My Next Project

I have an ability - one of my few real talents - to associate random images obtained in the Albuquerque area with their physical locations. I have used that ability to explore the "Breaking Bad" universe in depth.

Now (by request), I'm doing something different - trying to quickly assemble an atlas of significant filming locations for movies and TV shows filmed in the Albuquerque area. Since New Mexico's famous tax credit went into effect in the 90s (which lowers costs for film crews), filming has proliferated throughout the state, numbering at least a hundred completed projects and more on the way.

Since I've seen almost none of these films, caring as much as I do only for "Breaking Bad," my first task has been to quickly scan a whole bunch of films that have little to do with each other except for having been filmed in the Albuquerque area. I've started with about 2 dozen films.

So far, the movies I've been watching fall into three categories: 1.) Post-apocalyptic America, 2.) Cynical border dramas, and 3.) Quirky character studies.

I've started with post-apocalyptic America. As you might expect, the Albuquerque area looks pretty battered after the Apocalypse, with large robots and dangerous flying machines of all sizes zipping hither and yon across the desert. People rarely bathe after the Apocalypse, but fortunately important landmarks like addresses and street signs remain.

Nevertheless, I haven't determined very many post-Apocalyptic filming locations, either because they happened to have been interiors with no reference to the outdoors or required so much work to prepare for the camera that filmmakers didn't like to break free of them.

Cynical border dramas share some of these same flaws. A dungeon still looks like a dungeon, no matter which side of the border it happens to be. When torture is on the menu, no one ever asks 'are we there yet?'

I'm much more optimistic about finding quirky character study filming locations. The lack of investment in any one place frees characters and film crews to wander across the landscape for their many quirky adventures. I'm moving to these filming locations next.