18-03-2025
Service members move from military to film industry
Mar. 17—LAS CRUCES — Two Air Force members are concluding their service and exploring civilian careers working on film production crews in southern New Mexico.
Angela McAllister and David Murphy work as production assistants through SkillBridge, a Department of Defense program helping service members enter the workforce during their final months of active duty. Both applied for internships with Film Las Cruces, a nonprofit local film industry liaison working with the New Mexico Film Office and local municipalities.
To qualify as a SkillBridge employer, Film Las Cruces must apply on an annual basis and demonstrate, as Murphy puts it, "what they're going to do to enable you to succeed over the time that you're with them."
Murphy, who will retire in June with 25 years of service, first in the Marines and then in the Air National Guard, traveled to New Mexico from his base in Louisiana to get his feet wet in the industry. Murphy came to the job with prior experience in photography and journalism as well as a script for a film he intends to produce one day.
McAllister, for her part, is jumping into a profession new to her. She is set to retire in July after 20 years in the Air Force, and is based at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo.
"I'm still working on figuring out where I want to end up — what I want to be when I grow up in the film industry," she said .
As production assistants, both have worked on multiple projects in the region, transporting props and set pieces, shuttling actors from base camp to shooting locations, coordinating overlapping teams working on tight schedules and many other tasks. Murphy also serves as a set photographer, gathering images that may be used in documentary or promotional materials.
"It's really been like film school for me in many ways," Murphy said. "Even if you do go to film school, they will tell you there is no better learning experience than being on a set."
In 2024, the SkillBridge program accepted 193 applicants from Holloman Air Force Base with 60 receiving job offers. Currently, 41 service members based at Holloman are participating in the program with different employers.
Film liaison Andrew Jara said Film Las Cruces has welcomed six to 10 service members via SkillBridge over the years. "We are one of the only arts industries in SkillBridge," he said in an interview at his downtown office. "We're able to get people to learn crew, learn how to be on set. We also get help in the office."
Jara said SkillBridge members often work alongside interns from high school or college, and are often better used to maintaining discipline and focus through the long hours, complex operations and deadline pressure.
Murphy and McAllister also underscored parallels between job training in their military experience and the demands of film production.
"You've got to get the job done, as safely as possible," McAllister said. "Do it correct, do it proper, do it safe. Make the mission happen — in this case, make the vision happen."
McAllister lived in Mississippi in 2005 when she enlisted in the Air Force, where she said the world of moviemaking seemed a world away. Seeing Film Las Cruces among the employers working with SkillBridge sparked her curiosity. Since then, she has found herself behind and even in front of the camera as a background performer.
Her interest has focused, she said, on set decoration, prop design and preparing locations, "where you actually get to literally set the scene. That seems like a lot of fun to me."
Murphy plans to return to Maryland once he completes his internship and leaves the military, to seek work in his home region. Jara said other interns, having made connections and friends in southern New Mexico, may decide to join the local film industry's burgeoning workforce.
"As we're growing and expanding, now productions can hire only out of Las Cruces, which is great," Jara said. "Now we have enough that producers don't have to go to Albuquerque, necessarily."
