The film community in Chicago reminds me of a Matryoshka doll. You know what those are, right? Russian nesting dolls. Body within a body within a body.
What the hell is Peditto raving about now?
Think about the mainstream film community here in Chicago. Think about it like a big Babushka nesting doll. Seriously…
Chicago has always been a great place to make movies. You have only to look at this Chicago magazine article to see the classic films shot here.
100 years of films ranging from The Tramp to Batman, Charlie Chaplin shooting His New Job at the Essanay Studios in 1915, through North By Northwest (1959), Home Alone (1990), all the way up to The Dark Knight (2008).
While there isn’t a ton of investment capital in town, Chicago draws major L.A. money in both TV and Film by offering healthy tax incentives including 30% on Illinois production spending.
There are plenty of sound stages in town. Look here for who and where they are. Multiple TV shows are currently under production or scheduled for production. According to a Chicago Reader article from yesterday by Deanna Isaacs: “Thanks to the state film industry subsidy, expanded infrastructure and a very lucky pilot season…there are six TV series shooting here now: Chicago PD and Chicago Fire, plus Betrayal and Mind Games, both on ABC; Sirens, a USA Network comedy featuring Dennis Leary; and NBC’s Crisis, with Gillian Anderson.”
While we’re talking about sound stages, let’s give a shout out to my own Columbia College who have a great new facility.
So, with all this visiting Hollywood action, it would be easy to forget one of Chicago’s greatest resources… the homegrown micro-budget movement.
At Columbia College alone, in what is surely an incomplete list, I can count a dozen adjunct and tenured professors with micro-budgets projects in various stages of development in 2013. This doesn’t include the dozens of students among Columbia’s 1,200 film students raising money on Kickstarter and Indiegogo for independent projects.
Chicago Filmmakers sponsors Meetup.com groups for grants funding micro-budget documentary and narrative projects. These meetings draw between 50 and 100 people with active projects in the planning stages, seeking financing.
DePaul University has a vibrant film department. Wonder how many micro-budgets are coming out of there?
Art Institute of Chicago, Northwestern, likewise.
All this activity far, far away from the exploding cars of Transformers.
So many film communities in Chicago, each with their own energy and force. Like Russian nesting dolls, one community inside another, inside another.
Now, here comes the Commie notion…
Imagine the power you’d have if you joined forces? A Collective of all these talented folks–what would happen if you could harness those energies into a single producing entity?
I can’t speak for others, but I’ve never collaborated with anyone from DePaul, or Flashpoint/Tribeca. There is no sharing of resources between those schools of which I’m aware. We are insular communities, self-sustaining. I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we pooled resources, both technical and personal.
Even within the Columbia College community, it would be a formidable collaboration, putting together those dozen professors into one room, joining talents for a collaborative effort.
Such high-mindedness, of course, understates THE WORK involved. To even get those 10 Columbia micro-budget filmmakers into one room at one time would be a monumental effort of juggling schedules. Then some not so basic questions: How would you fund this Collaborative? Who chooses the projects? What role does each filmmakers take? Who gets to direct when you have 10 directors in the room?
When I brought this idea up with Brenda Webb, who founded Chicago Filmmakers, she mentioned something super-basic. The infrastructure work that would have to be done would be considerable. Would this be a not-for-profit? If so, paperwork would have to be drawn up. Will there be a physical space needed and if so, who pays for that? Will fundraisers be necessary and if so, who organizes that?
For those of you outside Chicago, you might want to look into some sort of Collective. Joining forces with other talented folks in your community. Taking advantage of other people’s skills is a no-brainer. Just understand that it takes more than that to create a collaborative enterprise. It takes the GRUNT WORK behind those behind the camera. Like the Russian nesting dolls, one inside the other, inside the other.
A Commie idea for sure.
