, Author at Reel Chicago News

Governor plans to cut popular film tax credits

By Ruth L Ratny Feb 18, 2011

After waiting nervously for Republican Gov. Rick Snyder to reveal what Michigan filmmakers hoped and prayed would be moderate tax incentive changes, their worst fears were reali...

“Playboy” pilot shoot starts in mid-March

By Ruth L Ratny Feb 18, 2011

“PLAYBOY,” THE NBC PILOT, about the start of the Playboy Clubs in Chicago, about the opening of the first Playboy Club in Chicago in 1963 (at the site of what is now the 1...

Two companies combine with a Mighty good idea

By Ed M. Koziarski Feb 15, 2011

Backyard Productions and Optimus are sharing their mighty resources in a newly formed “creative production home,” operating autonomously out of Backyard’s Venice, Californ...

SkyPan Int’l shoots 1400’ liftoff for Willis Tower Skydeck

By Ed M. Koziarski Feb 15, 2011

Aerial photographers branching out from core business in real estateVisitors to the Willis Tower Skydeck are presented with the opportunity to experience their 1400’ elevation...

L.A. Bucks Boys set up shop in Chicago

By Ruth L Ratny Feb 15, 2011

The timing of Bucks Boys Productions’ big shoot in Chicago for Silk soy milk/Leo Burnett, will be remembered for its timing. “We started the shoot in January and wrapp...

Jim Sikora feature “The Critics,” 12 years in the making

by Ed M. Koziarski Feb 15, 2011

Twelve years after Jim Sikora shot his film adaptation of Adam Langer’s play “The Critics,” the caustic satire of theatre and the people who cover it finally sees the ligh...

Bryen Hensley’s ADR skills heard on “Chicago Code”

By Ruth L Ratny Feb 15, 2011

Bryen Hensley, Resolution Digital Studio’s engineer/sound designer and ADR expert, recorded ADR for episodes of Fox TV’s “Chicago Code” series airing nationally on Monda...

Indie Focus

Worthy local indies to screen at worldwide film festivals

by Ed M. Koziarski Feb 15, 2011

STEPHEN CONE’S DRAMA, “In Memoriam” will compete with 65 films when it premieres at the 33rd Big Muddy Film Festival, Feb. 18-27 at SIU in Carbondale, one of the oldest fe...

Prediction: The erosion of agencies is “inevitable and imminent”

By David Rosen Feb 15, 2011

I once predicted that the company with the best integration will dominate the market, but not necessarily the one that held category leadership and any or all of the services it...

Norman goes cuckoo for Kellogg’s promotion at L.A. shopping mall

By Ruth L Ratny Feb 15, 2011

BIG MOUTH TALENT'S Kelly McLaughlin is still beaming with pride over her exclusive, Brad Norman, who won a nationwide search by Kellogg’s for a character to perform a public e...

Artist Yusef’s work on John Legend’s winning Grammy album

By Shaunese Teamer Feb 15, 2011

The career of Malik Yusef, Chicago’s spoken word poet, professionally known as “The Wordsmyth,” continues to ascend to the top of the game. His work was recognized Su...

Chicago cop series shoots in Toronto

By Ruth L Ratny Feb 15, 2011

ANOTHER TV SERIES is set in Chicago but, like Shameless, The Good Wife and Mike and Molly, is not being filmed in Chicago. The location is Toronto, which all too often substitut...

African American talent to meet Feb. 27 for Black Sundae

By Shaunese Teamer Feb 13, 2011

Back from hiatus, Jack Conrad’s Black Sundae gives African American artists an opportunity to find out what’s happening in the world of entertainment in a sweet way . . . ov...

Gustafson’s Bud spots the viewers’ choice

Feb 9, 2011

Cutters’ Grant Gustafson has earned a special place in the pantheon editorial excellence by having editing two of the most popular Super Bowl commercials of the decade.In the ...

Premiere for 2010 Production Fund winner

Feb 9, 2011

“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.“...

Doc challenges Christian homophobia

By Ed M. Koziarski Feb 9, 2011

Sons of evangelical missionaries in Indonesia and Latin America, respectively, Andrew Freer and Samuel Díaz-Littauer grew believing “homosexuality was one of the ‘really ba...

Business booming for 10 year old Bitter Jester

By Ed M. Koziarski Feb 9, 2011

As Bitter Jester Creative celebrates its 10th anniversary, the Highland Park production company has rebounded from a tough year, with a major new client, a TV pilot in the can, ...

Little Cabin involved in big projects

By Ed M. Koziarski Feb 9, 2011

A year and a half in business, corporate producers Little Cabin Films have added Garrett Popcorn to a growing stable of educational, real estate and fitness clients.“We’re j...

Indie Focus

Theatrical run set for “Blackmail Boys”

By Ed M. Koziarski Feb 9, 2011

Joe Swanbert has a role in pseudonymous Bernard and Bichard Shumanski’s locally-shot “tender sexploitation flick,” “Blackmail Boys.” TLA Releasing picked it up for the...

ARU spices up space and upgrades equipment

Feb 2, 2011

Back in December, 2007, when ARU partners/engineers Don Arbuckle and Mark Zeboski purchased the venerable recording studio from original owner Mike King, they didn’t have ti...