Search Results for: Shameless

“Salvaging,” the short film that won IFP’s 2010 Production Fund Competition, was written and directed by Joe Lyons, who works as a Local 476 union electrician and grip.

“I’ve always wanted to be a writer/director and finally had the chance to go for it, as the IFP Fund allowed me to finally produce one of my scripts,” Lyons says.

“Salvaging” was the recipient last year of a grant worth $100,000 in in-kind services donated by local vendors that allows a filmmaker to complete his project.

FOR DRAFTFCB, 2011 will not start off with a proverbial bang, as S.C. Johnson, its major client of 58 years, plans to review its $1 billion marketing accounts for its entire global brand.

Draftfcb has handled advertising for many of Racine-based S.C. Johnson brands, including Pledge, Windex and Raid. Incumbents, which include RG/A, Ogilvy and Mullen, will be invited to participate in an agency review (gulp) early next year.

TAKING OVER THE REINS of the Independent Feature Project, Chicago’s 25-year old hub of indie filmmaking is Christy LeMaster, who has run IFP’s recent and successful fund-raising galas. She succeeds Ryan Jewell, who returned to his native Oklahoma City for family reasons.

LeMaster, who has a Masters in English from Truman State University, has a background in programming film festivals, starting with the True or False doc fest in Columbia, Mo.

A MAJOR AGENCY CHANGE is at hand as Bob Winter will join Y&R as chief creative officer of the Chicago office, starting in December. He moves over from Leo Burnett where he was SVP/ECD for more than three years on Altoids, Kellogg’s, Greenpeace and Caesars Palace.

Winter succeeds Ken Erke whose departure shocked Michigan Avenue when he joined digital agency R/GA a few months ago as executive creative director. Erke joined Y&R in2000 from Cramer/Krasselt.

AN OPEN EXTRAS CASTING CALLS for Steven Soderbergh’s big budget, big cast “Contagion” will be held by Rich King Casting of L.A. Sept. 25 at the Lincoln Park Cultural Center, 2045 Lincoln Park West, 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and Sept. 26 at the Annoyance Theatre, 4830 N. Broadway, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

King says he’s looking for adult men and women, 18 and older, all sizes, shapes, types and ethnicities. It’s a paid gig and meals are included.

“Contagion,” will spend two months shooting in and around Chicago, starting Oct. 19, arriving here from filming in Hong Kong.

WELCOME BACK, ROGER! It looks like Roger Ebert is returning to television with a new syndicated movie review show from Chicago, expected to be taped at WYCC/Ch. 20.

Ebert’s TV return was announced in the briefest of terms on Oprah’s Pre-Oscar Celebration show Monday, with Ebert and his wife Chaz, and pretty much confirmed by a station executive.

As part of the Eberts’ appearance on the show was “A Day in the Life of ?” which included scenes of the couple arriving at WYCC/Ch. 20.

Ebert has a full-fledged production company and t’is said that Ch.

“ER” executive producer John Wells is returning to Chicago Jan. 13 to shoot scenes for the pilot for his new Showtime series, “Shameless,” starring William H. Macy.

Like “ER,” “Shameless” is set in Chicago and it, also, will be filmed in Los Angeles while local crews will shoot exteriors quarterly to catch the changing seasons.

Roger Anderson of Sterling Films, who was Wells’ Chicago producer/production manger on “ER” for 14 of its 15 years on NBC, heads the local shoot.

You have to admire Bill Whirity’s moxie. A college sophomore at the time, he produced a feature length comedy on a minescule budget, rented a neighborhood theatre for a June 15 premiere, and is shamelessly beating the drum like the best of Hollywood flacks to promote it.

(His friends bombarded ReelChicago to write a story. See what we mean?)

In 2003, Whirity, 23, was a 20-year old Columbia College film student when he wrote and directed “Broke,” a road-trip comedy aimed at teen boys, inspired by the popular genre of the ’80s.