SONY not renewing their July lease for New Mexico Visual Effects Imageworks. ("Green Lantern," "Amazing Spiderman," "Men In Black 3") SONY offers employees work in Culver City and Vancouver.

Does this mean more Character Animation and Visual Effects (VFX) positions for Culver City?

It's OK to see irony. You may remember in 2007 LA Times reported SONY Imageworks moved 100 of Culver City jobs to Albuquerque to take advantage of New Mexico's 25% Filmmaker Rebate. LA Times 

Let's encourage SONY Pictures to use this closure as an opportunity to bring more production work home, here in Culver City. At the start, Imageworks hoped NM tax benefit would help compete with Canada, England and US states that offer film incentives not in California. Later, I heard cost problems grew, including difficulty in finding film professionals in Albuquerque.

I'm glad most SONY Visual Effect work is here in Culver City.

Culver City as a town and its surrounding areas are rich with many of the industry's best and award winning VFX, CG and Animation artists and designers in the world. - Chris Wilde

"Men In Black 3" Opens May 25          "Amazing Spiderman" Opens July 3