11 DOLLAR BILL, Bridges Media’s 2-year old post division, opened a branch facility in downtown Boulder, Colorado, run by partner / CCO Christian Robins, who recently moved to Boulder, and Managing Director Lisa Effress, a former agency EP and co-founder of the branded content engine F. Yeah & Associates in Boulder.
It offers the region full-service offline and online editorial, 4k color, high-end visual effects, motion graphics, 3D animation and VR/AR capabilities.
2017’S FIRST BIG COMMERCIAL PROJECT is bicoastal Radical Media’s 9-day shoot – Jan. 27-Feb. 4 – for Humana Health Insurance on stage at Cinespace. Radical Media was just here for three days shooting the Chicago stop for Goose Island beer, with Essanay Studio & Lighting providing grip and lighting equipment.
HEADING OUT TO HOLLYWOOD are Cinespace’s Alex Pissios and Local 476 business manager Mark Hogan, on two separate selling missions. Both will spend next week talking up Chicago’s ever-expanding production assets to studio decision makers – Cinespace’s 30 sound stages and the union’s record 1,500 membership. (Which brings to mind a never-truer saying coined by the late Frank Hobbs, a former 476 business manager. He said: “When the stages are busy, we all prosper.”)
FOX’ TOP RATED “EMPIRE” IS RENEWED for a fourth season, that will consist of 18 episodes. “Empire” is in the midst of a 3-month hiatus, with Lee Daniels’ other music drama, “Star,” taking the time slot until March. “Empire,” one of the soon-to-be 9 series filming at Cinespace, returns with new episodes March 22.
CHICAGO’S LOSS IS LA’S GAIN, as George Lucas announced that Los Angeles Exposition Park will be the site for the $1 billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Designed by Chinese architect Ma Yansong, the museum will bring 1,500 construction jobs to the city and 350 permanent jobs.
LA won over the museum to be built on Treasure Island, San Francisco — Lucasfilm’s home of 45 years. Chicago lost out over argments about building the museum on lakefront property.
CARDINAL BLASE J. CUPICH will lead a special discussion with the audience following the 4:45 p.m. screening of Martin Scorcese’s new feature, “Silence,” at the Music Box Theatre Sunday, Jan. 15.
“Silence” is about two Christian missionaries (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who travel to Japan in search of their missing mentor (Liam Neeson) in the 17th century when Japan outlawed Christianity and their presence was forbidden.
Tickets are available on a first come, first serve basis and may be purchased here.
THE JAN. 12 MEET-UP of TV production professionals has been postponed, announced Linda Frothingham of ChicagoHollywood.com, who was co-hosting the first-time event with AD Danny Burke.
TWO LOCAL AGENCY MOMS were among the 25 winners in She Runs It’s “Working Mothers of the Year Awards.” FCB Chicago’s VP / Director of Communications Karah McGowan and Havas’ Chief Client Officer Tatia Torrey, out of more than 250 nominees.
Torrey, who has two children, won in the “Established Moms” category and McGowan, won in the “New to Motherhood Moms” category, although her two sons, Casey and Ian, are five and three.
“Achieving balance among career and family is always a work in progress for any mother, but we do our best,” says McGowan. “For me, having one night a week ‘off from parenting’ helps me get caught up on work, personal errands and maybe, just maybe, enjoy a little time to myself.”
This year’s winners “are some of the best and brightest working mothers in our industry, serving as role models at work, at home and in their communities,” She Runs It said in a statement.
The Awards Luncheon will be held Feb. 28 in New York.
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