The Bonanza Creek Ranch Story

I never saw the film.

I’m not part of the film industry per se, but for three days in 2003, I was a production assistant on a film. A friend of mine was the producer and she needed help, so I signed on with her and basically was her “gopher” during the filming. From what I remember, it was a short film for the employees of the New Mexico Tourism Office, and the basic plot was to show the new director as some sort “gunfighter” who would clear obstacles out of the way so that New Mexico could be even more of a tourist destination than it already was. It was a film for the tourist office not a commercial or other product that would be shown to other constituencies.

At the time, I remember thinking that my tax dollars were being used to create a promotional film for just state employees. Seriously. I hadn’t really worked in large bureaucracies yet, but now, looking back, I imagine the meetings, the paperwork, the amount of time just to greenlight this project was a big undertaking as well. It sure seemed like a vanity project to me for the tourism director, even though the state paid for it.

Much of the filming was done at Bonanza Creek Ranch, and though I got to visit, most of my job was driving around Santa Fe or Albuquerque: 1) picking up breakfast burritos for the crew one morning and then 2) driving down to Albuquerque to pick up some orange cones for the shoot because they couldn’t get all they wanted in Santa Fe (not sure why) later that same afternoon . This coincided with a major construction project on I-25 south, so any trip south meant I was gone for hours. For most of the rest of the time I just waited for the producer to assign me tasks.

So upon hearing about Halyna Hutchins unfortunate death at Bonanza Creek Ranch, I can’t help but see me standing next to the producer waiting for something, anything to do to justify the money I was making that day ($150/day) in this old decrepit movie set (not facades like JW Eaves Movie Ranch but actual buildings). How would I have responded? What is to come of this location now? Will the film ever be finished? Should it be?