Mayor Tim Keller Announces New Digital Film Permitting at the Albuquerque Film Office
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The City of Albuquerque’s Film Office has implemented a new digital film permitting process which is now available online. The new process is intended to modernize, fast-track, and streamline the film permit process to better support the uptick in filming the City of Albuquerque Film Office has experienced in recent years.
“Before COVID-19 hit, we were making major progress increasing film and television production here in Albuquerque,” said Mayor Tim Keller. “Though filming is temporarily halted, we’ve taken this time to make the permitting process easier to encourage the industry to continue choosing our city. The digital process modernizes the former paper process and will help boost our economic recovery.”
Because of the presence of film studios Netflix and NBCUniversal, the film industry in Albuquerque had a big year in 2019. The Albuquerque Film Office saw over a fifty percent increase in permits from 292 permits in 2018, to 448 permits in 2019.
“Currently under the stay-at-home order issued by the Governor all filming has temporarily halted, but we know that we will see a major demand once crews are allowed to safely return to set. This digital process will allow us to efficiently deal with the increased requests and demands that comes with having two major production studios in the Albuquerque city limits,” said Karen Criswell, Film Liaison, Albuquerque Film Office. “In addition to increasing efficiency for productions as well as the Albuquerque Film Office staff, the new process will also decrease human error for all users and create more transparency.”
City of Albuquerque Economic Development Department Director Synthia Jaramillo said, “Film is one of six core focus areas in our economic development plan. This new digital film permit process will help the Albuquerque Film Office to better serve this thriving industry in Albuquerque.”
The Albuquerque Film Office worked closely with the Department of Technology and Innovation to implement the new digital permit application, Eproval. Eproval is a system already used by Cultural Services for special event permitting for all City of Albuquerque events.
Brian Osterloh, Director of the Department of Technology and Innovation added, “Eproval was designed specifically for government film permitting and will ease the process of submitting and reviewing film permits. DTI’s staff worked closely with the Albuquerque Film Office staff to apply DTI’s experience and knowledge of Eproval to the needs of the Albuquerque Film Office’s permit process. DTI is always ready to work with and support other City departments in leveraging technology in order to update and improve City processes.”
The new digital permitting system can be found on the City of Albuquerque’s Film Office webpage https://www.cabq.gov/film