The lightning-fast negotiations for a proposed new three-year SAG/AFTRA commercials contract providing a 6.1% to 15% boost in payments was approved Oct. 1 by a huge margin by the two actors unions and the advertising industry.

By a vote of 81% to 19% taken by videoconference, both SAG/AFTRA’s joint boards and the Joint Policy Committee of the 4As and the Assn. of National Advertisers recommended the new package’s ratification by the unions’ 140,000 members.

Video production and creative web firm AKA Media Inc., is Chicago’s sole privately held media company to make Inc. Magazine’s 2010 list of 5,000 fastest growing companies. The company was also listed in 2009.

“We’re a 12-year overnight sensation,” says CEO/ executive producer Andrew Krause, who is grateful for his company’s success despite the rough economy affecting the industry.

The company ranked #4,615 in 2010, thanks to a continuing 15% growth rate since 2006. Revenues reached $2.4 million in 2009, a $200,000 increase in 12 months.

WHAT AN UNEXPECTEDLY NICE GESTURE. In surely what’s got to be a first in the 35-year annals of Hollywood-in-Chicago entertainment production, departing director Ron Howard, stars Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, and the cast and crew of “The Dilemma,” placed a full page ad in the Sun-Times Friday.

The ad thanked Chicago “for a great shoot and a great time in your town!”

The ad offered “Our special thanks to ?

Bruce Willis, who has defended hostages in “Die Hard” and bartended bar at Manhattan’s Kamikaze while attempting to break into New York theatre. Now in Chicago Aug. 11, the action star will blast his way into Binny’s Beverage Depot in Lincoln Park.

As international spokesman for Sobieski Vodka, the star’s mission is to promote the brand at a cocktail party and raise money for charity.

At the upcoming soiree, when Binny’s will be closed for private event guests will be served cocktails made with Sobieski Vodka, along with champagne and appetizers.

Gov. Pat Quinn’s gubernatorial campaign attempts to mitigate the reduced impact of traditional advertising with “Quinn Stories,” a weekly series of two-minute webisodes designed to reach voters who might otherwise be overlooked by conventional campaign strategies.

“Quinn Stories,” produced by director Barry Poltermann’s About Face Media, began in November and will continue through the Feb. 2 gubernatorial primary.

The Dec.

VARIETY NAMED CHICAGO the number four filming location on a list of “10 Greatest Locations in North America,” in a special issue published next month. We rank behind California, of course, New York, right, and New Mexico.

Speaking of locations: The recent six-day Buick shoot by Form of L.A., racked up the most locations, on 59 city blocks, or 53% of the locations used for filming, during the month of September, so far.

The 2016 Olympic films came in second with shoots on 14 blocks or 22% of locations used, according to Everyblock.com.

DOCUMENTARIAN KEN BURNS comes to Chicago Sept. 16 to speak at a luncheon and presentation for his new book, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” at the Union League Club.

The six-episode PBS series of the same name, directed by Burns and written and co-produced by Dayton Duncan, who co-wrote the book, will air this fall. The series recounts the adventures, mythmaking and intense political battles behind the evolution of the park system and the ideals that fostered its growth.

At last! After nearly a year of contentious wrangling between SAG and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers, SAG members voted overwhelmingly to approve a new contract, which immediately triggered activity on a backlog of stalled L.A.-generated movie and TV production.

According to SAG, 78% of those who voted supported the contract. About 35% of the union’s 110,000 members returned ballots.

The estimated $25 million spent by Michael Mann’s blockbuster “Public Enemies” in the state last year pumped up officially-tallied 2008 revenues to $141 million, from production of film, TV shows and commercials production.

Nine features and one TV series contributed $132.5 million to the total, while spot production tumbled to $18.5 million, the Illinois Film Office reported.

When Oscar-nominated producer/director Tod Lending needed to improve audio on his latest project ?- an hourlong, $1.5 million doc, “The Principal Story,” scheduled for a “POV” episode on PBS this fall — he took the track to Drew Weir at Vagabond Audio.

Long form audio isn’t Vagabond’s main business, which comes from a full range of audio services for commercials.

“But it is becoming a niche we’re developing,” says executive producer Rise Sanders, Vagabond Audio partner and wife of engineer/sound designer Weir.

POLITICOS WEREN’T ALONE IN THE SPOTLIGHT at the recent Democratic and Republican Conventions.

Producer Carey Lundin’s alter ego, “Citizen Kate,” star of the increasing popular website, www.citizenkate.com, struck high saturation pay dirt. “We proved that hard work, planning, creativity and just showing up, are all it takes to be successful,” says Lundin. At the two national conventions, “Kate,” aka actress Kate Soglin, got her share of the spotlight.

THE ONLY NEW TV SHOW on the Chicago horizon seems to be “Peep Show” for Spike TV. The pilot of the Americanized version of the British hit series is scheduled to shoot here in September or October.

Tenner Paskal Rudnicke is casting eight or nine actors for lead roles, “but no one is officially cast yet,” says TPR partner Jennifer Rudnickne.

On the commercial front, TPR’s recent casting was for 59 Films’ two-day shoot for Coors/DraftFCB, calling in the four “regular guys” for the latest entry in the ongoing campaign.

National AFTRA and non-broadcast producers reached an agreement for an 18-month extension to the contract that covers on-camera/voiceover for business videos and new media-distributed informational and promotional messages.

The deal includes a 3% general rate increase and a one-half percent increase in the contribution rates into the union’s health and retirement funds equaling the commercials contract rate of 14.8%.

The 18-month extended pact became effective on May 1, 2008, when the current contract expired, and remains in full force until midnight Oct.

Fletcher Chicago scores another first in the Midwest with the addition of the 3-Perforation film camera that gives users 35mm quality for 16mm prices.

Originated for shooting commercials, it’s a standard Arri 35 camera that uses an alternative advancement system of 3-perforation movement per image frame, vs. the traditional 4-perf.

With the emergence of 16×9 HDTV and DI, 3-Perf’s mainstream popularity is increasing, notes Tom Fletcher, VP/marketing.

“The technology is simple,” he says.

For more than a decade, New Mexico, with its 25% tax rebate on all production expenditures, was the paragon state to beat. It has no minimum spending requirement and no cap.

Up until Michigan’s dramatic entry, no other state has come close to New Mexico’s cash-back enticements.

Six other states presently tempt producers with rebates, out of the 31 that offer varying amounts of tax and other incentives. The only state among these six without qualifiers is Minnesota’s straight-forward 15% cash rebate.

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.

Illinois and Wisconsin are among the 31 states listed below that have legislated generous incentives to entice the motion picture industry away from the Coasts and spend some of its annual $60 billion within their borders.

An asterisk highlights the 14 states with the added appeal of sales and use tax exemptions (helllo, City Hall!).

*CALIFORNIA: Free permits and no location fees for California state properties; 5% sales tax exemption on postproduction equipment; no state hotel tax on occupancy.

AICP’s fourth annual Survey of the Commercial Production Industry shows that nearly 70% of member companies produced non-traditional advertising outside of the traditional television commercial during the study year of 2005.

Not surprising was that Southern California remains the most popular location, and Canada is still the top-ranked foreign location.

Los Angeles-based Goodwin Simon Victoria Research conducted the survey to measure how and where spot dollars are spent and what the major issues are to members.

Meeting as a Joint Board, directors of SAG and AFTRA on Aug. 26 overwhelmingly approved a two-year extension to the commercials contracts with the advertising industry by an almost 95% margin.

AFTRA and SAG members will now vote on final ratification of the extension. Referendum ballots are scheduled to be mailed Sept. 5 and due back September 26.

The extension runs through Oct. 28, 2008; the current contract expires Oct. 29, 2006.

The Lights, Camera, Illinois! program is poised within the next two months to add as many as six films to the roster of eight that have been awarded the low interest loan.

Program administrator Chuck Hagopian described the increase in loan awards as part of an overall effort by State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka’s office to aggressively promote Illinois production through the program.

FLYING HIGH. IFO director Brenda Sexton returns from her sixth L.A. trip in 11 months reporting tremendous interest” in the wage tax credit bill from meetings set up by MPAA lobbyist Dans Stevenson. Paul Caselton, deputy general counsel of the Illinois Dept. of Revenue tax division went to explain how the credit workswage tax credit works. Freshman state rep Ken Dunkin, cosponsor of the bill, also made the trip. And Local 476’s Paul Oddo decided this would be a good time to shop the union’s low-budget contract in L.A.

Everyone knows the commercial production industry is big, but how big didn’t hit home until the new AICP survey spotlighted its immense size.

According to the survey, direct production expenditures were a massive $3.5 billion. When factoring in additional expenditures, including talent and post, the total impact climbs to $5.5 billion.

What makes this number so astounding is that expenditures were reported by AICP’s approximately 250 general members and 250 associate members, a relatively small but elite and powerful group.

By Jonathan Abarbanel

An exuberant John Calloway moderated a recent City Club of Chicago luncheon panel devoted to the business of live theater, the first City Club event focused on the arts within anyone’s memory.

As keynote speaker, League of Chicago Theatres executive director Marj Halperin unveiled a new study setting the economic impact of local theater at $347 million annually and growing, an increase of 110% in the seven years since the last study.

TOURISM NARROWS AGENCY CHOICES. The local branches of three foreign-owned ad agencies got the nod from the Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity as finalists for the $12.5 million Illinois Tourism account. Independents Grant/Jacoby and Hoffman York and Campbell-Mithun’s local office were out.

The finalists are WPP Group shops J. Walter Thompson and Young & Rubicam, and Havas’ Euro RSCG Tatham Partners.

DCEO communications director Laura Hunter will oversee the final reviews with Jan Jostner, Tourism’s deputy director.

Although network TV lost ground, total ad spending grew 6.8% to hit $61.7 billion during the first half of the year. Total broadcasting rose 4.7% to $31.3 billion and print increased 8.6% to $25.9 billion.

Some of the strongest gains came from cable TV, nationally syndicated broadcasting and Spanish-language TV, according to ad tracking firm TNS Media Intelligence/CMR.

Internet advertising had one of the biggest gains, rising to 15.3%.