Written by David Lewis on Jan 15, 2009. Posted in On Location

Commercials hold steady in Chicago

While fears of an impending SAG strike in the USA and the global credit crunch may be slowing the number of big budget fillms going into production, there are signs that the commercial industry is having a slightly better time.

Chicago, for example, had only nine studio pictures shooting in full or in part for 99 days in 2008. According to the Chicago Film Office, this was a 43% drop in shooting days from 2007’s 175 by 10 studio films.

However, TV commercial production held its own. The number of spots shot in 2008 was 89, compared to 82 in 2007. Shooting days were slightly lower at 121 compared to 124 the previous year.

TV series, The Beast, also shot 12 episodes in the City from July to November spending an estimated USD16 million.