MOVIEMAKER.COM WINTER 2019 65PHOTOGRAPH BY NIKO TAVERNISE / COURTESY OF LIONSGATE
duction gives a crew and actors experience on
high quality sets,” he notes. “They then bring
that experience to projects like ours. Many
of our crew on The Girl had only been in the
business a short time, but they were some of
the most competent professionals I’ve had the
pleasure to work with.” Stevens also praised
Illinois’ film office, firefighters and police, ca-
terers, and merchants who opened their doors
to The Girl, calling it a “solid foundation” for
the production. “They all made one hell of a
case for why the Windy City is such an excit-
ing place to shoot now,” he adds.
The word may be getting out: In early
2018, Film Illinois Director Christine Dudley
announced that Chicago’s growth as a film
production destination had placed Illinois in
the top five states for film and TV production,
and acknowledged a chorus of voices calling
for Illinois to adopt a tax incentive of Georgia-
level generosity, as opposed to the current
credits, which are aimed at Illinois residents
and geared toward employing locals.
Angie Gaffney, co-founder of film industry
incubator Stage 18 Chicago, professes opti-
mism at Chicago’s future: “It’s the right time
to be in Chi-town. The city’s film industry has
expanded greatly in the past five to ten years,”
she says. “It’s incredible to see what a healthy
film economy has done to increase quality
of life for moviemakers here: Everyone from
independents to union workers have seen ben-
efits, and students can transition out of schoolto the working industry. I can’t wait to see
what the next five years bring.”7
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Toronto’s film concerns these days are
largely high-class, such as not enough
stages and square footage to accommodate
the demand for production. A major under-
taking to revitalize the city’s Port Lands wa-
terfront area that broke ground in early 2018
is tied to an acknowledged need for a bigger
footprint for film studios. In early September
plans were also unveiled for First Studio City,
a 400,000-square-foot production facility in
Markham, Ontario (the Greater Toronto area)
that will cater to the tentpoles that’ve flocked
to central Toronto and Vancouver in recent
years. The facility is expected to cost $100
million by 2020 and part of its mandate will
be to attract productions from Chinese and
Bollywood markets, a sign of the times. Its
central attraction will be a 70,000 square-foot
stage that will dwarf the 46,500 square-foot
stage at Pinewood Toronto Studios.
Ontario’s 21.5 percent film and TV tax
credit (and 18 percent animation/VFX credit)
continue to be a draw to major players. Some
“Hollywood North” products that filmed in
Toronto in the fall included the second season
of Star Trek: Discovery, the third season of
The Handmaid’s Tale, the Jessica Chastain-
starring horror bookend It: Chapter Two, and
Neill Blomkamp’s disaster epic Greenland,starring Chris Evans. Even more is expected
in 2019 when CBS Television Studios opens a
new 260,000-square-foot production hub in
Mississauga, just outside of Toronto. When it
opens in summer 2019 it will be comprised of
six sound stages, support and auxiliary facili-
ties, and office space. CBS produces 63 series
and will use the hub to ramp up TV produc-
tion for broadcast, cable, and streaming.
Disney is also making a push into streaming,
and much like Amazon, Apple, Hulu, YouTube
and Netflix, they all have eyes for Toronto.
Not to neglect the city’s thriving indie and
documentary scene: Mathieu Pierre Dagonas,
Executive Director of Documentary Organi-
zation of Canada, a non-profit representing
Canadian documentarians, tells MovieMaker
that documentaries are having a resurgence
with Canadian audiences. “The high at-
tendance at Hot Docs and TIFF point to the
popularity of the genre,” he notes. “Docu-
mentaries are more important than ever in
the era of ‘fake news’ as they shine a light on
topics of public interest. Audiences want to
be informed and to engage with the issues of
their city.” He adds that Toronto is “the envy
of other production centers in that we have
a public funding model and public leaders
who’ve shown strength in maintaining To-
ronto as a production destination. This comes
in many forms, whether it’s our tax credits or
elected officials going on international mis-
sions to promote our talent.
Additionally, some notable indie shoots
in the Toronto area in recent months
have included a remake of Toronto-born
David Cronenberg’s Rabid, helmed by Canadi-
an horror phenoms Jen and Sylvia Soska, and
the Bonnie & Clyde-tinged romantic thriller
Heavy, from director Jouri Smit. “We’ve had
an excellent experience shooting in Toronto,”
says Heavy producer David Atrakchi. “One of
the challenges was finding our iconic locations
to match New York and most importantly
match our budget. We felt the city was very
busy with bigger shows, leaving little room for
an independent film to coexist, but neverthe-
less we overcame this challenge and man-
aged, through our location manager, to pull
phenomenal sets.”8
AUSTIN, TEXAS
“We don’t have every piece of the
puzzle solved” is how Austin Film
Society’s Head of Film and Creative Media
Holly Herrick put it to an interviewer in
March, summing up Austin’s frustrating mix
of a thriving indie film scene and a state that
could be doing more, incentive-wise, to sup-