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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.

DIRECTOR STEVEN SODERBERGH’S “CONTAGION” arrives in Chicago Oct. 19 as a worthy successor to “Transformers 3” in terms of big budget, cast and shooting schedule.

Heading the four star cast of the virus outbreak thriller are Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, here in 2008 for “Public Enemies,” Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Laurence Fishburne.

After arriving here from shooting in Hong Kong, the company will headquarter at Bradley Center, the big industrial space near Lane Tech and WGN studios, and shoot in Chicago and environs for a solid two months.

A funeral mass was held Wednesday for video/videotape pioneer and postproduction leader, Doyle Kaniff, who Sept. 3 of a heart condition at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston.

Mr. Kaniff, 69, had undergone a quadruple bypass in 2006 and thereafter led a healthy and comfortable lifestyle. “A week ago, he was clear as a bell,” said his daughter, Patty Kaniff.

A week earlier Mr. Kaniff was getting ready to leave his health club after a workout when he had a heart attack. As he fell, his head hit the hard edge of a countertop which caused serious brain damage, she said.

All at once, three local TV stations are developing new, local, live original programming with studio audiences to fill the spaces vacated earlier by Jerry Springer and the upcoming loss of Oprah.

The debut of the two morning talk shows in September, 2011 will coincide with the conclusion of Oprah’s 25-year show in Chicago and the third is a 24-hour live, lifetime digital channel show.

ABC-Ch. 7 earlier announced its intention to fill Oprah’s morning slot with “Morning Rush,” to originate from its studios.

Competing in that same 9 a.m.

WOMEN IN FILM has made a righteous choice to honor broadcast trailblazer, talk show host, news anchor and community activist Merri Dee as its 2010 Focus Award honoree.

Dee has parlayed her celebrity into many children’s and educational charitable works. She spearheaded Illinois’ victims rights’ legislation after she and one of her talk show guests had been kidnapped, driven to a wooded area, shot twice in the head and left for dead, in 1971.

After retiring from WGN-TV in 2008 after 30 years, Dee formed full-service MD Communications.

That overly long Hollywood dry spell will finally end in early March, with three TV pilots getting underway, a fourth being talked about for early spring, and a Vince Vaughn feature in May.

“Matadors,” from Sony TV and writer/executive producer Jack Orman, is in production offices at Chicago Studio City in preparation for shooting the first or second week in March.

WHO’S NEW: STORY has added director/cameraman Blair Hayes for exclusive spot representation. He was most recently was represented by L.A.-based Form where his credited included Bud Light, Verizon, Lay’s potato chips and Progressive Insurance.

*Lennie Urbanowski, who had been part of Pixel Brothers’ interactive design and project management group, was appointed director of interactive services. Michael Helm, whom Urbanowski replaces, and Helm’s partner Michael Parker left to form their own company.

Beverly Ridge Pictures, the young company behind the $2 million Outfit drama “Chicago Overcoat,” made its first foray into commercial production with a series of PSA’s for the Illinois Department of Transportation that began airing last week.

The spots “have prompted a change in direction” for Beverly Ridge, said partner Chris Charles, who directed them.

“BRP is now on the market for commercial production in Chicago.

Although Rick Kogan was no stranger to sitting in front of a microphone after years as host of a WGN radio show, he discovered that narrating a TV series was another world.

LOVE IS IN THE AIR for the first Hollywood project to be shot in Chicago so far this year, breaking the nine-month dry spell and portending more business ahead. The NBC half-hour pilot, “State of Romance,” gets underway March 30.

The half hour romantic comedy, described as a modern day “Pride and Prejudice,” will shoot for eight days entirely on location ? no sets called for at all.

Essanay is supplying the lighting and grip equipment. UPM is Rich Lederer (“The Beast”). Universal Media Studios is producing the single-camera project.

PRACTICALLY EVERY INDIE FILMMAKERS turned out 350 strong at Rockit Bar & Grill Tuesday for Midwest Independent Film Festival’s annual awards and first-time fund-raiser.

Beautiful crystal awards were given to a variety of winners, and the grand prize went to “The Promotion,” the comedy written and directed by Steve Conrad, who was present, along with co-star Seann William Scott and producer Steven Jones. Richard Roeper made the presentation.

Apart from his WGN Ch. 9 news anchor duties, Robert Jordan has a non-broadcast production business for an exclusive clientele that can afford the cost of big budget videos.

Partnering with SPI-TV Media Group, Jordan’s professionally custom-made Luxury Family Biographies are intended for families interested in chronicling their family story for current and future generations to enjoy.

Budgets range from $60,000-$80,000 for what is essentially a feature-length doc, running from 90 to 200 minutes, notes SPI-tv co-owner Roger Gazga.

SCREENWRITERS WILL GET A CHANCE to quiz L.A. screenwriting consultant Phillippa Burgess on how to move their careers forward and other vital breakthrough info Dec. 7 at the Chicago Screenwriters Network meeting.

As a partner in Creative Convergence, a multifaceted entertainment company representing writers, directors, producers and the like, Burgess is certainly equipped to provide the answers.

VETERAN COLORIST BOB SLIGA was snapped up by Apple Computers and is now working for the computer giant in Cupertino, Calif. He heads up Apple’s 2K Final Touch color correction software.

Sliga had become a specialist in the software, which Apple purchased from Silicon Color a few months go. He had freelanced for the past 18 months, after a lengthy stint as Film& Tape Works’ colorist.

A THIRD DI ROOM is in the works by a hush-hush group of post veterans, to be completed this month.

Trio Video is expanding its fleet for the second time in less than two years with the infusion of a $10 million investment from two venture capital companies.

Management of the company is unchanged. Trio is owned by partners Jack Walsh and Gary Meagher, who will celebrate the 25th anniversary of their company next year.

Through the investment from Marquette Capital Partners of Chicago, BIA Digital Partners of Chantilly, Va., Trio is building its third HD/multi-format truck and a Beta support vehicle for delivery next March.

Dan Halperin of Epiphany Pictures is producing Craig Harris’ feature adaptation of Harris’ 2003 TV drama “Skin Complex” that garnered five Midwest Emmys, among other awards.

A Chicago native based in Los Angeles, Halperin is shopping “Skin Complex” to studio as well as actor- and director-affiliated production companies.

Wolfgang Bodison (“A Few Good Men”) starred in the TV version of “Skin Complex,” as an African American professor contemplating a revolutionary, irreversible “race change” operation. It aired nationally on WGN and PAX.

Leave it to Adrenalin TV’s daredevil Duke Hillinger to come up with the next big rage in action sports. You couldn’t guess what it is in a hundred years?unless you’re one of the 20 million (you read that right) avid fans of paintball games.

Now the games will be aired in a very big way. In fact, Hillinger’s Paintball Television Productions’ (PTP) deal with Superstation WGN is the biggest deal in paintball history.

PTP’s 46 hourlong “World Paintball League” will air in every city in 39 countries.

A NEW AD AGENCY called Houlihan Madison Most has been formed by Kevin Houlihan and Brad Most, for many years with the Chicago Creative Partnership. While HMM is clientless at the moment, it will compete for the former CCP Blue Cross account. Houlihan had been CCP president and chief creative officer; Most was head of client services. The Madison in their name is a nod to New York’s ad street.

While local spot production may be at the bottom of the scale, documentary production for cable can be viewed as a growth industry with the explosion of cable outlets and its voracious need for programming.

Experienced doc-cable producers Jon Siskel and Greg Jacobs hope to tap into those cable opportunities through their new company, Siskel/Jacobs.

NEW LOBBYING FIRM FOR IPA. The Illinois Production Alliance has hired The Illinois Governmental Consulting Group to convince the Illinois legislature to extend the wage tax credit bill to a full five years from the one-year extension it got last December.

IGCG representatives are chief lobbyist Brian Hynes, who knows the film business through his Teamsters clients, and Elgie Sims, Jr. Meanwhile: IPA legislative committee, chaired by DGA’s Dan Moore, is finalizing the legislative agenda to present to the spring session.

Roger Ebert and six other Chicago TV veterans will be inducted into the Silver Circle of the Chicago/Midwest cheaper of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Ebert, a Pulitzer Prize?winning writer, and co-host of nationally syndicated “Ebert & Roeper,” is also movie critic for Ch. 7.

The awards dinner will be held April 29 at the Drake Hotel.

Other honorees are: Linda Yu, a Ch. 7 news anchor since 1984 after five years at Ch. 5 ? Chicago native and sports veteran Greg Gumbel, host of CBS’ “The NFL Today,” who began his career as a Ch.

Seven films by Chicago filmmakers out of 25 features, documentaries and shorts will be screened at the 10th annual Black Harvest International Festival of Film and Video, Aug. 7-19, at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

They are Mike Merrill (“Even Trade”), Ytasha L. Womack (“Love Shorts”), Eldridge Valentine and Elliot V. Porter (“Player in Training”), Steven Foley and Marie-Fran?oise Theodore (“Strange as Angels”) Kirby Ashley (“Blast On”), Greg Samata (“Island”), and Ayana Haaruun (“First We Pray”).

The filmmakers will participate in the Aug.

This is the second in a two-part survey of local documentarians, who they are, their background and credits. Ranging from national leaders like Kartemquin, Towers and Kurtis Productions, to small to mid-size companies, they capture public imagination and affect social change by telling true stories.

Bob Hercules Joe Mantegna narrates Ron Santo doc premiering at JDRF benefit March 24 When Jeff Santo’s 86-minute documentary about his father Ron Santo ended during a sneak preview at a Cubs convention at the Hilton in January, the SRO crowd of more than 1,000 gave it a standing ovation. “This Old Cub” premieres March 24 as a benefit for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at the Chicago Historical Society. The film opens March 26 at select theatres in Chicago and Arizona, distributed by Emerging Pictures. Ron Santo will be guest of honor at the screening. Walgreen’s newsmagazine: a complex, network-scale, expertly made series Walgreen’s opening graphic was art directed by Swell’s Nadia Hennrich. Post Effects teams with Central City, Black Enterprise Magazine for TV show Central City Production’s “The Minority Business Report,” a staple of WGN syndication for 18 years, has been transformed into an updated, upscale weekly magazine show. “The Black Enterprise Report” utilizes the editorial expertise of Black Enterprise Magazine of New York. It’s the Fortune-like publication’s first entr?e into television. REELSCENE: News & Notes 9/16/03 THE ILLINOIS TOURISM ACCOUNT ad account is up for review, as required by state law every two years. BBDO has had the $12 million businss for four years during which it also did a modicum of film office advertising. To be eligible to bid, an agency must have a minimum of 50 full-time employees and a significant presence in the Chicago area (whatever that means). Entry deadline is Sept. 22, decision on Sept. 24. What makes this more of a horse race is that agencies will pitch to a Democratic client, and who knows who has clout with the new decision-makers. No more clowning around By Dan Page SCREENZINE.COM Music Editor   Loading Comments...   Write a Comment... Email Name Website