I recently had the opportunity to speak with local film industry powerhouse Chris (Christine) Dudley, the Executive Director of the Illinois Production Alliance. Along with other leading Chicago-based women in film like Chaz Ebert, Betsy Steinberg, Erica Duffy, and Kris Rey, Chris Dudley is helping put Chicago on the world map for film production. Recently, IPA presented an Economic Impact Study of production in Illinois that showed the benefits of the tax credit for film production in Illinois (read the full study here).
Chris painted the scope of how the tax credit for film production began in 2003 with a partnership between the Illinois Production Alliance, the Illinois Film Office, and our local government. Since that time, Chicago has evolved into the 4th largest U.S. hub for episodic television and streaming production. This translates to over 15,000 job hires. The majority of these hires are Chicago and Illinois residents. For every dollar issued by the state in tax credits for film productions (starting at $100,000), there is an overall $6.81 return on investment in direct and additional impact activity that is generated for local businesses by cast, crew, and vendors.
Chris Dudley and I talked about all of these things along with IPA’s recent trip to Los Angeles with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. They were able to talk to seven major film studios while they were there along with a private event on the NBC studios lot with almost 200 Chicago-connected film industry members. I feel privileged to report on these events and be able to share the good news about film production in my state, which promises to provide many opportunities for our readership, namely emerging women and non-binary people in film.
Can you talk about what role IPA has in the Illinois film community?
The Illinois Production Alliance was formed in the early 2000s. It was brought together by our community from the stake holders to the vendors to the commercial industry to the filmmakers. The organization was formed as a direct response to facilitate a way to run production in Illinois. Canada had institutionalized a tax credit, so a lot of productions were moving to Canada to take advantage of it. Because of the legacy of filmmaking and crew and the opportunities that have been in Illinois for over a century in regards to filmmaking, IPA was formed as a 501c6. This allowed the organization under IRS law to lobby and advocate on behalf of the film industry. Their goal was to pass with the legislature a modest tax credit in our state. The focus was primarily on productions of feature films, as this was long before streaming television started to take hold of the film industry. So in 2008, along with government officials, there was a bipartisan effort with the state legislature and the stakeholders to form the tax credit program that was enacted in 2009.
One of the really interesting pieces was that the legislation and the statute was really setting a precedent in creating a program that was tailor-made for TV productions and broadcasts. In 2010, IPA was making moves to get a ten-year extension on the tax credit program that was really specific to opening up opportunities to bring TV series productions here. We had series like Early Edition and Prison Break, but NBC was looking to put their footprint down. This was really the beginning of where we stand today in terms of the explosion of production with Chicago Fire. If anybody is familiar with Dick Wolf’s programming for NBC, having a five-year renewal was really not good enough for their planning purposes. It was recognized that having a Dick Wolf program filmed here in Chicago would be a great opportunity for the state. And at that time, we were also supporting other programs like Boss, which is the Lionsgate television program starring Kelsey Grammar. So we needed to secure a long-term plan with the tax credit so television productions could come here to shoot multiple seasons.
IPA has really been the driving force in bringing stakeholders together on the legislative front. Again, it was a volunteer organization for many, many years. My predecessor at the Illinois Film Office, Betsy Steinberg, worked closely with IPA, not only on legislation but in other aspects that would provide marketing opportunities for the film community. During my tenure, I did the same. We knew that we were on the precipice of an explosive time of production in Illinois. Into my tenure at the Illinois Film Office, the board members from the IPA came to me and said, “It’s time that we have an opportunity to establish ourselves as an association. We really need someone to guide that ship as an Executive Director.” So the opportunity presented itself and it made sense for me to step into that role. Since that time, we’ve really grown in terms of our footprint in the industry by realizing the value of setting very specific goals that we were always working in partnership with our government partners.
We realized the vital role of IPA because of the potential to do things that could not have been done on the government level. We went about our business again, expanding with some tax credit programs, and this was during the pandemic. The pandemic gave us time to sit down with all of the players, pull together some data that was appropriate, and also negotiate what made sense in terms of being flexible with where our industry was headed. So IPA led the way with a tremendous coalition that we’ve helped build in moving the tax credit legislation forward. We worked with the Motion Picture Association, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, all of the organized labor unions, and the various stake holders. We had over fifty organizations supporting us, including the work force development organizations, which were a very important part of our legislation.
I’d love to talk about the expansion of the tax credit bill and the Economic Impact study. Can you walk me through that?
In 2019, before I came on board, the tax credit bill had been passed for another ten-year extension. In 2022, we pulled together the coalition, our legislative team and other individuals to support a piece of legislation by the stakeholders that expanded the program to include some non-residents. But also, the expansion of the bill was meant to provide a funding mechanism from the industry to support workforce development and grant opportunities at the Illinois film office, which was institutionalizing and providing them with those resources so they could continue to take that pilot program and make it into an opportunity to train workforce state-wide.
Since that time, we have also turned our attention to an economic impact study, which was a very important element to the expansion of the bill. Many states have done impact studies to a certain degree, but we felt the time had come to really look at the data to get a benchmark measurement of the success of the program as it stood, and also to look at potential opportunities that we should be considering for the future. That particular economic impact study, which is available on our website, was conducted by Olsberg SPI in London. They are probably the preeminent economic surveyors of the film industry, and we released that study in January. Some of the information and the data really stood out.
Most importantly, speaking to the work of my predecessor Betsy Steinberg and Peter Hawly, who is still at the Illinois Film Office and has ran the film office over the past few years, we were very focused on what was the return on investment. We anecdotally knew what it was, but it was nice to see the data. With every dollar spent towards the tax credit, there is almost seven dollars in return to the Illinois economy. And that speaks to the success and the growth of the program. Now things are being decided by our government officials, including the governor. This gave us the opportunity to see where else we should be looking as it relates to the future. It gave us again a comparative benchmark to make sure that we were remaining competitive and capturing a market share for further growth.
Since that time, one of the observations in the study was that we were being a little too midwestern perhaps in our approach to marketing with just being hardworking, doing the work, and getting the work done, but probably not marketing ourselves as effectively as we could. So again, pulling together our coalition, IPA led the efforts in promoting a trip to LA to the governor and the IFO (Illinois Film Office) team, for the opportunity to market and promote our program We thought there would be no better person to market the state of Illinois than our governor, J.B. Pritzker. We were looking to do that last year, but unfortunately, there was a strike. So we had to hold on that opportunity.
We just returned from LA. The governor was there for a three-day visit. He and his team at the government level visited with seven studios in Hollywood. So he met with the top brass in the industry to promote our program, but also listen to where the industry is and some of the observations folks had. We were well-received, and got a lot of compliments particularly related to the Illinois crew base, and the cooperation between business labor and the film industry community. IPA hosted a luncheon with about 100 studio executives, primarily related to physical production in both the TV and film space, as well as people in the finance community.
In the evening, we were at NBC studios on their lot and we had a celebration of film in Illinois. Our overall theme was iconic stories made in Illinois past, present, and future. That being said, we wanted to remind people about the great legacy of Illinois, and the great stories that are told here, along with promoting the opportunity for them to bring their stories to be made here. Again, our governor was our special guest, along with actor Matt Walsh, who is an Illinois native. He is probably best known for his role as the press secretary on HBO’s VEEP. Matt was just tremendous to work with, and he had great fun with the governor. They played a little quiz during the event, like name the title of such and such film made in Chicago. The governor has a great sense of humor, and Matt and him had a good time.
We also had over 170 people from all various studios, plus expat industry members from Illinois at all levels–actors, directors, executives–joining us. We even had a football player from the 1985 Bears who also does some acting. It was just an amazing celebration of the whole conversation of remembering all the films that have been made here in Illinois, but also, most importantly, bringing in new films. For IPA to be able to pull that together and raise the money to do two big events in one day was not an easy feat. But in the end, it paid off and it was an amazing experience to tell our story to industry members in a fabulous way.
What’s the best way for emerging filmmakers to find out about these opportunities?
One of the emphasis points that the governor made, and I’d be remiss to not mention this, especially with your readership, is not only does Illinois have the film production assets, which are deep in terms of crew and in terms of vendors and in terms of production in the creative arts, but also, we are a very welcoming state for people to be who they are. There’s no threat of any harassment or opportunities that would present discrimination. Illinois is a very welcoming state socially and obviously, we have a world-class city here.
In terms of involvement for young emerging filmmakers, one of the areas that the film tax credit applied to from the beginning and is not compromised in any way in terms of expansion, is the low threshold for the application for the film tax film credit, and that is a $100,000 threshold to spend. It is a really important component for folks that are starting to make films at a smaller price point. But we also, in our expansion legislation, allowed for productions budgeted at 25 million dollars or less to have two actors qualify that are non-residents. And that is a really important piece, because so many times to get financing, you will have to have an actor of note attached to the project. We also allow the tax credit for productions with non-resident directors. Again, another good opportunity for folks who are looking to get financing to attach a noted director, an emerging director, and actors in order to secure some financing. So I think that, in and of itself, really speaks to the commitment of the community, as well as the recognition of the government side that it’s important to encourage filmmakers to not only to come to Illinois, but to stay in Illinois because the resources are there for them to develop their craft.
I just felt at that luncheon I attended, there were some exciting things brewing, and it was very encouraging because the strikes really made it difficult for the industry financially, especially with independent film. But where we’re headed seems hopeful. Can you comment on the climate we’re in, and the positive sides of where we’re headed?
Our climate in Illinois is excellent. The strikes impacted everybody, both nationally and internationally. Anecdotally, Illinois came out of it okay. I mean, we have nine shows running currently. It was a tough year, but everyone understands it. If you look at the data, it’s understood that money wasn’t being spent by the customers during that time period, however we launched post-strike immediately in November. It shows that we are up and running because we are seeing an in-flux in productions post-spring. Deli Boys wraps this week, and Somebody Somewhere already wrapped. Power wraps up this summer, and the Chicago Fires wrap up this summer, along with a few other shows.
This seems hopeful!
And it has been for quite some time. One of the purposes of what we’re internally calling “the roadshow” is that we are given another opportunity that we saw at the IPA. We could pull together the government and our stakeholders and do a roadshow primarily around the Chicago community and in the various regions speaking to the legislators and the alders. Our goal would be to provide them with the information that they need both from the Economic Impact Study, but also how to best work with production when it comes to your community, such as having a location manager walk you behind the scenes. In part of that presentation, the Chicago Film Office would talk about their role and the Illinois Film Office would talk about the tax credit, but also the workforce, grants and the opportunities related to Chicago business.
There are over four thousand vendors that are impacted by the opportunities of the tax credit. All of this information is public and it’s very transparent. There are over four thousand vendors in an annual year that are submitted as part of tax credit claims, which includes all kinds of businesses, from hospitality to bakeries to the local hardware store. They aren’t uniquely film-related businesses, but they are businesses that provide collateral or various things to a film production. The road show is an important part of what we are doing. We’ve hosted two now, and hope to complete that once the legislatures return after the spring, because they are all in Springfield right now. And then when they return, we’ll continue to tour Chicago. We believe in the success of these road shows that we are looking to do similar activities with the suburban folk and with the Collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, the five counties of Illinois that border Cook County).
