Search Results for: depaul

The Midwest’s premiere screening event — DePaul School of Cinematic Arts’ annual Courier 12 Screenwriting Conference — Oct. 8 at its Loop campus, is an afternoon of panel discussions with the entertainment industry’s writers and producers, free and open to all.

Project Development kicks off the panels at 1 p.m., discussed by Brian Banks, Nickelodeon’s VP / executive in charge of production at Nickelodeon and Samantha Olsson Shear, head film and television development at Kickstart Productions. DePaul faculty member and screenwriter Chris Parrish will moderate.

While DePaul’s omission from The Hollywood Reporter’s 2015 list of 25 best film schools in the US was disappointing, Dean David Miller is presenting many good reasons confirming why the school “is easily a Top 25 program” – listings notwithstanding.

When DePaul University husband-and-wife academics Matthew Irvine and Kristyn Benedyck agreed to join the Author DanielPosted on July 21, 2015Categories Uncategorized

  What appears to be Chicago’s first open mike film pitch, so to speak, will take place as part of a broader collaborative networking evening called “Chicago Film & TV Industry Networking Event,” Thursday, June 19 in the Loop.

Ten of Hollywood’s best known, busiest and emerging screenwriters, whose credits appear shows like “Scandal,” “Parks and Recreation” and “The Pirates of the Caribbean” will speak Saturday, May 3 at DePaul’s third annual Page One Entertainment Writing Conference.

It’s axiomatic that college grads go where the jobs are and in the film industry that points to Los Angeles. But wait!  With the announcement of a partnership between DePaul University’s cinema studios and Cinespace, graduates now may have the option of a successful entertainment film career in Chicago.

Filmmaker / editor Gail Gilbert’s short film, thriller “Democracy in the Driver’s Seat,” will be one of 14 women-made shorts showcasing at the Midwest Independent Film Festival’s annual Female Filmmakers Night, Tuesday, Aug. 2.

The distinguished filmmakers have been at their craft for many years, are producing an impressive body of work and possess a large collection of prestigious international awards.

The entries are:

STARTING JULY 20, Chicago’s film industry will take off like a rocket as NBC/Dick Wolf’s three primetime series — “Chicago Fire,” “PD” and “Med” — all begin shooting their new fall seasons on Cinespace stages.

By mid-September, eight TV series will be filming here. Cameras will roll for Fox TV’s hit “Empire” and new Fox entries, “The Exorcist” Aug. 3 and “ABP” Aug. 22. NBC’s “Chicago Justice” is scheduled to start for mid-September airing.

Shelley LaMantia, Professional Arts Dean at State Street-based business-oriented Robert Morris University, was very pleased at the turnout Thursday night’s 4th annual Chicago Shorts Film Festival.

The festival not only attracted about 100 entries, but the screening and awards ceremony played to an SRO audience of largely college students from the Loop and beyond, at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

A few years ago, Shelley LaMantia, Dean of Professional Arts at business-oriented Robert Morris University, had the idea of bringing together students who attend other Loop colleges and are housed in the Loop, to express their creativity through film.

She discussed it with RMU Chancellor Michael Viollt, who liked it and said the school should sponsor a short film festival. This was quite a departure for RMU since its visual media instruction consists of two video classes that are part of the graphic design curriculum.

Writer/director Steve Conrad, actor Gary Cole, TV show creators and “Empire’s” key crew members will be among the TV pros holding forth on the trials and triumphs of TV show production at the Chicago International Television Awards (CITA) April 18-20 at the AMC River East 21 theatres.

This marks the first time, CITA (formerly the Hugo Awards) is expanding its single TV awards evening into a three-day event.

Producer/screenwriter Jim White will be helming a staged table read with 10 actors for his screenplay that was inspired by a trove of love letters written by the sweetheart of a captured World War II GI and read by him 60 years later.

Changes at Beast editorial, Company 3 and Method Studios: Producer Kendall Fash was given a major promotion to director of marketing for Beast’s seven editorial offices

While the number of women directors of major studio films has dropped to all-time low of 4.6% in 2014, it’s encouraging that various studies show that larger numbers of female directors of indie cinema are holding their own.

The Alaska-based co-producer of Keep Talking, one of four Kartemquin docs-in-progress, and an Alaskan tribal official will fly to Chicago to participate in Kartemquin’s 4th annual Spring Showcase May 1 at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Based on the success of DePaul’s Cinema School teaming up with Cinespace for on-site stage and classroom space, the studio is moving forward with plans to open the doors of a production incubator this fall.

By the time Sun-Times had headlined Gov. Bruce Rauner’s demand that Cinespace return a $10 million state grant, studio president Alex Pissios had already sent the uncashed check, plus interest, to the Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Media goddess Laurie Scheer is back in Chicago to share her successful approach of improving storytelling, skills for selling a screenplay and developing content in today’s fast-moving transmedia marketplace an all-day workshop Saturday, Dec. 6.

 A BIG WEEKEND OF EVENTS is here, with more to come throughout this busy October.  The IFP Filmmakers Conference is back after too long an absence, this Friday and Saturday, offering something for everyone, with 40 programs and 14 speakers, at Film Row Theatre, 1104 S. Wabash. 

One of Chicago’s famous four star directors will highlight this weekend’s welcome revival of the Independent Feature Project’s 20th annual Filmmakers Conference when it returns to its former long-time meeting space at Columbia College’s Film Row Theatre, Oct. 10-11.

GAIL GILBERT’S CERISE FILMS creative editorial is expanding with the recent hiring of Jeremy Vranich, as the company’s first producer/new business development, giving the award-winning editor “more time to focus exclusively on creative projects,” she says.

“A WHIRLWIND” SEASON of production – starting with a rush of commercials, four primetime network TV series, along with corporate and webs – has meant steady work for Chicago’s nationally respected talent.

“Agents have been busy overall,” notes David O’Connor of O’Connor Casting and the last month has been crazy for us, a whirlwind all year,” placing talent across the board.

Three Chicago area film schools were duly cited in the Hollywood Reporter’s 4th annual widest-ever roundup of the best film schools Author DanielPosted on July 31, 2014August 1, 2014Categories Uncategorized

The turnout for last Thursday’s first “Chicago Film & TV Industry Networking Event and Pitches” was “a ridiculously amazing turnout and so great for this city,” says Kristyn Jo Benedyk, chair of DePaul’s screenwriting program.

New Pink Hippo Productions  is possibly the first company formed in Chicago by film school grads, who say they are serious about living and working here and growing their business, in spot production and ultimately features.

 

ENERGY BBDO CREATIVE RICK HAMANN left the agency, where he’d been SVP/group CD since mid-2011, to join Onion Labs, as SVP and head of the satirical publication’s in-house agency, with offices in River North.

Phone calls and Emails of sympathy, gratitude and shock been pouring into  studio executive Alex Pissios’ office at Cinespace since the news of the death of Cinespace owner  Nick Mirkopoulos on Saturday swept film industries from Toronto to LA.

IF ADVERTISING’S DARK SIDE is displayed in “Mad Men,” then CBS’ new series, “The Crazy Ones,” is a 180-degree turn to a sitcom made even zanier by the return of the original mad man, Robin Williams, who made his TV debut in “Mork and Mindy,” way back in 1978.

A CONCERT OF FIVE ROCK BANDS will compete in a “Battle of Hope: The Battle of the Bands: Chicago Agency Battle of the Bands” to benefit the Off the Street Club Thursday, April 25 at the Cubby Bear bar in Wrigleyville, starting at 7 p.m.

About 10 years ago, musician David Bloom, the long time owner and head instructor of The Bloom School of Jazz, Chicago’s only music school dedicated to jazz, pondered the philosophical and offbeat questions, “what is soul and what is meant by a soulful person?”

Rethink Studios partner John McGrath, will feel the marketing heat Monday, March 4 when the thermal imaging device he started developing after receiving a shock of an electric bill last fall gets global attention as Indiegogo’s Twitter Featured Product of the day.

Master tabletop director/shooter David Deahl may travel the world on assignment, but when it comes to representation, “We wanted someone local,” says executive producer Rosemary Deahl. “Clients like to have that up close and personal connection with the company they give the job to.” 

Winner of the grand prize of the recent Chicago Screenwriters Network’s third annual script contest was former U.S. Marine, Adedapo Akisanya, for his drama, Beneath the Rock.

He was one of 15 gold, silver and bronze winners in the categories of horror, family, comedy, action and drama.

Akisanya’s prizes were $500 cash, a six-month script listing on InkTip and having Hollywood production companies, agencies and managers consider his screenplay.

Greeks in Chicago — the third largest Greek population in the world, with an estimated 450,000 and second only to New York’s 500,000 –- celebrate their culture with a variety of festivals from January through November.  

One cultural event that’s been absent for a while is a film festival, and that will be rectified Sept. 29-Oct. 2 with the first FilmHellenes/Greek Film Fest Chicago! 

CHRISTOPHER MELONI, who quit his 12-year gig as Det. Stabler, co-star of NBC’s Law & Order: SVU, is expected to have “an unspecified major role” in Man of Steel, the Warner Bros. Superman blockbuster that will film in Naperville and Plano in August.  

An extras casting call, starting Saturday, June 18, is out loud and clear for Warner Bros. new Superman movie, Man of Steel, that starts shooting in the western suburbs and Chicago Aug. 22 for a reported 10 weeks.  

Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen, Dawn of the Dead) is the director and playing Clark Kent/Superman is English heartthrob Henry Cavill (The Tudors).  Kevin Costner and Diane Lane play young Clark’s parents.