Last year, the state of Illinois brought in a record almost $700 million in profits from the film industry. Popular shows like “The Bear,” “Shameless,” “Power Book IV,” “South Side,” “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago PD” and “Chicago Med” have all been filmed here in the city, making use of Chicago’s film industry. But the local filming industry was affected by the pandemic.

In 2019, there were over 5,400 permit applications to film in the city of Chicago, but in 2020 that number dropped to just over 2,300, according to data from the Chicago Data Portal. The number of shows filming in Chicago in 2021 almost bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, but the film industry still had issues to overcome.

Jonah Zeiger, deputy commissioner of the Chicago Film Office, explains that the city ends up approving most filming permit applications.

“Priority number one for the Chicago Film Office is to permit production in the city of Chicago. So, we go into it with the attitude of, we want filmmakers, producers, production companies to be able to do what they want to do. It’s relatively rare for someone to be denied a permit,” said Zeiger.

Zeiger says that the film office is aware of last year’s slight decrease in filming permit applications, but that this is not surprising since things are still leveling out coming out of the pandemic.

“I think that there’s going to be more and more [productions] moving forward, but I think this is just a slight dip. I mean, we’re still basically more or less comparable to where we were pre-pandemic, which is great news, considering what we went towards,” said Zeiger.

Gary Novak is the director of the School of Cinematic Arts at DePaul. He explains that Chicago’s film industry has been able to stay resilient because of the numerous benefits the city offers to productions of all sizes.

“I think it’s a very film-friendly city in terms of not just the people, but the infrastructure, the city government and all of that. I think the other thing that’s advantageous is we have really experienced crews here, so if you’re looking to hire local talent, there’s tons of it,” said Novak.

Novak explains that Chicago does have one disadvantage compared to other major filming cities like Los Angeles or Atlanta: the weather. He says it can be harder to film year-round, but local crews are well-equipped to handle the changing temperatures.

Novak says that even with the difference in climate, Chicago has been able to stay competitive because of the Illinois Film Services Tax Credit for productions that film in the state.

“Probably one of the biggest factors is the tax credit, and that’s really what kind of kick-started the production that we’ve got going on now. It’s when the state passed the tax credit in the mid-2000s that made Illinois a very attractive place financially to shoot … and that led to Cinespace deciding to expand here,” said Novak.

The tax credit can cover Illinois production costs, Illinois salaries up to $500,000 per worker, and non-resident salaries up to $500,000 per worker for up to nine employees in certain positions, and it has an additional 15% credit for salaries of employees from economically disadvantaged areas.

These tax incentives were extended for another decade earlier this year by Gov. JB Pritzker. Zeiger explains that this was done because it’s important to the city and the state that productions are filmed here.

“It’s just culturally really important in our time, in our day and age when people get so much of their cultural stimulation from screens, from film and television and digital content, to see your city or your community represented on screen and original stories that are relatable and also to just see the creativity and the uniqueness of your own location and hometown,” said Zeiger.

The film industry also contributes to the city through other areas like tourism.

“Film is a huge tourist driver and a lot of people when they visit a new city, it’s like they feel like they may have experienced it or have some relationship to it if it’s in their favorite film or TV show, and people will seek out certain areas or iconic locations,” said Zeiger.

Both Novak and Zeiger credit the production-friendly tax credits and Cinespace for growing production in the city over the past decade.

Cinespace Studios opened in Chicago over 10 years ago and now operates more than 50 stages and has a full-service business that includes production staff, as well. Many Chicago-based episodic television shows are filmed at Cinespace, and the studio has a partnership with DePaul that gives access to several classrooms and stages for DePaul CDM students. Some DePaul students also work at Cinespace while in school.

Zeiger says that the growth in the local film industry during this time has also led to more jobs.

“Union membership in the last 10 years has doubled in several of the key unions that employ [the] film workforce,” said Zeiger.

Although Cinespace has grown the Chicago television industry, they also faced the effects of the pandemic, but not as severely as other industries, according to Michael Scott Jr., director of industry and community relations at Cinespace.

“There was a time where everything kind of shut down, but because I believe film is a strategic recovery industry, we actually came up before a lot of other folks,” said Scott.

Although the industry has been able to recover quickly with instituting COVID-19 protocols, it is now facing new issues.

“[The] pending writer strike has had productions and studios kind of [held] up as it relates to pilots and sending pilots out because you don’t want to get things started and then have to stop abruptly because of the strike. So, things have kind of leveled off as it relates to production. You know, we were full 2021 and mostly full 2022, [but] 2023 has been a little bit rough,” said Scott.

Much of the filming at Cinespace and in Chicago has been for television, but changes to the Illinois film tax credit are aiming to attract more feature films to expand productions in the future. 

“There was a small amount [of the credit] that could apply to what they call ‘above the line’ and that would be people like the directors, the producers, the actors, people that are coming in from out of state. What they’ve done is they’ve increased the above-the-line component that they think will help attract more feature work to town,” said Novak.

Feature films are more likely to have out-of-state workers in these above-the-line positions, so allowing more tax credits for those positions could bring in more productions. Scott says that Cinespace is also hoping that this will be the result.

As post-pandemic recovery continues for the Chicago film and television industry, some like Novak remain hopeful.

“There hasn’t been a better time ever to get into the film business than now … The demand for content is insatiable and they need people to create it,” said Novak.

Header Illustration by Yù Yù Zander