CHICAGO — City neighborhoods might only be a few miles apart, but they can conjure vastly different worlds on shows like “The Bear” and “Chicago Fire.”
Pilsen, Logan Square and Wicker Park are hot spots for TV filming because they’re close to local studios and they have different appearances, said Mono Wilborn, the locations manager for NBC’s “Chicago Fire.”
“Wicker Park, for instance, it’ll have many different looks. It’ll have an apartment building, really nice homes, homes with driveways, homes with coach houses,” Wilborn said.
That said, TV shows regularly film in other neighborhoods around the city, Wilborn said. Four major shows set in Chicago — “The Chi” and NBC’s Chicago franchise, “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Chicago P.D.” — are filming here in January, for example.
TV shows or movies that want to film in the city have to apply for a permit from the Chicago Film Office.
“Location choices are driven by what is called for in the script and by the creative choices of the production team,” according to a Chicago Film Office statement.
For neighborhoods that deal with a lot of filming, alderpeople and the city have at times asked productions to expand the neighborhoods they film in, Wilborn said.
“Some neighborhoods get the brunt of a lot of filming, so we try to avoid a lot of the heavily trafficked areas because we do relocate cars and we do hit a neighborhood pretty hard in terms of parking,” Wilborn said.
Wilborn said productions notify neighborhoods in advance about filming; when they do have to move cars, they are towed to other parts of the neighborhood instead of being impounded. When this happens, people can call 311 to find out where their car was moved.
“The ChicagoFilmOfficeworks with each project’s locationsdepartmentto minimize impacts on community residents and businesses,” according to the Film Office.
Productions crews also coordinate with local homeowners and business owners.
Wilborn said location teams will look for neighborhoods with specific types of houses that match descriptions in the script. When the teams find houses that match what they’re looking for, they drop leaflets in the mailboxes or on doors with the location scout’s information and a description of the filming to ask the homeowners to film there.
It’s a similar process for filming local businesses. Wilborn said businesses filmed for episodes of TV shows like “Chicago Fire” might opt to have their business name not included in the show depending on whether something bad happens in the episode.
“If there’s nothing detrimental to the business, the businesses will most likely allow you to use their name,” Wilborn said. “Some businesses, they don’t care that it’ll appear to be bad press. The owners understand that it’s just a TV show.”
Street scenes are also sometimes incorporated in TV shows. When shows film streets that have graffiti, they track down the tagged artists to get permission to use the art on TV, Wilborn said.
TV shows set in Chicago also film indoor scenes at studios like Cinespace and Chicago Studio City on the West Side. Another studio — The Fields — is set to open this spring with nine sound stages at the border of Logan Square and Avondale.
Cinespace has 36 stages that are used for TV shows, films and commercials. Productions that film in Chicago often use the stages for their sets and can rent equipment from Cinespace, said Jane Williamson, head of operations and client services at Cinespace Chicago.
“The stages are a blank canvas and can be used to stand in for any location needed by producers and/or show runners based on their script,” Williamson said.
TV shows being filmed around Chicago can provide insights to people outside of the city about what Chicago is actually like.
“Film and television definitely showcases our city and draws tourists from around the world,” according to the Chicago Film Office.
Wilborn, a Chicago native, said it’s important to him that the city is represented correctly in film and television, and that TV shows set in Chicago actually film in the city instead of in places like New York or Los Angeles.
Williamson said filming in Chicago is also about bringing jobs to Chicago, including through Cinespace’s workforce training program.
“We are proud to be an important part of Chicago’s thriving production industry that is supported by a talented workforce, a variety of locations, and the state’s incentives,” Williamson said.
TV shows often apply for filming permits a few weeks in advance, so Wilborn said he expects more to be filmed in Chicago throughout 2024.
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