Mr. Spaceship: Another Feature Film Wraps at ABQ Castle Studios

Vista Grande Films, the Albuquerque-based feature company, has completed principal photography on Mr. Spaceship, An Adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Novelette, a feature-length science-fiction drama filmed entirely in New Mexico and captured almost entirely in camera on a single stage: ABQ Castle Studios in Albuquerque. Deep space, the surface of the Moon and the interior of a living warship were all shot on that one floor, with a New Mexico resident crew, an all–New Mexico on-screen cast, and post-production that is staying in state.

The film

Mr. Spaceship is set in the near future. A brilliant, grief-stricken engineer, desperate to end an unwinnable war, fuses his dying mentor’s mind into a warship, and accidentally creates the first conscious AI. When it wakes up free, instead of destroying its makers, it sets out to save them. The production describes it as a character-driven thriller about grief, mercy and second chances, made for the age of AI.

How it was made: deep space, the Moon and a living warship, on one stage

Three of the film’s environments tell you what kind of production this was: deep space, the lunar surface, and the interior of a living warship. On a conventional feature, each of those is a location, a build, or a visual effects shot delivered months after wrap. On Mr. Spaceship, all three were captured on the same floor at 8610 President Pl NE, using the pipeline that runs every day at ABQ Castle Studios: green screen, Unreal Engine, and Ultimatte keyers compositing the environment live, in camera. There is no LED wall involved. The environment is rendered photoreal and married to the tracked camera in real time, so the image on the stage monitor is the shot. If the method is new to you, we wrote a plain-language explainer on what virtual production is.

The company reviews a live composite on the stage monitor at the virtual production stage. Photo: Brett Pipher

That photo is the whole argument in one frame. The company is gathered at video village, and what’s on the monitor is not a green-screen plate waiting for a vendor. It’s the live composite: performers and environment in one image, as it will cut. That is what lets a director approve a shot on the day, and for a feature it changes the shape of the production:

• No company moves. Deep space and the Moon are one set change apart. A load, not a relocation. The schedule is built around performances, not around moving trucks.
• No location days. The location work happens on the stage. Nothing to scout, nothing to lock down, and nothing that depends on the weather or the light.
• Final pixels on the day. Because the environment is composited in camera, the shot signed off at the monitor is the shot. For everything captured that way: and on Mr. Spaceship that was almost the entire film. There is no VFX pass standing between wrap and the cut.
• The foreground is real. Physical set pieces and props sit in front of the virtual environment, so the image cuts like a built set, the unit stills below show a picture vehicle on the stage floor.
• Real camera movement. The unit stills show a dolly-mounted telescoping crane at work. On this stage the camera is tracked, so the environment answers each move with correct perspective and parallax. The camera is never parked to protect the trick.

The New Mexico argument

Mr. Spaceship was made with a New Mexico resident crew, an all–New Mexico on-screen cast, and New Mexico vendors and local businesses throughout the summer. Post-production is underway and staying in state, employing New Mexico resident post crew at ABQ Castle Studios through fall 2026. Here’s how Brooks Pipher put it in the production’s announcement:

“New Mexico has become one of the most exciting places in the world to make a film. Between the extraordinary local crews, the state’s deep commitment to the industry, and the world-class facilities right here in Albuquerque, we brought an ambitious science-fiction story to the screen without ever leaving home. We are enormously grateful to the New Mexico Film Office and to every New Mexican who helped us make this picture. And we cannot wait to share it with the world.”

“Without ever leaving home” is more than a sentiment; it’s a budget line. New Mexico’s film incentive is a 25% base credit on qualified production expenses paid in-state, plus a 5% uplift for productions that shoot at a Qualified Production Facility: a 30% refundable credit in total. ABQ Castle Studios holds the QPF designation, so studio days here sit on the 30% track. And because the stage stands in for the locations, the spend that would normally leave the state with a traveling unit stays in New Mexico, where it can qualify. Local crew, local cast, local vendors, local post: every one of those is in-state spend. We’ve written a full guide to how the New Mexico film tax credit works. And as always, run your own numbers past a production accountant who knows the program.

One smaller thing matters more than it sounds on a feature: the crew base is here. Nearly two decades of steady production have trained deep New Mexico departments, which is why a New Mexico resident crew was a plan, not a compromise. For the wider picture of the market, Netflix’s lot, NBCUniversal’s stages, the shows that built the city’s reputation, see what’s filmed in Albuquerque.

What this proves about ABQ Castle Studios as a feature film studio

We’ll say the ambitious version, and then anchor it. ABQ Castle Studios is New Mexico’s virtual production stage for features that want to shoot in camera. That isn’t a slogan we picked; it’s the shape of what just happened on the floor: a full feature, shot almost entirely in camera on one stage, with a New Mexico resident crew and an all–New Mexico cast, with post staying in the building. Here is what stands behind it:

• One of the largest virtual production stages in the world. An Albuquerque green screen studio: a cyclorama stage running the CastleVision pipeline, the same one as our Burbank studio. We pioneered real-time virtual production in 2007, and the method is now protected by two U.S. patents.
• Current cinema equipment on the floor. Three ARRI Alexa 35 cinema cameras with Fujinon cinema zooms, a carbon-fiber telescoping crane with dolly, three camera-tracking systems, three Ultimatte keyers for live, in-camera compositing, and a full lighting and grip package.
• A staffed pipeline. The virtual system operator is always included in the rate, so the Unreal Engine pipeline is running the moment you arrive; an optional crew package adds camera and teleprompter operators.
• A building that supports a company. Extensive parking, plenty of dressing rooms and green rooms, easy load-in, and a full furniture warehouse for on-set props, the foreground of any virtual set dressed without renting a piece.
• Qualified Production Facility. The 30% track of New Mexico’s film tax credit, about ten minutes from the Sunport.
• 250+ standing sets, ready on day one. For productions that don’t need a warship of their own, the library is the fast path: a spaceship bridge, spaceship living quarters and the rest of our spaceship sets and sci-fi worlds load in seconds. Alongside courtrooms, newsrooms, motels and city streets.

Overhead of the virtual production stage: camera crane, boom operator, and picture vehicle. Photo: Scott Sandman

The proof isn’t that a demo reel looked good. It’s that the people who built the pipeline trusted it with a feature. A shoot that ran through the summer, a crew that answered a call sheet every day, and a company that reviewed its composites live at the stage monitor. The strongest thing a studio can say about its stage is that it made its own movie there. Now we can.

What’s next

First-look imagery and release plans will follow from Vista Grande Films, and we’ll share them here when they do. Until then, the company photo.

Cast and crew on the Kramer’s Lab surgical theater set, beneath the ship. Photo: Dannie McCallum

In September the New Mexico Film Office profiled the film’s director, Albuquerque native Levi Lobo. Here is our summary of that profile.

If you’re planning a feature, science fiction or anything else the location scout said couldn’t be done on the budget, start with our film studio in Albuquerque. Tours run by appointment, and we’ll model your production against the New Mexico rebate while you’re on the floor. Get in touch and we’ll walk you through it.