Copyright 2001 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Chicago Sun-Times
September 12, 2001 Wednesday

Bringing Hollywood to Chicago
Producers seek to lay groundwork for robust film industry

By Sally Duros
CHICAGO - Steve Jones has a film he would like to see produced, start to finish, in Chicago: an adaptation of Nelson Algren's classic novel, "Never Come Morning." If that becomes a homegrown hit, the Roscoe Village resident has a dozen others he'd like to plug into the hometown pipeline.

Jones is the latest member of the Chicago film industry who is trying to create the critical mass of talent and technical infrastructure necessary to transform the city's moviemaking business from B-film status into a first-run premier industry. That effort, city officials said, is picking up steam.

"Things are lining up to make [producing in Chicago] a greater likelihood," said Rich Moskal, director of the Chicago Film Office. "Perception is changing that good films really can be made anywhere: 'The Joan Cusack Show' being filmed here, Harold Ramis moving back, Annoyance Productions pulling together the Entertainment Summit--these are all contributing" to growing production activity, Moskal says. "There is more clarity to the voice of, 'Why not here?' "

For Jones and others like him, one payoff is to put Chicago's network of directors, actors and technicians to work every day of the year.
"We have possibly the best theater community in the world," said Jones, who has produced seven features, the latest with a $30 million budget. "This is a crossroads. Still, we haven't transformed it into a film industry. We never get it to a level where we are constantly working."

For transformation to full Tinseltown-on-the-Lake status, Chicago must first grow the local film business infrastructure--the banks, attorneys, completion bond insurers--that enable producers to wed creative energy to business plans that will inspire investor confidence.

"In Hollywood, you know where everything is: resources, talent," says entertainment attorney Tim Kelly. "In Los Angeles, every bank has an entertainment lending division, and insurance companies provide completion bonds. There's a rental house for every need.

"Looking at the wealth of Chicago talent involved in the industry, you wonder why Chicago hasn't developed the business support."
Kelly, a member of the Advisory Board of the Independent Feature Project/Midwest, feels that what this city needs are a few good hits.
"The challenge is for Chicago to have a more viable catalogue of product, assets that have a cash flow and a value," Kelly says.

Moskal agrees. "If an independent comes out of here with local money and becomes a hit, that would knock down the wall and turn the heads of investors who are straddling the fence," Moskal says.

There's no way to assure backers that a shot-in-Chicago film will make it big. Even in Los Angeles or New York, film remains an extremely risky venture. But somehow, because a production is located in Los Angeles, it seems less risky, and screenplays more credible.

But three forces are reviving optimism about the Chicago film industry:
* The widespread and growing acceptance of independent films.
* The growth in distribution. There are more audiences--national and international--and more distribution channels, including cable, broadcast, video, digital video and the Internet that give all films a chance of finding a profitable audience.
* New technology promises to revolutionize filmmaking in the next 10 years--smaller, less expensive cameras, affordable lighting systems, efficient home editing systems and high-definition video.

When Annoyance Theatre, well- known for comedy shows like "Co-ed Prison Sluts," lost the lease at 3747 N. Clark, Mick Napier, artistic director for 11 years, came up with a plan in which the theater company was reborn as Annoyance Productions.

Taking a lesson from Chicago's tech scene, Napier and business partner Jennifer Estlin put together a plan for a production company.

Annoyance placed among the Top Ten in the First Tuesday PrairieFire business plan competition last fall, a competition that usually favors tech-related start-ups. Writing the business plan helped Napier understand that Annoyance Productions was a broadband media company, selling comedy content through both traditional channels (TV, film and theater) and new technology (wireless, DVD, broadband and handhelds).

Now, at Stage Two of its development plan, Annoyance is producing the Chicago Entertainment Industry Summit. Scheduled for today in River North, the invitation-only summit will bring together representatives of the many industries to begin a conversation about the future of entertainment in Chicago.

Providing cross-pollination to Chicago's tech scene is Alex Jarett, president of the Internet Executives Club and chairman emeritus of the International Game Developers Association.

"Our focus and our goal is to encourage the community from within," Annoyance's Napier says. "We have all the capability to produce here in Chicago at Hollywood standards."

Napier has been on the scene for many years, but Michael Kwielford and Mark Battaglia are recent Columbia College film school graduates with a similar vision. The two started working together in 1999, producing and directing their first film, "Sacrifices," through their jointly owned Vision Pictures.

"We started Chicago Community Cinema because we just kept complaining that there's nothing in town," Kwielford says. "So we said, 'Let's stop asking for somebody else to do it and do it ourselves.' "

In March 2000, they held the first Chicago Community Cinema Networking Festival and Film Showcase. Held the first Tuesday of every month at Excalibur, admission is open to the public for the cost of a movie--$8.

The showcase airs a range of local creativity, from videotaped trailers to full-length feature films. Filmmakers and videographers featured in the festival are encouraged to invite potential investors. The goal: keep the energy alive, and the projects going. Drawing a crowd of 300 each month, the festival has helped Kwielford and Battaglia bring in sponsors like Fletcher Chicago, Kodak and RentCom.
Kwielford and Battaglia say that what they really want to do is produce.

"We want to build a production company that makes feature films, TV shorts and series and documentaries," says Battaglia. "We want to get more businesspeople into the movie industry in this town."

Producer Jones and others say the serial approach to producing is what Chicago needs. But it needs players in the production business who have resources.

"We tend to scrape the money up one movie at a time," Jones says. "There is nobody doing a continuous business here," he says. "You have to make a commitment to making 10 pictures, and prepare for a couple of big hits [that will carry some smaller box office draws]. Chicago doesn't have anyone with that kind of depth of pockets, someone who says we are in this for the long haul."

Sally Duros is a Chicago free-lance writer.

GRAPHIC: Jean Lachat; Jon Sall, Michael Kwielford (left) and Mark Battaglia of Chicago Community Cinema want to build an infrastructure that would provide acting companies with all the resources necessary to make films right here in Chicago. Several indies have held their own against the big production companies. For example, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (left), produced by Sony Classics, made $13.5 million last year and ran that up to $128 million this year; "Billy Elliot (center), by Universal Focus, made $17 million last year; and "Mysteries of Egypt," by Destination Cinema, made $48 million."Michael Jordan to the Max," an independent film by Giant Screen Sports, grossed $14.2 million at the box office last year.Jim Stern (from left) Don Kempf and Steve Kempf, members of the production team for "Michael Jordan to the Max," attend the film's world premier at the IMAX Theater at Navy Pier last year.