Like the recently revealed Chicago Cultural Plan for expanding the arts, here is a film professional’s vision of how to move Chicago into the top tier of entertainment production.
Chicago needs to step up its game if it plans on competing in the film industry. But if it’s happy competing for film revenues with low-producing Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, then Chicago is headed in the right direction.
At one time not too long ago, Chicago was number three in film production behind L.A. and New York. These days, Chicago Illinois, mostly Chicago is basically on a par with those three states.
Consider: In 2010, Illinois said it created around 22,500 jobs and $980,000 in wages for the film industry, similar to the revenues reported by Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
But if Chicago wants to compete with L.A., with reported 2010 wages of $16 billion, and New York, with $7.7 billion in wages, it has got to aggressively come up with a big, original game plan and avoid following the same old tired lines.
What can elevate Chicago into that next level is what I call the Film Campus. It would be a brand NEW, built-for-the-industry film production facility, in a great location that caters to the film industry.
The Film Campus needs to be located on the lakefront. Put it right in the heart of the city on Northerly Island, the old Meigs field area adjacent to McCormick Place.
Now the Film Campus is a film production center right off Lake Shore Drive, next to the Museum Campus, the Chicago Yacht Club, Soldier’s Field, just down the street from Buckingham Fountain and Navy Pier. Midway Airport is just down the Stevenson Expressway for private jets.
A new Film Campus is the way to compete now
Understand, we are talking about the film industry. Hollywood, as most people know it – the glitz, the glamour, the money.
People in the film business, sorry to say, think they are so special that they deserve the best. Look at the stars, the producers, the directors! Look at their salaries. They expect the best because they can afford the best.
What Chicago offers to these people are converted factory buildings in enterprise zones for production centers.
Chicago just doesn’t get it.
The film industry has grown over the years to a high profile business. If Chicago is going to compete in the film industry, now is the time to build for that. The Film Campus offers Chicago that opportunity.
Instead of landing Transformers for six weeks (in 2010) and accumulating $25 million in revenue (making 2010 a banner year for Chicago), what if Chicago landed the whole project like Transformers with a rumored final budget of $400 million?
What if these big budget projects started lining up to use the Film Campus? Now we’re talking money!
What if a TV series actually stayed in Chicago for more than one season? Early Edition in the late 1990s was the last long-running TV series in Chicago. The current popular TV series Mike and Molly and The Good Wife are set but not shot in Chicago.
Building for the new digital age of entertainment
Chicago needs to build a new state of the art film production center for today’s filmmaker with an eye on expansion for the new upcoming filmmaker in the digital/film industry which is already here. Notherly Island, 92 acres, offers that opportunity for Chicago.
Understand, the film industry has become not just an industry but a way of life, just as texting has replaced the phone call, Facebook has changed social interaction. 3D printing will change manufacturing, just as cloud computing (good-bye, privacy!) will change the computer world as we know it. And Bit coin might change the national currency standards to internet currency.
The film industry has become a high-tech industry. Chicago is in the right place at the right time. Although there always will be a need for soundstages and the controlled space that they provide, the new era of filmmaking won’t need as many because scenes will be/are created on computers using plates and digital animation instead of set construction and actors.
Times are changing and Chicago can build for these changes with the Film Campus by building for today with an eye on tomorrow.
Tom Lewis formerly owned Midwest Production Services, a lighting and grip company that worked on many of the big entertainment projects that filmed in Chicago when the city was number three in film locations. He can be reached at tel2511@att.net.
