In the Chicago film industry’s best year to date, 1999, the total revenue for the state was $125 million. Lop close to $100 million off that peak rate and you have the dismally low total revenues of the film industry in the year 2002.

It was not a good year, industry experts agree. "2002 really stunk up the place," said Bob Hudgins, acting director of the Illinois Film Office (IFO). The $27.6 million the IFO has calculated as last year’s industry revenues is a far cry from the $85 million that was the state’s 10-year average.

The runaway film Chicago was yet another loss to the Canadian film industry

From a production volume and economic development standpoint, 2003 was truly a very slow year, said Rich Moskal, director of the Chicago Film Office. "In terms of unpredictable and turbulent times for the industry this is one of the worst I’ve seen," he said.

Perhaps there is some comfort in the fact that our region is not alone in its suffering as runaway production continues to threaten the film industry here and across the United States.

For Hudgins the appeal of Canada’s tax credits, rebate incentives and the still low Canadian dollar are the big reasons for 2002s dismal showing. "Canada gets kudos; they started to think ahead a lot sooner than we did," he said. And the cost-savings they can bring to a production has netted the country’s locations a number of projects that were written for Chicago. For example, the award-winning musical Chicago or the explosive small-budget hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding both went to Canada and only came to town for a single day each to shoot exteriors. "It’s not like people aren’t writing screenplays for Chicago or Midwest locations," he said. "They just aren’t doing them here."

At the same time, though, some positive things did happen in 2002 that may bode well for Chicago’s future as a production center, Moskal said.

Barbershop was filmed in the city by Columbia College film department grads Robert Teitel and George Tilman Jr. and employed 48 Chicago actors. The filmmakers’ loyalty to Chicago has paid off. The film was a big box office success and now MGM is considering shooting a sequel in the city as well as a spin-off television series.

Other major film projects were Robert Altman’s The Company which relied heavily on the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and employed 74 Chicago performers, and Normal, an HBO film starring Jessica Lange, which gave 38 Chicago performers work.

Also filming here in 2002 were Bad Meat (20 performers employed), No Tomorrow (20 employed), Slave (12 employed) and Dark (8 employed).

As far as television goes, "West Wing" shot an episode here and "ER," which had not filmed in Chicago since 9/11, finally came back to town to shoot pieces of episodes.

Despite the slow down in Hollywood productions, locally produced independent features held their own in 2002. Uncle Nino which starred Joe Mantegna, a Kick the Can Productions project, was a notable example and employed 22 Chicago performers.

All told, according to SAG’s 2002 tally, 242 performers were employed in features and TV movies of the week.

It was also a big year for student and experimental films, said Kit Woods, assistant executive director of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Chicago branch. There were 29 experimental short films produced in the region with a total of 53 performers, and 22 student films gave 41 performers a job in 2002.

The city also enjoyed positive exposure when the openings of Stolen Summer, the film developed during the HBO documentary "Project Greenlight," and Road to Perdition, which brought Tom Hanks and Paul Newman to town in 2001, were both held in Chicago. "Those types of events I think cast a very public and favorable light on Chicago," Moskal said.

One big change in 2002 was the departure of Ron Ver Kuilen, who had been managing director of the Illinois Film Office for the past seven years. He stepped down in December after 22 years with the IFO, saying he was not leaving the industry entirely but instead making way for new blood in the state film office. His replacement has not yet been named although Hudgins, a strong candidate for the position, said it may be decided this month (see Reel World, p. 21).

Also in 2002, members of the Illinois film industry proved they weren’t about to sit back and let their business shrink away. In December, the Illinois Production Alliance (IPA) held its first public meeting. The non-profit organization aims to promote the production and new media industry in Illinois, inspire job creation, combat runaway production and address other challenges facing its members.

The IPA was formed by production and post-production companies, talent and craft unions, support and service companies, industry-related governmental, educational, and professional institutions and organizations. Founding members include the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), Jellyvision, Essanay Studio & Lighting Company, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Illinois Film Office (IFO).

Runaway film My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Getting organized like this is a proactive step to insure the future of the film industry in Chicago, Moskal said. "We have to look at this as something we’re into for the long haul," he said. The IPA can work locally and nationally to make a difference. "Recognizing what the industry has going for it rather than what it needs from the government is one of the big things the IPA has going for it," he said. Especially as both the city and state governments are facing deficits and will truly have to be persuaded to invest in the film industry in this current economic climate.

Wage-based tax credit legislation to curb runaway production and rebate bills (Senate Bill 1278 and House Bill 3131) are still languishing in committee, Hudgins said. But with the industry speaking as a unified voice through the IPA, there is still hope wage rebates and tax credits might be introduced in Illinois. Hudgins backs the rebate. "A tax credit is really not providing much of an incentive, whereas a labor rebate is," he said. A credit only makes a difference once a production has made money, while a rebate represents ready money in the mail.

But, in the meantime, the industry has to consider why things were so slow in 2002.Was it all runaway production?

Moskal says no: "We have seen a drop off in film, television and commercial production really since July of 2001 and haven’t really recovered due to not only runaway production, [but also] a slow down in the economy and the events of Sept. 11 and many factors that have played out in virtually every production center in the country, New York and LA included."

Runaway production was only a factor, Kit Woods said. She suggested also that the studios seemed to be making fewer movies and that even those people who stayed within the United States to work were going to what were perceived to be the "hot new locations" rather than coming to Chicago and Illinois in 2002.

"We’re a solid, fabulous place to do work in, but we’re not new," Woods said. "The foreign competition has drained away a lot of the films that were made domestically, and now there’s huge competition for the films that are made domestically."

According to the IFO, there were 8,572 jobs in the industry in 2002. That’s down from 14,096 in 2001. Part of the reason is that commercial production in the city and state also slowed. "That’s where the bread and butter for Chicago film production is," Hudgins said. The IFO plans this year to get a better sense of just how many people work in production houses and commercial studios in Illinois. "If people realized how much commercial production was here, maybe they’d be more receptive of supporting that industry," he said. "We’re not giving the existent industry its due."

To ensure Illinois continues to be a player in the film industry, Hudgins says it’s important that people keep evolving and staying on top of the new technologies. "We can either resist change or be part of it, and I sure hope we can be part of it," he said. "Do I think we’re dead? No way. We’ve got too many talented people here."

One move Chicago is looking to make is to build itself up as more of an indigenous production hub. The tools are in place to make the city a production center, Moskal said. "Ultimately I think the more production that originates out of Chicago…the more predictable our futures will be."

There is an effort underway to get the state to buy a privately owned sound stage in Chicago. It would be a very significant incentive for producers, Hudgins said. "We’d be able to immediately go to LA and say we have available studio space… It would be the element that would level the playing field.

"The producers say to us, "We don’t need you to match what’s going on in Toronto, we just need you to get a little closer.’" A sound stage could be the much needed lure. The state wouldn’t be making its revenues off the rentals of the space but instead from the revenues realized from taxes levied and on the revenues from people building sets, renting costumes, putting up cast and crews in hotels and feeding them in local restaurants.

In the meantime, Chicago and Illinois need to keep emphasize their selling points to the people with the purse strings for big Hollywood productions and other projects, the industry representatives agreed. There is a good talent pool here, strong city support and authenticity and personality in a diversity of location types within and surrounding the city.

While, in 2002, Moskal was ready to boast of Chicago’s solid infrastructure, he said that is not so much the case any longer. Businesses have closed–Panavision is the most obvious example–and crew people are moving to LA seeking work. "We have lost some players, and if production continues to slow I anticipate we would lose some vendors as well," Moskal said.

The boon of the film industry is not something Chicago or Illinois is simply entitled to, said Hudgins. "We have to be ever diligent to keep the work staying in our country and our state and it requires everyone doing their best, working a little harder, trying to be a little cheaper."

Woods agreed. "The bottom line is that it’s a business, and it’s the bottom line people who are weighing their options: Should I work here or there?" she said. "We have to all work together to make Illinois the most attractive economic place because we already have everything else.

"All of us need to focus on the real end goal which is to be competitive, as competitive as we can make ourselves," she said. It’s important to find ways to keep the creative energy and talents of the young here in Illinois, she said. "We have to focus on what keeps people employed, what helps them have homes and be married and have kids and be able to send those kids to college and without that we’re nothing, we’re a hobby."

To Hudgins, the good news so far in 2003 is that the phone is ringing, at least. "We’re seemingly well placed to have a good year this year," he said.

Moskal in the Chicago Film Office says the state of the industry is looking up for 2003. "There is without question strong interest on behalf of studios for projects to be shot here this spring and summer," he said. "While little is guaranteed at this point, we’re excited about the renewed interest and hope that 2003 will far surpass the lows of 2002."

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