THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA
GRANT HESLOV, PAMELA KOFFLER AND NATE MOORE ON THE PRODUCER’S ROLE IN THE CASTING PROCESS
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ENTICING TAX CREDITS + CHAMELEONIC LOCATIONS + DEEP WORKFORCE = PRODUCTION RENAISSANCE IN CHICAGO
P. 38
How the reality show visionary and Bunim/Murray Productions have set the bar for the genre by spurning manipulation, insisting on authenticity, and raising up voices whose stories weren’t being told
// MARCH | APRIL 2023
“STEVEN SPIELBERG INVITES US INTO HIS HOME – AND HIS HEART –
EXPLORING FAMILY, FORGIVENESS AND THE SOARING POWER OF STORYTELLING.”
PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA AWARD NOMINEE DARRYL F. ZANUCK AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PRODUCER OF THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES
Produced By KRISTIE MACOSKO KRIEGER p.g.a. STEVEN SPIELBERG p.g.a. TONY KUSHNER p.g.a.
MARCH | APRIL 2023
JONATHAN MURRAY IN THE BUNIM/MURRAY PRODUCTIONS OFFICES IN GLENDALE 16
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UNSCRIPTED PIONEER
With such shows as The Real World, Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Born This Way, Jonathan Murray and Bunim/Murray Prods. helped establish the template for the reality revolution.
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CASTING FOR GEMS
Producers Grant Heslov, Pamela Koffler and Nate Moore weigh in on the casting process.
38 CHI TOWN ON THE RISE
Ever more enticing tax credits, chameleonic looks, and an increasingly deep workforce have spurred a production renaissance in the Windy City.
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NO SUBSTITUTIONS
For the makers of The Bear, there was never any question about using Chicago to play itself, and getting the gritty details of the restaurant world just right.
Ten years ago, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown debuted on CNN, the culmination of the gonzo author-host’s TV career that spurred many imitators.
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History of The Motion Picture Industry That Have Ever Achieved Unaminous Consensus with Critics Groups; The New York Film Critics Circle, London Film Critics’ Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and The National Society of Film Critics. Now There are Four TÁR is
ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINATIONS INCLUDING TODD FIELD
DARRYL F. ZANUCK AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PRODUCER OF THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES
Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert
The Guild began its 2021–22 fiscal year on solid financial footing. We successfully navigated the initial COVID challenges and continue to flourish. Out of an abundance of caution, the PGA cut its budget for the 2021–22 fiscal year and carefully managed its expenses. As a result the Guild ended the 2021–22 fiscal year with net revenue of $4.1 million. As a reminder, the Producers Guild of America is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit, and its charitable arm, the Producers Guild Foundation, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We have no shareholders and pay no dividends. We pay no taxes on our business-related income. All net revenue is either reserved for a rainy day to help the Guild remain afloat during a downturn or invested in the organization with the goal of improving our member services, increasing the impact we can have on the industry and safeguarding our financial future.
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Produced By trains the spotlight on some of the Guild’s newest members, and offers a glimpse at what makes them tick.
The cofounder of immersive entertainment company CityLights, whose mission is to use virtual and augmented reality to enhance storytelling, Joel Newton believes in the transformational power of technology. The proof is in the pudding, with such director-producer credits as the VR short Experience Yosemite (2022), Tutankhamun: Enter the Tomb (2019), and, as exec producer, The Martian VR Experience (2016), developed with Ridley Scott. He was also an exec producer on the three-part VR experience, Spheres (2018), with Darren Aronofsky.
AT WHAT POINT IN YOUR LIFE DID YOU DISCOVER WHAT A PRODUCER BRINGS TO THE TABLE?
Right after college I had a chance to help produce some live events in Chicago. I found myself renting a van and driving across three states to pick up a coffin. It’s a long and silly story, but when I finally got back to our hotel, one of the veteran producers of the project said, “Now you’re a producer.”
WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO GO INTO PRODUCING?
When I was in film school at USC, I did a project that totally fell apart because the “producers” had made a lot of promises that weren’t kept. The next year one of my friends was starting a film and I said, “Let me produce this so you won’t have to go through what I went through.” Advocacy for directors and writers was a big part of my introduction to producing.
WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED ABOUT PRODUCING?
Be in the problems business. Try to take everyone’s problems away from them, or get them the help they need if you can’t.
WHAT’S ON YOUR PRODUCING BUCKET LIST?
Producing a full remaster of a classic film in virtual reality.
Karly Placek’s career can be traced back to the documentary short Rainbow Crow (2014), which she produced and directed, about Two-Spirit activists trying to reclaim their roles within Native American society. More recent credits include doc series The Henry Ford Innovation Nation With Mo Rocca (2019–22), on which she served as producer, associate producer and writer, and Did I Mention Invention? (2019–20) as associate producer.
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION PEOPLE HAVE ABOUT THE PRODUCER’S ROLE?
Folks often say that in order to be a producer, one must be skilled at wearing many hats. I believe this is true to a certain extent, but I’ve found that it’s even more important to be able to wear many pairs of glasses. If you can understand the perspective of every single team member on a production, you can better make decisions that are favored by all. Truly understanding others’ perspectives is a crucial component in fostering empathy—and empathy is, in my opinion, the most vital force at the vanguard of reshaping the way media is made.
With such shows as The Real World, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Surviving R. Kelly and Born This Way, Jonathan Murray and Bunim/Murray Productions have played a key role in establishing the template for the reality revolution.
Written By Whitney Friedlander Photographed By kremer johnsonThese are among the many memorable catchphrases associated with reality television. But for a certain segment of the population who are Gen X and younger, nothing is more iconic than the one that begins, “This is the true story…”
Those words kick off the main title sequence for MTV’s The Real World They imply that audiences are about to peer into the lives of seven strangers who agreed to let camera crews record them living together in a revolving door of oh-so-stylish dwellings in a hip city.
Premiering in 1992— 19 years after PBS documented the not-so-placid existence of An American Family and eight years before CBS introduced American audiences to the voyeuristic Big Brother The Real World acted as a lightning bolt of relevancy and insight into the minds of a generation coming of age in a new political and social era. Not knowing what to make of this new type of programming, the Los Angeles Times described it as “contrived” in May of that year and then a “documentary” that June.
For its target audience, the show’s various seasons would be an eye-opening education on the complexities of race relations, AIDS, abortion and don’t-ask, don’t-tell. For those viewers’ parents—and for advertisers—it was ongoing insight into what interested youths.
“I’m not here to make friends.”
“Make it work.”
“You’re doing amazing, sweetie.”
“The tribe has spoken.”
“I was rooting for you!”
The groundbreaking phenomenon that The Real World became was not a foregone conclusion, especially since soap opera vet Mary-Ellis Bunim and broadcast news producer Jonathan Murray had trouble even selling their idea. Even after they successfully pitched it to then-MTV head of development Lauren Corrao over breakfast at New York’s Hotel Mayflower (“What if we could do a soap opera without actors?”), it was months before the series got a green light.
But eventually, Bunim and Murray’s “docu-soap” would not only usher in a new era of TV storytelling, it would also forever change the definition of “television producer.”
It wasn’t that Bunim and Murray didn’t have appropriate resumes or that they lacked vision. She had the experience and ability to pace out drama over multiple episodes. Murray, in addition to his news background, knew what it meant to “see” yourself reflected in the media. He appreciated the way British documentarian Michael Apted’s Up series looked at socioeconomic impacts over the course of his subjects’ lifetime. Apted’s project started in 1962, when Murray was 7 years old and growing up in England— the same age and nationality as the subjects in the first chapter of Apted’s work, Seven Up!. Murray, as a queer kid growing up in the ’70s, also felt a kinship with Lance Loud, the openly gay son in An American Family
But appreciating and doing are different things.
“The first season of The Real World, we had an idea of what we wanted to make and some ideas about how to go about that. But it was all untested. We were just making it up as we went along,” Murray admits now.
In those years before self-tapes and social media, “casting” the show involved pasting up flyers in laundromats and other places they
thought young adults might frequent. They’d stop people on the street if they seemed interesting—a method, Murray says, that still proves effective today. In the early years of their attempts to create an eclectic group of castmates, the term “diversity” was predominantly a Black and white issue. Other racial divides—along with sexuality, economic status, religion and disabilities—would be explored in more depth in later seasons. (One of the most memorable moments of my impressionable youth was hearing Pam Ling, a housemate in the show’s San Francisco-based third season and who is second-generation Chinese American on her mother’s side, expertly define the term “Oriental” as an adjective for rugs or food, not for people).
Murray says the first season of The Real World was made for around $115,000 per half-hour episode, which included the perk of free office space at MTV. But the network “significantly upped the budget for season two to reflect the challenge of producing and editing this type of all-encompassing production.”
Murray admits that he and Bunim, who passed away from breast cancer in 2004, made mistakes that first season. Capitulating to MTV’s fear that there wouldn’t be enough story, Murray says that they would “throw some pebbles in the pond.”
The result was that “the cast threw boulders back at us. And we sort of had to rebuild trust with them.”
The biggest conflict arose when producers planted the Bruce Weber book Bear Pond in the house, which was significant because the book contained nude photos of housemate Eric Nies. When cast member Heather Gardner found it, she mocked him, causing Nies and other housemates to turn on the producers. The producers apologized, and none of that story material ended up in the show.
“We quickly learned that you just have to have confidence in the people you cast,” Murray says. “We realized that there’s going to be an ebb and flow.
“When there’s a prize at stake, if someone misrepresents themselves or there’s something you didn’t know about that comes to light at the last minute, you might have to pull them.
Either for the fairness of the competition or because it’s just not appropriate to show them in that situation.”
You’ll get a lot of story in the first couple of weeks. Then the cast is tired and they’ll go into hibernation mode. We learned to just to let that happen. Relax about it, and know that once they’ve regenerated their strength, we’ll get more story.”
What resulted was innumerable hours of footage, which were then handed over to series editor Alan Cohn.
“Editors are the unsung heroes. Editors make the rest of us look so good,” Murray laughs.
He says that, going back to The Real World, the Bunim/Murray Productions process includes creating an outline and talking it through with the editors before sending them off to investigate the material.
“We would empower our editors to act as a check on us to make sure that story is really told,” Murray says.
The process developed during The Real World would start with the production team’s field notes, which—because the cast was monitored for all 24 hours— would be written up at the end of each shift so the incoming producers would know what was happening. The notes and tapes would be sent to the postproduction office, where the tapes would be duplicated for protection. A supervising story editor and story editor would oversee the story team as it created an outline and a three-act structure, with a main “A” storyline and a secondary “B” storyline.
The editors would then examine everything and, Murray says, “They had power to come back and say ‘No, I don’t think that story works.’”
MTV alum Corrao says that The Real World “was made in post,” and that aside from the initial setup of putting seven
strangers in a fishbowl, “the idea was to not have it be contrived.” The goal was that the story would evolve organically and not be something derived by a “leading-the-witness” type forcefulness.
“Unlike reality shows today, we didn’t tell them what to do; we didn’t force them to do anything,” she says.
Editor Cohn worked on the first season of The Real World and part of the second season. He recalls that for a test pilot of the series, he combed through 120 hours of footage, filmed over a Thanksgiving weekend, to piece together a single minute of footage that would set the grungy-yet-earnest tone that defined its early years. A fan of documentarian Fred Wiseman’s ability to find the beauty in the ordinary, Cohn developed the then-revolutionary idea of splicing audio of someone talking about
something banal like having orange juice and sandwiches over otherwise overlooked footage of orange juice and sandwiches—even if they weren’t the exact orange juice and sandwiches mentioned in the anecdote. The result was a feel of a relatable reality that would show, rather than simply tell, the audience what happened.
Incorporating strategies like that meant that The Real World wasn’t just creating a road map for BMP; it would influence the entire genre.
“One of our biggest contributions were creating the process by which you do reality television as a whole,” Murray says “We would apply a lot of the basic principles of dramatic storytelling to telling our stories.”
Since the success of The Real World, BMP has had its hand in such reality competition shows as what is now known as Paramount+’s The Challenge, which saw Real World alums square off against each other for the spin-off series Road Rules; Project Runway during its brief stint on Lifetime; and the two series that forever changed the concept of “celebrity”—E!’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Fox’s The Simple Life, centered around alleged besties and privileged socialites Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.
BMP has also made impactful series and documentaries about people with disabilities, including A&E’s Born This Way, about young adults with Down syndrome, and HBO’s Autism: the Musical. The company has also given voice to long-silenced sexual assault survivors: E!’s Citizen Rose, which followed actress and activist Rose McGowan after she went public with her allegations against Harvey Weinstein; and the game-changing Lifetime miniseries Surviving R. Kelly
The company’s credo, which Murray says was handed down from Bunim, is “Let’s step back and look at the story (to find) what is the most interesting and
surprising way that will service it best and give the viewer the most enjoyment.”
This dedication to detail and craft permeates the company. Julie Pizzi, BMP’s president, started as a segment producer in the ’90s for what was then called MTV’s Real World/Road Rules Challenge. In addition to participating in an hour-long interview with Bunim and Murray, her application process required her to submit challenge ideas and
writing samples. She also had to take a grammar test—something she wishes the company still required because, she says, “It weeds out a lot of people who don’t really care about writing.”
This desire for quality and authenticity extends to casting searches, especially as the internet and social media have made us all a lot less genuine. BMP’s
casting process includes stringent background checks to verify that the supposed personality people present in interviews is an accurate portrayal of who they are when cameras aren’t rolling. This system is the result of years of trial and error, and Murray says it now includes “a psychological screening to make sure that they have the strength to do the show and that it’s healthy for them to do it.”
This doesn’t preclude casting people who hope to use BMP shows to catapult themselves to fame and recognition. Mike “The Miz” Mizanin came on the 10th season of The Real World with the goal of becoming a professional wrestler. He and his family now star in the BMP-produced USA Network series Miz & Mrs.
“You don’t want surprises. You don’t want to put someone in the show not realizing who they are,” Murray says. He adds that especially for competition shows “when there’s a prize at stake, if someone misrepresents themselves or there’s something you didn’t know about that comes to light at the last minute, you might have to pull them. Either for the fairness of the competition or because it’s just not appropriate to show them in that situation.”
It also contributes to the company’s employee retention. Pizzi says this is because they like to work with people they can trust—and the people they work with like to work for people who respect what they do. When Pizzi started at the company, she thought she would be expected to sit with editors and go beat-by-beat through each storyline or music cue. Bunim told her that wasn’t necessary because “our editors are storytellers.”
When BMP was founded, Murray says, “there weren’t a lot of walls up between the departments.” Employees were encouraged to shift from casting to field producing to story development so that they could see how everything worked and find which niche of the medium made them the most passionate.
This also had the economical benefit of keeping quality employees around during the reality TV boom of the early 1990s when demand for field crews and editors increased, as did their pay. The company instituted an in-house training program to work with up-and-coming talent, which would give them hands-on experience and reduce budget costs. Murray jokes now that “there are lots of people in the business who went to BMP University!”
“People who don’t work in reality TV have lots of misconceptions about it. There are a lot of brilliant people in every craft in reality TV,” he says, adding that “I don’t think the (relatively low) cost of producing a reality show makes it any easier to get greenlit.
Networks are watching every penny and are always pushing to bring down the cost. That’s especially true for long-running hits whose staff and talent receive yearly salary increases.”
But earning the confidence of those who work behind the scenes doesn’t always require the same skills as working with those in front of the camera, especially if they are budding celebrities.
Murray says the difference between casting people to be on The Real World or Road Rules versus filming something like Keeping Up With the Kardashians is that it’s a host-versus-guest mentality.
For one thing, the producers don’t get to choose who is on the show.
“You’re going into a set situation,” he explains. “Before you even take on the project, you have to decide if the onscreen players are interesting enough on their own to bring in viewers. You have to judge whether that group of people is
fascinating because you’re not able to add someone to it.”
The other is a question of boundaries, both actual and figurative.
“When you’re working with the Kardashians, you’re going into their house; you’re going into their world,” he says. “So it’s a bit more of a negotiation about what you have access to.”
This could be different for each family member, he says. When sister Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick had their children during the run of the show, they had a camera in the delivery room that the couple was controlling. Not all family members were that open, and the producers respected this.
“The reason the Kardashian series on E! was so successful was that we, and the network, were able to build a real
“I THINK IT’S HARDER FOR CELEBRITIES TO LET DOWN THEIR GUARD AND TRUST THE PROCESS. IT TAKES A MINUTE, AND I THINK YOU CAN SEE THAT IN A NEW SEASON. WE CAN ALWAYS SEE A POLISH THAT IS HARD TO CUT THROUGH. BUT AS TIME GOES BY, YOU MIGHT GET SOME SCENES WITHOUT SO MUCH MAKEUP ON, OR THEY BECOME A LITTLE LESS FILTERED.”
trusting relationship with them where they felt safe to be themselves,” Murray explains. “We would go into an episode thinking we’re filming one thing. Then when one of those crazy moments of real life just happens, they were very good about letting us continue filming. Later we’d work out how we were going to tell that story.”
BMP clearly earned the family’s trust. The company also produced spin-offs for E! like Khloé & Lamar, about sister Khloe Kardashian and then-husband Lamar Odom; and the documentary series I Am Cait, about parent Caitlyn Jenner’s life after her gender transformation.
Although the family members’ stars grew as a result of the show and other factors, Murray says that the objective of the producers remained the same: “Find the humanity in the family.”
“With the Kardashians, as outrageous as they might be sometimes, ultimately, they’re family,” he says, adding that “as producers of television shows, you always want to have your central character be sympathetic. I think the Kardashians, through the 20 seasons that we made, always remained sympathetic and likable.”
Just like with The Real World, shows about celebrities can require patience before a story develops.
“I think it’s harder for celebrities to let down their guard and trust the process,” says Pizzi. “It takes a minute, and I think you can see that in a new season. We can always see a polish that is hard to cut through. But as time goes by, you might get some scenes without so much makeup on, or they become a little less filtered.”
But Pizzi says that, even at their worst, all reality TV stars must have something positive going for them.
“No villain-type character gets cast if they don’t have redeeming qualities,” she says. “At the end of the day, there are people you love to hate. But there’s got to be something about them that you care about or you don’t want to watch them.”
Just like in actual life, there’s no onesize-fits-all strategy to earning cast members’ trust or learning how much filming each person can endure.
After casting Born This Way, the A&E show about young adults with Down syndrome, BMP partnered with the disability-led nonprofit RespectAbility. Lauren Appelbaum, the organization’s senior vice president of communications, says with that show and its spin-off Born for Business, RespectAbility would provide crews one-sheets with information about each person’s disability. Producers also
learned to create schedules that could accommodate people who couldn’t be filmed 10 hours a day.
Applebaum says that they would also provide feedback on optics of plot points or music choices that might unintentionally elicit the wrong emotion or misconception. For example, a business closed because of COVID, not because the owner had a disability. The goal was to not sensationalize and to avoid something that might be construed as “inspiration porn,” a term she defines as “this idea that someone who has a disability is used to prop up the nondisabled person.”
On The Real World: Las Vegas set with MTV execs. Opposite: In Colombia with The Challenge host TJ Lavin; with the Born This Way cast after winning the Reality Emmy in 2016
“We’ve all heard how some unscripted and reality shows manufacture situations to cause people to get a little upset or heighten emotions,” Applebaum says. “There was a concerted effort to make sure that did not happen with Born This Way.”
Murray says his company took on Born This Way because it followed the trajectory set up by The Real World, which was all about “pushing up previously marginalized voices and making sure everyone had a voice.”
“We’ve always had this desire to use the medium to raise up voices that weren’t being heard,” he says. “It was also
good for us economically, because people weren’t telling those stories. It brought something fresh to the marketplace.”
It also made an impact on his personal life. Murray joined RespectAbility’s board of directors in 2016. When he and partner Harvey Reese redid their home, they made sure to make it more accessible.
But even as participants and viewers of reality TV have become more savvy, producers still have to walk the line between a good story and exploitation. Murray recalls a moment from the 16th
season of The Real World when producers learned that housemate Danny Jamieson’s mother had died before Jamieson had received the news. When the call was coming in from Jamieson’s dad, the camera operator was instructed to stand back and give Danny his space.
This tightrope act becomes even more difficult when producers are doing a series that is largely about trauma. Murray admits that Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly series, which aired its third and final installment in January, was “a very challenging thing to put together.”
“A lot of work went into trying to tell that story well and trying to make sure that it was fair—specifically, to his victims, the people he had preyed on,” Murray says of the multiple women who came forward to speak of the musician’s abuse after years of being silenced.
“There was a lot of conversation within the production team about how best to tell the story. We didn’t want to glorify him. But we did want to understand where he came from: his childhood, his background, his music.”
Murray says writer-directors Nigel Bellis and Astral Finnie mixed survivors’ interviews about the musician’s abuse and manipulation tactics with interviews with journalists and others who could speak to the roadblocks faced to bring Kelly down. “It was very much an innovative program and set the pace for a lot of others that followed.”
Despite his company’s eclectic resume, Murray says he likes that reality TV production is still small enough for companies to home in on specific interests and fan bases. For example, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s World of Wonder has made an empire out of the reality competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race and other queer-specific content.
But is any of it real? Or is it fake?
“I think all of what we do (in life), whether it’s what we’re doing right now or what we do in reality or in documentary, we are all producers, directors and editors making choices,” Murray says.
Ain’t that a true story? ¢
In narrative features, if story provides the foundation, character forms the building blocks. In this regard, the importance of casting cannot be overstated. After all, for audiences, “Who’s in it?” is just as important as “What’s it about?”
Or, as producer Grant Heslov puts it: “You’ve gotta have the right script and you’ve gotta have the right actors. If you don’t have those two things, it doesn’t matter what you do. It’s not going to be successful.”
The role of the producer in this process is just as varied as the movies we see in any given year. Like the medium itself, it’s collaborative, with directors, producers, casting directors and the studios and financiers who put up the money all weighing in to one degree or another.
Produced By spoke to three pros known for their work in different realms: Marvel’s Nate Moore (blockbuster franchise properties), Smokehouse Pictures’ Grant Heslov (studio-backed specialty features), and Killer Films’ Pamela Koffler (art house indie fare) about the role of the producer in casting, how to balance aesthetic and commercial considerations, the viability of “bankable” stars, what casting directors bring to the table, and how streaming has affected the equation.
The following excerpts were edited for clarity and brevity:
Producer on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), The Eternals (2021), the upcoming Captain America: New World Order (2024)
As a producer, my role is to be the surrogate, real-time audience (member) who asks the questions an audience would ask, and be there in the room, and say to a Ryan (Coogler) or a Chloé Zhao or a Joe and Anthony Russo, “Hey, I’m seeing this, too” or “I agree, that will work,” or “You may think this but I think this other thing.” And just be a partner in the process and not take over the process.
Our other role, obviously, is a little more practical—figuring out from a deal standpoint what makes sense and what doesn’t, because obviously part of the producer’s role is being mindful of what a budget is. You don’t want to spend all of your money on casting, so sometimes you have to make hard choices—like not being able to get someone because their quote, which they’ve earned, is too much for a certain role to bear.
So you’re wearing both of those hats and hopefully those are not in competition with each other. I think if you can have an honest dialogue with your filmmaker, both of those perspectives are important and hopefully embraced.
Producer: Dark Waters (2019), Wonderstruck (2018), the upcoming She Came to Me (2023)
The producer’s role varies so much from project to project. But I would say it’s to keep a very big-picture view of how casting choices can influence both the artistic success of a project and also enable it to make sense in the marketplace.
Those are two tensions that are always engaged with each other, and that I think the producer must really keep an eye on while guiding the process. You don’t want to cast the wrong performer in a role just because it becomes more “bankable.” But you also don’t want to ignore the reality that a certain kind of film, depending on how it’s being financed, does depend on a level of casting.
Those things can live in a healthy relationship with each other so that the movie gets made, and the movie succeeds creatively.
Grant
founding partner, Smokehouse Pictures
Producer: Argo (2012), August: Osage County (2013), The Tender Bar (2021)
It varies, depending on the situation— the relationship the producer has with the director, and how the material was developed. So there are a lot of ingredients in getting to that point. I can tell you that when George (Clooney) and I work together, which is often, when we’re writing, we’re thinking about actors.
In other (instances) where I’m just producing, there’s probably more discussion around casting than anything else. Sometimes there are battles and sometimes it’s easy. A lot of people want to weigh in as well. Creative executives at the studio—if you’re making it outside of a studio and there are financiers, they have feelings about it. So there are a lot of balls
Nate Moore VP of production and development, Marvel Studios
Pamela Koffler founding partner, Killer Films
to juggle, but usually what we do is figure out who is best for the part and go after whomever we have to.
Koffler: Honestly, for truly independent films—which are typically adult dramas, very original material, stories that are typically not studio films—the way those get financed, the degree to which an actor still has some value in foreign markets, for independents, it absolutely still matters.
I think everyone in the industry— filmmakers, financiers, agents, actors— understands that for the survival of the smaller independent films that we love and we don’t want to go away, everyone has to acknowledge the economics. I think that is starting to happen. There’s a more transparent conversation about what everyone can get paid, what the budgets can bear. As long as it’s equitably allocated, I have found that everyone is understanding that that’s what it takes.
On She Came to Me (upcoming, with Oscar winners Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei), stars made sense. It’s a comedic romance. The characters are vivid and charismatic and specific. The actors we were lucky enough to cast are real stars, and have star quality. So that effervescence and that thing stars have really worked for this story. (Director-writer)
Rebecca Miller is like a pied piper for artists, actors and everyone. The casting was very mindful of not just financing, but whether it worked creatively. We needed to cast these people correctly.
Moore: In the Marvel universe, presales are not as much of a factor in casting. I think Marvel is more about the property than the stars, but that doesn’t diminish the innate importance of your actors and actresses. For us it’s not about who brings star power; it’s about who can breathe life into these characters and make them feel like your characters.
From the beginning, we have been fortunate for a million reasons to go for what at the time would have been considered nontraditional stars like Robert Downey Jr., (Iron Man, 2008),
who was sort of coming out of a slight slump, or Chris Evans (Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011), who had already been the Human Torch (Fantastic Four, 2007). Or Chris Hemsworth (Thor, 2011), who for American audiences had only been in the beginning of the Star Trek movie (2009). To anchor these characters who had become iconic, we used actors who were incredibly talented but were not the most famous people at the time.
We’re very lucky in casting. We don’t have a green-light committee who needs X amount of stars to say yes to anything. Disney has always been very supportive. They never forced us to hire (anyone) or said, “Can you get somebody who is more commercial?” I think they understand, because we road-tested it, audiences just want to come out and see the best movie. If that’s with somebody already incredibly famous, fantastic. If it’s somebody they get to meet for the first time, also great. As long as our movies work, we’ve had luck with audiences embracing them.
Heslov: Ticket to Paradise (2022) is a perfect example (of the star system at work). You have Julia (Roberts) and George (Clooney) up there—a pairing where people know what they’re going to get. It’s not like the film was breaking any new ground. It was never intended to. It’s a vehicle to get George and Julia up on screen and have fun. I think it’s 100% successful, and the box office ($169.5 million worldwide as of January 27) shows that.
But we both know there are tons of movies with movie stars that tank. And vice versa, movies that don’t have stars. A lot of alchemy comes with making films, and a lot of luck. You can have a great script and a great director and actors, and for some reason the movie doesn’t succeed. I don’t know of anybody who sets out to make movies that are not good or that won’t make money, but the truth is it happens all the time.
On August: Osage County (with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts) there’s a version of that. You could literally take the actors who did the play, which was spectacular, and put them in the movie.
Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep in August: Osage County COURTESY OF CLAIRE FOLGER / THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY
I think George and I would have been happy with that. Unfortunately, that’s a movie that can’t get made. In order for it to get financed, that’s how we had to cast it. I think we were lucky.
Heslov: Some actors just care about the material, and then they’ll make a deal based on what the production can afford. They’re looking more holistically at ‘We want to get this movie made.’ Then there are some people where the money has gotten to a certain point in their career and this is what they demand. For the most part, we try to work within that.
We’ve never lost an actor (because) we couldn’t make a deal.
Koffler: It’s true that big movie stars don’t suddenly turn a difficult project into a big-budget project. What they do now is make it possible at a low budget.
Just because you have Tom Cruise in a dark, challenging, original story, you don’t get $50 million. You might get your $10 million. I’m being a little glib, but that’s how I see the bankable stars working in this ecosystem.
Moore: On Wakanda Forever, Ryan (Coogler) had some great ideas on the narrative swings we could take, including the character of Namor (Tenoch Huerta), Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) and Aneka (Michaela Coel). Ryan is very smart and worthy of everything people say about him. So for Michaela Coel, it was being part of this property specifically that got her excited.
Dominique Thorne was no secret. We had her audition for the first (Black Panther) film and sort of kept our eyes on her. She ended up in Judas and the Black Messiah, which Ryan Coogler produced. So when we were talking about Riri Williams, it was a one-person conversation. The same with Michaela for Aneka.
With Namor, when Ryan decided to anchor (the underwater kingdom) Talokan in the mythology of Mayan culture, then it was, “Who are actors from that region who would make sense, and who are powerful?”
One of the things that makes Namor compelling is that there is a charisma, a humanity and a vulnerability to a guy who is incredibly powerful. There’s a soul in there. So we knew there was an actor who could breathe life into this character, because if Namor doesn’t work, the movie falls apart.
Koffler: This is what’s called casting, and really, in auditions and callbacks and that whole process, there’s the element of “Is this actor exactly right for this role right now?” I think in the case of (newcomers) Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry, 1999) and Dane DeHaan (Kill Your Darlings, 2013), they were fantastic, and they served the movies incredibly well creatively.
Koffler: Casting directors are really important. A lot of the directors I work with, when we are in the world of making offers, (casting directors) are really doing their homework. They’re watching everything.
And (directors) are talking to their casting directors about strengths and inclinations and natural temperament, and everything about an actor that you can discern from watching their body of work, and interpreting that as it relates to what the character is and how that actor can then interpret that character. It’s a real discussion.
It’s not like working off of a grocery list at all. So I find casting directors can really participate creatively in that analysis. In terms of casting the 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 parts that are not the leads, it’s as it ever was—just a great casting director who filters through choices and presents them to the director and they narrow it down from there. And they keep looking if the right person hasn’t been found.
And then there’s the producorial side, which is also to interpret the logistics and pragmatics of a very busy movie star being able to fit (a project) into a schedule and attaching to a movie that may not have a start date. All that brings to bear on how feasible a choice is.
Casting directors also have their finger on that pulse, so it really becomes a big-picture discussion.
Heslov: What Ellen Chenoweth (casting director on The Ides of March) is so great
at is finding new faces. I love watching a movie and seeing an actor I’ve never seen before, and I know George does too. So we’re constantly saying, “Find us those actors.”
She goes out, and there’s a lot of auditions. And when we’re talking about acting, we talked to her about Philip (Seymour Hoffman) and Paul (Giamatti). She’s involved from the beginning. There were a lot of medium roles, in Ides of March in particular, and she finds those actors. That’s one of the fun parts—when you do an audition with an actor you haven’t seen before, and they nail it, or do something with the part that was way more than expected.
Moore: We found both Letitia (Wright) and Winston (Duke), as the Shuri and M’Baku characters (in Black Panther), with the help of (casting director) Sarah Finn. We did a reading and went through the whole process. Both fantastic actors. That was a little bit
more of a mind meld of getting on the same page and then deciding to move forward together.
Heslov: I think casting is equally important in both mediums because you’ve got to cast the best actors. The best streaming shows have the best actors. The only difference is that in streaming, they don’t necessarily need stars to make their shows. Which is why in streaming you see actors who probably would nev-
er have become movie stars 10, 15 years ago because there were only so many movies made. There were only so many people who could fill those slots.
Now you have streaming, and so much good shit out there. I think it’s a renaissance for actors. You could get on one of these shows and your life changes.
A lot of stars are working in the steaming world because there’s so much good material. The thing you can do in streaming that you can’t do in features is get to explore a character over time.
What people often forget is that
Paul Giamatti and Grant Heslov on location for The Ides of March.
"In the kind of work we make, which is very character driven, very director driven, often very original takes on stories, the casting is still absolutely central to the fabric of it." —Pamela Koffler
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these studios and streamers, they’re putting up a lot of money. It’s not insignificant. But the casting equation is the same: You want to cast the right person.
Koffler: If you’re with a streamer, perhaps the business model is different. Maybe the range of creative casting is a bit wider and more connected to other factors—subjective creative suitability. I imagine the economics are less clearly tied to the international marketplace, where you’re selling territory by territory to build a budget for a film. Actors’ bankability in those territories really is something sales agents try to quantify.
In the kind of work we make, which is very character driven, very director driven, often very original takes on stories, the casting is still absolutely central to the fabric of it. I don’t see that shifting in the kind of work we’re making.
Anthony Salamon is co-CEO of LA-based Picture Business International and its subsidiary, Studio+, a hybrid production facility that opened in 2022. He has served as executive producer on the sci-fi feature Without Ward (2022) and the docu series Access All Areas: Erebus Motorsport, which aired on Fox Sports. Salamon’s other credits include serving as a writer-directorproducer on the Australian TV series Davo DiY (2016) and producer on the feature Birth of a Warrior (2012).
AT WHAT POINT IN YOUR LIFE DID YOU DISCOVER WHAT A PRODUCER BRINGS TO THE TABLE?
I always wanted to be a producer since I was 17 years old. I didn’t know what it truly meant to be a producer until I had made several disastrous projects and I realized exactly what it is that a producer brings to the table—and how not to produce.
Two influences made me want to be a producer. Firstly, Robert Evans. What a producer! He inspired me to keep pushing and striving to be a producer. Secondly, the classic sci-fi film Blade Runner . When I saw that film and realized someone had to produce it, that was the push I needed to go learn what a producer does—and then do it myself.
Heslov: There’s the thing of “We’re going to cast the movie with exactly the actors we want,” and sometimes the actors you want aren’t enough to get the movie made at the level that you need to make it at. So then you have to ask, “Who is the actor who’s right for the role but also meaningful enough to a distributor or a financier to actually get the movie made?” That’s a line that all producers have to deal with. That’s just reality. It’s just the economics. Unless you write your own check, which I don’t know many producers who do. You’ve got to make compromises sometimes. When I say compromises, I mean not just that you’re not getting great actors, but you also have to realize it’s a business.
Moore: Marvel may seem like a big place, but we’re really a small group of people making these movies. There’s a comfort in knowing that it’s not a place where you get lost in the shuffle. It’s a place where you can walk into the room with me and (president) Kevin (Feige) and (copresident) Louis D’Esposito and (president of VX, post and animation) Victoria Alonso, and we talk about it and decide together.
I think the benefit we have as a studio is that we’re small and nimble and it doesn’t feel corporate.
Koffler: If you are a studio film, and you’re one of those movies that are unusual—dramas, serious films, adult dramas, whatever you want to call them—sometimes the casting is a little bit less from a list and more of a “The studio really likes this actor.” Or for whatever reason, this actor works for this project. That’s just another signal to read and understand and integrate into the creative process.
Koffler: I think the biggest shift is that in-person auditions are over. I can’t imagine the industry going back to that. We have done chemistry reads in person once we have narrowed a role down to two or three performers. We’ll have the lead who’s working with those actors to help a director make a final decision.
But since COVID and since Zoom, digital auditioning is standard. I don’t see it going back unless a director is very, very attached to the in-person process.
Heslov: We used to do auditions in person. We don’t do them so much anymore.
Moore: I think diversity is not a goal in a vacuum. Diversity is about telling really interesting stories people want to hear. In Wakanda Forever, people in Mesoamerica who are Mayan or of Mayan descent are probably going to feel seen, maybe for the first time in a big way. And I think people who aren’t Mayan will want to know more.
One of the things I will say about the first movie was not only that Black Panther and the world of Wakanda resonated with African and African American audiences, it resonated with all audiences, because people felt, from every nation in the world, hopefully, that embracing your own culture was cool. It was about how rich our shared culture is. I think one thing Ryan is interested in as a filmmaker is looking at old cultures and saying, “Look, there’s great stuff over here.” It’s not just for (one) culture; it’s for everyone to enjoy. If at the same time people feel seen, how great to do both.
But it really is narrative driven for Ryan, not agenda driven. I hope audiences feel that. ¢
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Laura Lewis, CEO of Rebelle Media, touts such theatrical producer credits as the period romance Mr. Malcolm’s List (2022)— and the 2019 short it’s based upon—and contemporary romance Long Weekend (2021). She also served as exec producer on the documentary For Walter and Josiah (2022), about a rash of suicides in a small Native community, and the dramatic thriller An Acceptable Loss (2018).
WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO GO INTO PRODUCING?
One of my earliest jobs was working for producer Ed Saxon. Watching how he’d get so passionate about getting a story told or a voice he wanted to support really inspired me. Also what gets me up every morning is knowing that we have the power via the stories we make to open hearts and minds, create empathy and change the world. I truly believe that.
WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED ABOUT PRODUCING?
I feel so lucky to have such a great support system of fellow producers and executives in this business. Here are a few pieces of advice they’ve given me: Every project is its own experience, so you can’t solve one problem the way you may have handled it before. Be patient—everything takes longer than anticipated. Listen, listen, listen. Also, especially for indie films, keep your Dropbox very organized!
LAURA LEWIS Angela Bassett in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever COURTESY OF DISNEYThe film business is all about the people you know.
If you want your project done efficiently and professionally, you want to know us, the film crew of Albuquerque, N.M.
We have the capacity, the work ethic, the experience, and skills that are essential for your production. When you hire in Albuquerque, you employ A-team talent inspired by a welcoming atmosphere of innovation, integrity, and respect for all.
In an industry as risk-averse as entertainment, why take chances elsewhere? We are Albuquerque Film – united to work for you.
Ever more enticing tax credits, locations that range from gritty urban to timeless suburban, and an increasingly deep, trained workforce have spurred a production renaissance in Chicago and its environs.
Written By David HeuringChicago’s reputation as a brawny, no-nonsense metropolis contrasts sharply with Hollywood’s buttoned-up company town tradition. But the Windy City has learned a lesson or two from the dream factory in the last decade and is quickly blossoming into a major film and television production center.
Chicago’s urban landscapes, diverse neighborhoods and nearby rural and small-town settings have always had their distinctive charms, visible in a spate of memorable features in the 1980s and ’90s, including The Blues Brothers, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Fugitive, The Untouchables and Road to Perdition. After some growing pains and a pandemic-induced interregnum, Chicago is humming. In 2021–22, more than 40 major productions were mounted in the city, including indies (Black Mold, North of the 10), streaming series (Shining Girls, The Bear), network television (One Chicago, Batwoman) and studio features (Be My Eyes, Heist 88). The boom can be traced back to 2003, which saw the first incarnation of Illinois’ production tax credit, a 20% break that offered a glimpse of what was possible. In 2009, the credit was boosted to 30%, and soon thereafter a 10-year extension was passed—a major catalyst, especially in the episodic sector, because shows could commit to Chicago with less uncertainty.
Starz’s Boss and Fox’s Empire put down roots, as did the NBC Universal Dick Wolf Chicago franchise, including Chicago Fire, P.D. and Med Vendors like Panavision, Keslow, and Cinelease arrived or expanded their facilities, and in 2011, Cinespace Chicago Film Studios opened on the 70-acre site of the former Ryerson steel complex. In the ensuing decade, that key facility has grown to include 36 soundstages, helping to bring an estimated $3 billion in film-related spending to Illinois. The largest independent movie studio outside of Los Angeles, Cinespace’s recent tenants include Showtime’s The Chi and Shameless, and FX’s Fargo season four. New studios and soundstages are under construction or planned for Chicago over the next two years.
Film production spending in Illinois amounted to three-quarters of a billion dollars in 2021, the most recent year for which there are figures. At least 80% of that was expended in Chicago. That’s more than triple the number for 2012, roughly $190 million. By 2019, the year before the pandemic hit, that estimate was just north of half a billion.
JANUARY 2023
Illinois Film Production
Tax Credit is extended for another decade
$Illinois residents and nonresidents with a WAGE UP TO $500,000 qualify for the credit
But the latest news, received gleefully by producers, may deliver still more impetus to Chicago’s impressive growth. In early January 2023, the Illinois legislature extended the Illinois Film Production Tax Credit for another decade, further enhancing several attractive changes that went into effect on July 1, 2022. Producers, especially those coming from out of state, are intensely interested.
First, the wages of all Illinois residents and those of a limited number of nonresidents up to $500,000 qualify for the credit. That number was previously limited to $100,000, and until recently applied only to Illinois residents. Now, qualifying nonresident positions include writers, directors, directors of photography, production designers, costume designers, production accountants, VFX supervisors and editors. And for an Illinois production
QUALIFYING NONRESIDENT POSITIONS: writers, directors, directors of photography, production designers, costume designers, production accountants, VFX supervisors and editors
spending $25 million or more, four actors would qualify for the credit up to a maximum of $500,000 in wages.
Christine Dudley, executive Director of the Illinois Production Alliance, says these changes in the tax structure help Illinois adapt.
“The film industry is always going to move faster than the government,” she says. “Governor Pritzker and the legislature recognize not only the last decade of industry growth, but even greater potential going forward. Streaming productions like Apple’s Shining Girls and FX/Hulu’s awardwinning The Bear, with eight or 10 episodes, are now taking over from 23-episode linear television programs, and our tax policies must be designed with that in mind. On limited series, it’s now easier for department heads to work in Chicago without moving here permanently. Those benefits everyone.
If your production SPENDS $25 MILLION OR MORE, four actors would qualify for the credit up to a maximum of $500,000 in wages
Another advantage of the program is the transferability—there’s a thriving aftermarket for tax credits—and there’s no cap on how much can be issued in credits in a fiscal year.”
Chicago’s strong growth over the past decade led to concerns about the available depth of crews, but Dudley says that is being alleviated, in part thanks to superlative efforts by union locals and to respected production training programs at Columbia College, DePaul University, Northwestern and elsewhere. She adds that the ability to bring in top out-of-state department heads under the new law will further accelerate the education and experience of local talent.
“When the 2022 expansion legislation was crafted, a workforce development fund was initiated,” says Dudley. “Through the fund, the state offers grants specifically for film workforce
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training. The trade unions recognized the need and helped tailor the legislation. Everybody’s devoted to increased strategic training programs. They’ve really put their shoulder to the wheel to make sure that more people are getting into the pipeline and getting their cards.”
NBC, HBO and other production partners have provided enthusiastic cooperation for training, and Dudley says the result has been significant. Illinois was also the first state to insert a below-the-line diversity clause into its tax credit program, a move that has been closely imitated in New York and has been reviewed by California for its diversity and inclusion efforts.
Tyson Bidner served as producer on eight Chicago-shot episodes of The Bear. The critically lauded FX series is set in a sandwich shop copied from an actual River North Italian beef joint frequented by the show’s creator, Christopher Storer.
You might say Andrew Singer is in the parody business. Three of his most noteworthy executive producer credits, Portlandia (2011–18), Documentary Now! (2015–19) and Schmigadoon! (2021), are send-ups of PNW hipster progressives, earnest nonfiction programming and Golden Age Hollywood musicals, respectively. He currently serves as exec producer on The Other Two, which examines the vagaries of fame and fortune in the internet age with razor-sharp wit. The DNA of these shows can be largely traced to Saturday Night Live alums. That’s hardly a coincidence, since Singer is copresident of film and television at Broadway Video, for which longtime SNL producer Lorne Michaels is a principal player.
WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO GO INTO PRODUCING?
In a world and business that are largely transactional, I am inspired by the fact that we literally produce things. I recently got to screen our series Schmigadoon for my three young children. I took pride in knowing that we manifested something new and original in the world.
WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED ABOUT PRODUCING?
That talent is our North Star, and that great producers leave no fingerprints. Both are cultural touchstones of Lorne Michaels.
“This was a show that was meant for Chicago,” says Bidner. “But given the environment we’re in, every studio weighs the pros and cons of shooting in a certain place. So the tax incentive helps. What’s great about Chicago is that it’s a film and television powerhouse. They have deep crews. So even if during the pilot and the first season (of The Bear) there were eight or nine (other) shows going on, they could support them. Not every city can. We have crews with a deep level of experience, which brings professionalism to every aspect.”
Bidner credits the Chicago Film Office for helping with permits and traffic—important, given how busy the city is. The surreal nighttime bridge sequence that opens the first episode was a coup, he says.
“It makes the series,” he says. “No disrespect to Toronto, but shooting this in Toronto and trying to make it seem like Chicago— you’re missing an element. It worked out so well that we’re going back in the heart of February to do this again.”
Tyler Romary serves as executive producer on the HBO comedy-drama series Somebody Somewhere, soon to air its second season. The show takes place in small-town Kansas, but it’s primarily shot 30 miles from the Loop, in Lockport and Warrenville, Illinois. Producers point to the deep pool of actors in Chicago and the grounded and nuanced feel of Midwestern performances as big draws.
“Chicago has become the new Atlanta, in my opinion,” says Romary. “We were originally going to shoot our project in LA, but locations were tough, and for budget purposes, we couldn’t get there. Lockport was perfect. We bring department heads from the coast, and our post is done in LA. The towns are great. They welcome us with open arms. Changes in the tax incentive have helped. The Chicago Film Office has been extremely helpful if there’s a snag, and they’ve been super about connecting us with the unions. It makes for a smooth transition, which helps when you’re coming in from LA.”
Wileen Dragovan is also based in Los Angeles, but her experience in Chicago production goes as far back as The Fugitive, on which she served as location manager. Her current project
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is South Side, a slice-of-life comedy set around a rent-to-own business and the small-time hustlers who run it. After its debut season on Comedy Central, the show moved to HBO Max and is now cruising into its third season.
South Side is set in, and mostly shot in, the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. Some interiors are built on stages at Cinespace. Other identifiably Chicago locations have included the Shedd Aquarium, Comiskey Park, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. One entire episode was a takeoff on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
The show turns out 10 cross-boarded episodes during the three summer months, when there’s less competition for crew and equipment. Dragovan sees an increasingly fluid migration of crew between LA, Atlanta, Chicago and other production centers.
“The show is written for Chicago,” she says. “When we started, COVID was making it difficult to take full advantage of the tax credit. But the IATSE locals have done a great job of getting more trained people, and the expansion (of the credits) has helped in that regard. So many people were working together to make that happen.
Part of the city’s unique appeal, says South Side’s Dragovan, is the local oncamera talent. “Maintaining that flavor is important for us,” she says. “And the crew situation is less parochial, because a lot of people from other parts of the country have come here to chase work. With streaming, there’s a lot more opportunity everywhere. When you’re on a production, you can’t help but learn very quickly.”
“Shooting in Chicago never feels provincial, because it’s a big city,” she says. “But it is more of a clubby, homegrown atmosphere. That’s less true now than it was in the 1990s, when everyone was from the area. The recent change in the tax credits, which means you get a break on out-of-town actors, directors, production designers, etc., will only accelerate that evolution.”
UPM James McAllister has been based in Chicago for three decades but works all over the world. Recent Chicago-based assignments include Matt Reeves’ The Batman and David Fincher’s forthcoming feature The Killer
“Until 10 years ago, it was very up and down, and very feature oriented,” says McAllister. “The increase in infrastructure has been important, but other markets are busy, too, just based on the amount of product. You need the work to build the infrastructure and to get experienced crews. Everything is moving in the right direction.”
McAllister points out that Smash Virtual recently completed a 19,000-foot virtual production stage in Chicago’s South Loop, fully equipped with LED video walls, live camera tracking and an Unreal Engine 3D system.
“Directors love to shoot in Chicago, because there are so many looks,” he adds. “Mostly, the Fincher film was about the gritty, urban city streets. But we also shot in the suburbs, places that
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Chicago Film Office Resources
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don’t get a lot of filming, and I think David was very happy about that. We had a few sets that were not specific to Chicago, and we were able to find settings to replicate other places or stand as fictional cities, and still stay within the same area. You have urban and rural, and you have mundane suburban, but also suburban with some texture and flavor.”
McAllister calls Chicago home, and says he works there as much as he can. “I’ve got a family here and it’s been a good community for that. We’re very supportive of each other. People in Chicago will help other productions and look out for each other. They want to see the city succeed and look the best that it can—especially crews that have seen it go up and down. You have a good solid, kind of a Midwestern work ethic to start with. The attitude of both film offices is ‘How can we make this work?’ The universal goal is that everyone leaves happy.” ¢
Chicago Creative Directory creativedir.com/ category/filmvideo
Cinespace Chicago Film Studios cinespace.com
Chicago Studio City chicagostudiocity.com
The Mill (VFX, postproduction, color correction) themill.com
For the makers of The Bear, there was never any question that Chicago would play itself. Practical locations were key, and the beauty is in the details.
Written By Steve Chagollan
The Bear creator Christopher Storer, left, with cast members
Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White on location in Chicago
another seismic shift comes along that makes you rethink everything you thought you knew about what we eat, where it comes from, and how it’s prepared.
For many TV viewers, that shift came with FX’s The Bear, which is set in Chicago and chronicles a James Beard Award-winning chef’s attempt to revive a run-down Chicago Italian beef sandwich joint that was bequeathed to him by his brother, who took his own life.
The show became a binge-watching obsession this past summer for anybody who has toyed with the idea of cooking professionally, experimented in the kitchen during the COVID lockdown, or craved foodie entertainment that went beyond competition shows and preciously photographed master-chef profiles.
Much of the show’s gritty authenticity comes from its sense of place and the experiences of Christopher Storer, who created the series and acts as writer, exec producer and co-showrunner with Joanna Calo, who also shared directing duties with Storer. His resume includes the 2013 documentary about renowned chef Thomas Keller of French Laundry fame called Sense of Urgency, a mantra that The Bear’s protagonist, Carmen, played by Jeremy Allen White, tries to drill into his ragtag crew.
It helped that Storer and Bear producer Tyson Bidner, who first worked together on the Hulu series Ramy, were on the same page from the get-go. They aimed for a noholds-barred depiction of how real kitchens work, including the dysfunction of a staff resistant to change, and the close-quarters, physically demanding, even dangerous environment that goes with working in a restaurant, using practical locations and cramped spaces to their advantage.
“When Tyson and I were talking about putting this show together,” says Storer, “and even when talking to Tyson about budget and what an eight-episode order looks like for a show like this, we started to realize the thing that was important was to really show how hard it is, how gnarly it is. And in that sort of gnarliness, and then intensity, you see a different beauty of the food, which is to say like it’s just as beautiful when it’s grimy and sort of intense.”
Storer grew up in the Chicago suburb of Northridge and knew Chris Zucchero, owner of the storied Mr. Beef on Orleans—the restaurant that inspired the series’ fictional Original Beef of Chicagoland. Consultants included Storer’s sister Courtney, who cooked at such acclaimed LA eateries as Trois Mec and Animal, and real-life chef Matty Matheson, who plays handyman Fak in the series and is credited as
coproducer. Storer himself has also kicked around kitchens in his time as a line cook.
The food world is often glamorized, even fetishized, in movies and on television. But Storer and Bidner wanted to steer it in the opposite direction to attain the kind of naturalism that was evident in the tween drama Eighth Grade (2018), which Storer produced, even if the emotions and the deep-seated conflicts in The Bear are ratcheted up to a feverish pitch.
“I do think it’s hard to get right because first and foremost, you need a producer like Tyson who understands the story you’re trying to tell,” says Storer. “Secondly, I think it is such a difficult job to do, which is why it’s also great that we had my sister Courtney and Matty around, telling us when it looks semi accurate or not accurate at all. I think the spirit that’s sometimes missed in other food things I’ve seen is that they seemed to be about one person.
“Anyone who works in a restaurant will tell you it’s really a team thing, and it depends on the execution of a bunch of people. They all have to work in rhythm and in sync. It’s a job not a lot of people can do, which is why the people who can do it are really special.”
The dynamic is not unlike producing a series. “Every second in a kitchen counts,” says Bidner, “and every second on a production counts. I think for Chris and I, one of the big things we try to do is create an environment that’s very relaxed and very calm so that there’s not a lot of chaos. Let the chaos be on screen.”
Adds Storer: “I think having that knowledge of the ticking clock of the show definitely informs how we make it and allows us to keep a great atmosphere on set. Because Tyson and I know what each other is capable of. He knows how many pages I can do (as a director) in a day, and I know how he likes to put the apparatus together.”
Time management on The Bear began with having the entire season’s screenplays in hand before a single frame was shot, thanks to Storer and his writing team. That meant there would be no last-minute curveballs to throw the production off track. “Every show I’ve been on that is successful starts with getting the scripts on time,” says Storer. “It allows me to look at the big picture and strategize as far as cross-boarding, shooting out locations, shooting out actors who are coming in from LA—those sorts of things.”
The organization paid dividends for the filmmakers. They were able to shoot an episode in four and a half days, “which is fairly quick in television,” says Bidner. It bought them extra time and earned them bonus points to deal with contingencies
JUST WHEN YOU THINK FOODIE CULTURE HAS PEAKED,
that added immeasurable value to the show. An example was getting red-hot actor Jon Bernthal to play Carmen’s brother Michael in a flashback sequence—a key scene that established his charisma and why his death rocked the lives of virtually every character on the show. Bernthal was busy filming the Showtime series American Gigolo in LA, so the filmmakers had to travel to where he was.
“I pitched FX on going out there (to LA), bringing the central crew and picking up the rest of the crew,” recalls Bidner. “We had found a location that worked perfectly in LA. I presented it in a way that they couldn’t say no because I wasn’t asking for extra money or for extra time. At that point we had been on our best behavior and accumulated all these savings so that we could make it work.”
The early scripts also gave the actors time to ingest their roles and engage in a level of prep uncommon in television. As a result, White attended cooking school for two weeks and worked in restaurants in LA, New York and Chicago,
including the Michelin-starred Pasjoli in Santa Monica, learning under the tutelage of Dave Beran. Lionel Boyce, who plays the sweet-souled pastry chef Marcus, traveled to Copenhagen to spend time with world-renowned baker Richard Hart. He also visited haute-cuisine mecca Noma in Copenhagen, which is considered the North Star for Carmen and his sous-chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri).
“Again, it all goes back to time,” says Storer. “We knew Carmy and Sidney had to be classically trained. We knew that they needed to sharpen their skills literally in a lot of different kitchens. Because the scripts were done on time, everybody was dialed in. We could allow the actors to spend the time (researching their roles). You definitely feel it in their performances.”
Adds Bidner: “It’s more than just learning the lines. There’s a lot of choreography, there’s a lot of dance within that kitchen. (The actors) spent a lot of time training and learning how to make it all look real.”
The beauty is in the details. Viewers who revel in the cooking process see plenty of it in The Bear. We witness a silky reduction for lemon chicken piccata made in real time. We learn that a tray of water placed in the bottom of a baking oven prevents sandwich rolls from drying out and becoming too dense. We discover that a bouquet of herbs placed in a pan of heavy cream for mashed potatoes amounts to a “game changer,” according to Storer. And anybody who’s spent half the day fashioning a complex stock will wince at a scene where a huge barrel of cold, gelatinous veal stock topples to the floor in the restaurant’s walk-in.
“The routine is real, and so much of that came from my sister’s and Matty’s journeys through their culinary careers,” says Storer. “It’s like every day there’s a heartbreak and every day there’s a gigantic win. And you’ve just got to wake up every morning and do it again.”
Adding to the show’s verisimilitude was the use of the locations as written. The series was shot in River North, where the story takes place. The city’s presence is so palpable that it becomes a character in the show. “You could talk to someone who’s lived in LA for the last 30 years, but if they’re from Chicago, they have a deep pride and a deep love for the city that we wanted to have within the show,” says Bidner.
“A big part of that is the food. It’s not just about the hot dogs and not just about the beef sandwiches,” he adds. “It’s just something about Chicago. I was a location manager for 20 years before I built my career up into being a production manager and then a producer. So every script I read, I try to (figure out), ‘How can we tell this story and show off the city itself?’”
For the pilot, all the exteriors and the front of the house were shot at the actual Mr. Beef and the surrounding alleyways. The filmmakers also found a kitchen nearby, which they reconfigured to more or less match the specs of the original.
“We recreated that kitchen almost perfectly,” says Storer, “except making a little more room for dollies to get through. But the size of it is almost to spec to allow that cramped, frenetic, everyone’s-on-top-of-each-other kind of footprint.”
Matheson likened the experience to working in a submarine—a sense of claustrophobia heightened by extreme closeups, and people getting in each other’s faces
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when tempers flare out of control. At one point in episode seven (directed by Storer), filmed to look like one continuous take, Carmen’s volatile family friend Richie (Ebon MossBachrach) is accidentally stabbed in the back by Sydney. Luckily for him, it was just the tip.
“The space restrictions were weirdly kind of a benefit,” says Storer. “I think part of what makes it feel alive and more authentic is we tried to keep it as enclosed as possible. We knew it would add to the tension and would never feel like Tyson and I were just showing off and trying to do like a 20-minute oner. But rather the lack of cuts meant the pressure was just going to keep going up and up.”
The hostility in that episode—when Carmen experiences a meltdown so ugly and furious that both Sydney and Marcus turn in their aprons and quit—almost pales in comparison to the withering put-downs Carmen endures (in flashback)
from the head chef in the fine-dining establishment that put him on the map as a rising star. It also points to the series’ high-low contrast of what constitutes a satisfying meal out, and the human costs involved.
“Where we are with food today is obviously very complicated and tricky,” says Storer. “I think there’s a lot of conversation right now about how sustainable some of the Michelin-style restaurants are, and how people are getting paid. All of those things go into what our characters are going through. Specifically Carmy, who has been trained in those worlds, and who is gifted. But he also loves the food that he grew up with, the food from his family.
“And look, I can tell you that I’ve eaten at some of the best restaurants in the world, and I’ve eaten at Mr. Beef in Chicago. And I think that Mr. Beef is better than some threestar Michelin restaurants I’ve been in.” ¢
PRODUCER JEREMY LATCHAM, WHO has earned the producers mark for his work on the FILM ADAPTATION OF THE POPULAR BOARD GAME DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, TALKS ABOUT APPROXIMATING ITS ROLE-PLAYING MAGIC, AND WHY HE’S AS EXCITED ABOUT THIS AS ANYTHING HE WORKED ON IN HIS 14 YEARS AT MARVEL.
Jeremy Latcham, a producer on the upcoming board game adaptation Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (March 31), is familiar with big pop culture IPs. As a Marvel movie veteran, he served as an associate producer on the first Iron Man (2008) and executive producer on The Avengers (2012), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) The latter was written by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who took the writer-director reins on Dungeons & Dragons. One
of his fellow D&D producers, Brian Goldner, who was the chairman and CEO of Hasbro, died in August, 2021, as the film entered post. Goldner was key in convincing the Hasbro brain trust to rethink action figures like Transformers and G.I. Joe into blockbuster Hollywood properties.
Entertainment One (eOne), the Canadian production studio acquired by Hasbro in 2019, and Paramount Pictures teamed up to finance Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, is the maker of Dungeons & Dragons, which has
enjoyed a resurgence in popularity due in no small measure to its prominent role in the Netflix series Stranger Things. An earlier theatrical adaptation of the role-playing fantasy game was released in 2000. And while it presaged Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies and the HBO series Game of Thrones in the sword-and-sorcery realm, it ended up a commercial and critical disappointment. The latest iteration was shot in 74 days with as many as 400 extras, and the help of ILM and MPC to give it the kind of sophisticated VFX that eluded the original release.
I don’t know the actual numbers. But I will say that Dungeons & Dragons has one of the rare and vaunted spots in the history of pop culture of America. It is one of those games that has been ever present in everyone’s lives in one way or another. And to me, there’s very few things out there that have had this kind of staying power. You know, we’re looking at the 50th anniversary of D&D next year, and it is something that is growing in popularity. It is more popular than it’s ever been—I know that much.
I think Stranger Things obviously has had a huge influence by opening up tabletop role-playing to a broader audience. I think people are yearning to connect
with each other in a real way, and this is a great way to do it. You get to escape to another world, and you get to create a character and go on an adventure with your friends. I think the movie does a great job of capturing that spirit and emulating what it feels like to play the game.
The ability to find beautiful locations that fit the screenplay exactly as we’d envisioned it really made Northern Ireland, where we did the bulk of the photography, the perfect location for us to shoot in.
We needed a kind of traditionally medieval kind of feel and look. I think the scenery in Northern Ireland really played a big role in making it
a viable location. Obviously, there’s a big tax incentive to be had in the U.K. in general, and an even bigger tax incentive in Northern Ireland. So that was a big factor.
And the crews are really experienced. They had Game of Thrones there for years; The Northman (2022) had just shot there, and a bunch of shows were coming in right after us. They’re really building out the facilities and the space to make for a really A-caliber shooting location.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAYTO-DAY ROLE ON THE FILM.
I was on the film every single day of the shoot, and I’m really the creative partner to John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. I’ve known them since SpiderMan: Homecoming, which they wrote. I was the film’s executive producer when
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PRODUCED BY TRAINS THE SPOTLIGHT ON SOME OF THE GUILD’S NEWEST MEMBERS, AND OFFERS A GLIMPSE AT WHAT MAKES THEM TICK.
I was at Marvel. The three of us were the core team that worked day-today with the cast, with the script, with the location and with the crew, making the film together. I feel like we made a movie that’s as big and as exciting as anything I ever made when I was at Marvel.
CAN YOU GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF A LOGISTICAL PROBLEM THAT AROSE DURING THE SHOOT AND HOW THAT WAS ADDRESSED?
Nicole Sylvester is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker who hails from Detroit. Her feature debut as a writer-director-exec producer is Maya & Her Lover (2021), which has played at several film festivals, including the Harlem International Film Fest and the Detroit Trinity International Film Fest. Both bestowed it with their Best Feature prizes. Her other producing credits include Blood Bound (coproducer, 2019) and Cargo (2017). She also served as a production coordinator on Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021).
I was inspired by old Hollywood. Learning stories about how films like Jaws, The Godfather and Chinatown came together was magical. I started working on movies in the late ’90s and I was a huge fan of films made during the ’90s indie boom—especially films by Robert Townsend, Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers.
The best advice I ever received about producing was to never be afraid to ask for it—don’t talk yourself out of asking by assuming the answer is no. Let them tell you no. There’s a 50% chance the answer will be yes.
I would say the biggest challenges from a logistical standpoint were just trying to make a movie of this size and scale and scope during the pandemic. We were scheduled to shoot in France for some location work and went there on a proper scout and started making plans. Then COVID numbers changed in France and the risk-management team and the COVID officers felt like it was unsafe to go there, so we had to retool an entire production plan to find castles in the United Kingdom that we could still travel to. So we ended up shooting some stuff in England at the very last minute for some of the exterior location work. It was quite challenging to move those pieces around.
WHAT IS THE KEY IN YOUR MIND IN MAKING THESE BIG IP PROPERTIES WORK?
To me, the key to any endeavor that you’re putting on screen is in this order: heart, humor and spectacle. You have to make the audience feel. Through making them feel, you can make them laugh. And I think you have to show them something they haven’t seen before. It has to be something that doesn’t feel rote. You have to look at the world a different way. It doesn’t mean you have to have visual spectacle that’s expensive;
it just means you have to have something that’s new for an audience to see and experience.
WHY UNVEIL THE FILM AT SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST?
South By means we can put the film in front of a big, real audience three weeks before it comes out and hopefully exceed expectations of what a movie based on a 50-yearold, tabletop, role-playing game could really be.
LASTLY, THE FIRST DUNGEONS & DRAGONS FILM (2000) WAS PANNED ACROSS THE BOARD AND BOMBED AT THE BOX OFFICE. DID IT ACT AS A CAUTIONARY TALE?
I’ll be honest—I have not seen it. Intentionally. It was made in an era before these kinds of movies were given their due, before budgets (enabled) the sort of visuals you needed. A lot of it is now working on the backs of Sam Raimi and Jon Favreau and Peter Jackson. These people have come out and said this genre of fiction matters to people, and is worth being taken seriously. It’s those people who have paved the way for what I think is a renaissance of big-screen storytelling. ¢
Certification via the Producers Mark indicates that a producer performed a major portion of the producing functions on a specific project. Criteria, its definition, the process for earning the mark and other particulars can be viewed at producersguild.org.
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This spring, April 14 to be exact, will mark the 10th anniversary of the debut of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown on CNN. The show ran for 12 seasons, right up until Bourdain’s untimely death in 2018.
Although it has spurred imitators in the travelogue and food space hosted by the likes of Stanley Tucci, Marcus Samuelsson and Padma Lakshmi, Parts Unknown’s gonzo mix of wry sociopolitical commentary and renegade spirit gave it a distinct edge, and made it hard to pin down.
According to Lydia Tenaglia, cofounder with husband Chris Collins of Zero Point Zero—the production company behind Bourdain’s signature shows dating back to A Cook’s Tour on the Food Network (2002–03)—Parts Unknown represented the culmination of Bourdain’s aspirations as a TV writer, host and executive producer.
“The shows became more deeply complex, sociopolitical, strongly essayistic,” Tenaglia tells Produced By. She likens the evolution to advanced stages of education. “Cook’s Tour was like high school,” she adds, “No Reservations on the Travel Channel was like college, and on Parts Unknown he had become a sort of professor emeritus.”
If some viewers thought Parts Unknown had become too topical at the expense of a more foodie focus, there was never any blowback from CNN, which used the show as a springboard for its 2013 move into original, unscripted programming and documentaries.
“They saw the show as this incredible, story-driven extension of the news,” says Tenaglia. “While it wasn’t current events, so many people said Tony was as much a journalist exploring journalistic topics as anyone on the news side.”
This meant forays into ever more difficult and challenging destinations like Afghanistan, Iran and Libya—“complicated locations with complicated histories,” as Tenaglia describes them.
It also meant a more cinematic approach to the series, drawing upon Bourdain’s cinephile leanings and his encyclopedic knowledge of films and literature. For example, the season one episode on the Congo references Joseph Conrad’s haunting novella Heart of Darkness and the Vietnam war epic that it inspired, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. And the season 11 spotlight on Hong Kong is stylistically influenced by the movies of Wong Kar-wai, whose frequent collaborator, the DP Christopher Doyle, even shot parts of the episode.
As the desire to innovate grew with each new episode, so did Bourdain’s exacting nature. “Tony was very emphatic about the topics he wanted to cover, and the way he wanted to cover them,” Tenaglia explains. “More often than not, he got his way.” In the process, the exchanges between Bourdain and the Zero Point Zero principals would get “spirited,” as Tenaglia euphemistically puts it.
“He would be a real asshole with us and we would be assholes back,” Tenaglia recalls. “And we loved each other.”
Bourdain’s stubborn perfectionism, the series’ relentless pace (Bourdain was on the road for three-quarters of the year), and what Tenaglia called a “grueling, absolutely punishing schedule” eventually took their toll, leading to burnout for many involved. It also led to an existential crisis for a host who had gained such gravitas that he’d end up sitting opposite President Barack Obama in Hanoi for a meal during season eight.
The show’s lasting legacy, though, is solidified, having earned two PGA Awards, 12 Emmys and a Peabody—TV’s equivalent of a Nobel Prize.
“He left a major imprint on all the people’s lives who worked on this series,” says Tenaglia. “It was something that deeply challenged everybody.”
