver City will be shedding staff as some of their visual effects jobs wrap up.
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All I can say is I feel terrible for timing of this comment made last month by an implied Imageworks ABQ employee:
http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/entertainment-tax-incentives-states.html?showComment=1328458908110#c7629250411093768854
The problem I've had with NM since day one was that it was a one studio show. Sony closes up, and you either have to move again or change fields...
Same thing with Cafe FX in Santa Maria...
@VFX Soldier - I was that commenter. We in ABQ knew that this was inevitable even if it didn't happen right now but it was not my place to announce that anonymously. We have been profitable here and when I said that people are happy, I didn't mean they were happy with the situation... they are happy here in NM. I'm not arguing the merits or problems with tax incentives but I do stand by the comment I made in that previous post that I was tired of you throwing us under the bus. We were not a failed experiment. We were a successful venture and yet, it's not stopping the bean counters for looking to go cheaper. At least here the jobs were still in the US.
Somehow I knew that you would hop right on with an "I told you so" post - I expected it when I wrote that last post (since I knew this was very possibly coming when I wrote it). Keep fighting for what you believe in, I respect that. I was happy to have an opportunity to keep doing what I do somewhere other than LA.
With all due respect, I'm sorry for what has happened but let's clear I did not throw you under the bus.
I simply pointed out that there was a subsidy race and various regions will lose and the work will come back to California. I used NM as an example of that reality.
That's not throwing NM under the bus. If anyone should be blamed for that it's the execs at Imageworks and the studios who shifted their focus on Vancouver to maximize their greed for subsidy money.
I'm with you on being happy. Read my latest blog post. I make it clear that I want YOU to choose where you want to live. Unfortunately its not about profits or happiness. It's about subsidies for the rich studios.
We in ABQ knew that this was inevitable even if it didn't happen right now ...
We have been profitable here
You're not looking at this the right way, Anon. Telling us how happy you are out there is akin to saying how wonderfully nutty Hemlock tastes. I've been to ABQ and found it a beautiful city. I'm sure moving there was a great thing as far as quality of life. But, your life as a VFX Artist has taken a drastic turn. And that's because of the existence and elimination of the New Mexico subsidy.
All artists and staff that moved to work at Imageworks NM are casualties of the Subsidy War. Hopefully everyone can make the best of this situation, but its a sad comment on the industry and something that needs to be addresses and stopped.
This is really sad for all the ABQ sony folks. Imageworks employees were quietly suspicious of the move there as a temporary move, but management was all too happy to ease those concerns. Folks with families had to take a real leap of faith as they were uprooting kids and spouses...and many did. Now the new flavor of the month is Vancouver. Same thing...it's being touted as a permanent opportunity. At least there are jobs at other facilities should Sony close shop...but I personally still wouldn't trust it.
Ironically those former imageworks executives who lured workers into thinking this was something permanent are now recruiting in albuquereque for other subsidized facilities in Dallas and Florida.
Don't these studios realize that Vancouver is even more expensive than LA? I know they save money because of incentives, but in the end, people just cannot afford it there. Except for the kids willing to get a bunch of roommates. As soon as the subsidies end, that place will be a ghost town.
I was briefly considering a move to vancouver until I realized how freaking expensive housing is.
I'm reminded of the crop of Disney folks that were working out of Orlando. When that place disappeared all you had were a bunch of overpaid folks living in ridiculous McMansions and no job prospects in the area.
The Orlando folks are doing just fine. It's a lot easier to keep your mansion in Florida than your studio apartment in L.A.
aaaaaand....the Orlando folks are still working in Animation???
"The Orlando folks are doing just fine. It's a lot easier to keep your mansion in Florida than your studio apartment in L.A."
Uh Orlando was the worst real estate market in the nation:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-05-09/business/os-real-estate-2011-worst-20110509_1_case-shiller-index-home-prices-housing-market
There is no animation industry to speak of left in Orlando. The IATSE local died when Disney shuttered the feature animaton studio here. (there is some CG animation for games made at EA or NSpace, but not what most of the "Orlando folks" were trained up to do at Disney). Almost all the traditional animation artists in Orlando who didn't make the jump to doing CG animation for games are now teaching animation at Full Sail or other schools.
I don't know many people at the Orlando studio who had "mansions" . It's true that you could buy a lot more house (and land) for the same amount of money that would only get you a smallish house in L.A. but I think in most cases to say that the artists here were living in "mansions" is laying it on a bit thick.
I think what happened to the Orlando Disney artists, and more recently the Albuquerque Imageworks crew should be a cautionary tale to anyone considering moving to Digital Domain in Florida . If you get hired there then go in with the mentality that it's just a temporary job , don't buy a nice house, don't put down roots there, squirrel away a chunk of each paycheck into a "rainy day/moving fund" and you'll be fine. If you go in there hoping to still be there five or ten years from now (even two years from now) expect bitter disappointment.
Isn't it obvious that when a studio opens up a division in a city where it's the Only Game in Town, the people who work there are taking a big risk that it isn't going to work?
Anyone who thinks otherwise are seriously deluding themselves.
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