With lights and cameras, lawyers see ways to cultivate action

By Maria Kantzavelos

A huge explosion this summer at the old Brach’s factory plant in the city’s West Side sent an emblem of Chicago’s once-thriving candy industry crashing down.

And in the wake of the building’s destruction — orchestrated for Hollywood and captured as a scene from the upcoming sequel to director Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins” — came a rise in film production activity in the city.

“The Dark Knight” project starring Christian Bale as Batman — along with other big-studio productions that recently filmed in Chicago, such as the Vince Vaughan comedy “Fred Claus” and the Angelina Jolie thriller “Wanted” — attracted a great deal of media attention in 2007.

And the big-budget productions contributed to a blockbuster year for film and television shoots of all sorts in the city, generating jobs for local technical crews and actors, and boosting economic development in town, said Rich Moskal, director of the Chicago Film Office, which helps producers navigate red tape in the city.

“It’s certainly going to be one of our better years,” said Moskal, pointing out that “The Dark Knight” project, alone, spent about $40 ­million during its three-month shoot in Chicago this summer. “Right now, we’re actually doing quite well in our ability to lure big movie productions and television pilots.”

But while the making of a major motion picture involves a morass of legal issues, the big-studio film projects don’t necessarily translate to significantly more work for Chicago’s community of media and ­entertainment lawyers. Those productions tend to come to town with their own sets of legal teams already at play, local lawyers pointed out.

“The lawyers who are working on those projects are either in L.A. or New York, and are largely in-house lawyers in the studios doing much of that work,” said entertainment lawyer Robert Labate, who is a partner in the Chicago office of Holland & Knight.

For Chicago-based entertainment lawyers, any legal work from blockbuster projects that film in the city tends to be limited to matters such as reviewing location-release documents for property owners whose buildings are featured in a scene, or assisting studios or ­networks in obtaining tax credits as part of Illinois’ tax-incentive program.

“Frankly, that’s not where all the fun is and that’s not where all the work is,” Labate said. “The big [legal] issues [in film projects] are the film financing, and the distribution, and the acquisition of intellectual property — none of which is done while they’re here. So much of it is taken care of before production starts, before they get out here.”

But that’s not to say local entertainment lawyers like Labate — who handles those kinds of complex legal matters for his own clients in Chicago and around the country, including national production companies and producers of nationally distributed feature and documentary films — haven’t been busy in a city that is also seeing a rise in locally produced, independent filmmaking and other forms of media production, such as infomercials, promotional videos, and documentaries.

“Media production is here, and it’s growing fast,” Labate said. “Everybody sees the trailers on the streets, but the real story for the legal community is, media production is all around us that no one sees. It means we have a subculture here.”

Home-grown talent
Unlike Los Angeles or New York, “Chicago is not the corporate headquarters of the enter­tainment industry,” said Moskal of the Chicago Film Office.

“As a result, there hasn’t been much need for attorneys here,” he said. “But it’s changing as more and more of these independent film productions are popping up.”

Just eight years ago, Moskal pointed out, only a handful of independent features per year were being produced in the city. Today, he said, the average per year is closer to 40 ­locally produced, independent features.

“Some of these might get distribution, some might make it on the festival circuit, and if they go the way most independent features go, they have a tough time even just getting anybody to see them, but that’s just the nature of the business,” Moskal said.

“The fact that they’re being made with local money points to Chicago being more of a full production center, a source of creativity and destination for feature film, which is a big difference from being just a destination,” Moskal added. “We’ll forever be at the whim of Hollywood, who’s constantly on the lookout for cheaper, easier places to work. But the more we are home to the above-the-line ­aspects of filmmaking — the screenwriters, the financers — the greater control we’ll have over how much production we’ll be able to do here.”

With a full slate of schools in Chicago churning out new generations of filmmakers, some are pushing for ways to keep those creative folks in town to produce their work.

“There is work here, but it’s not stable enough right now because [Chicago is] overly defined as a location,” said Bruce Sheridan, chair of the Film & Video Department at Columbia College Chicago. “In order to move to the next phase, it’s got to be a place that has a lot of indigenous creations, things that are created and driven in the Midwest.”

For that to happen, said Sheridan, it takes a more holistic approach to building up the local film business infrastructure.

“This is the largest film school in the country, and it’s in Chicago,” Sheridan said, referring to Columbia. “Increasingly, we are working at such a highly professional standard that we are putting out real filmmakers. We want them to have the option to stay in this environment, but one of the biggest impediments to that would be a lack of options for forming the ­appropriate professional relationships.”

As such, the school, in December, was ironing out a plan to collaborate with the Chicago Bar Association’s Media & Entertainment Committee and the pro bono organization Lawyers for the Creative Arts in a program that would bring seasoned entertainment lawyers, and lawyers wishing to build a focus on the entertainment industry, to practicum sessions with senior film students working on “high-production value” shorts, Sheridan said.

There, said Labate, who serves as co-chair of the CBA committee, participating lawyers would be on hand to provide insight into the legal and business side of film production, offering answers to questions on issues ranging from acquisition to deals involving talent, crews, licensing, and distribution.

“It does not matter if you have the greatest talent in the world as a filmmaker. If you cannot deliver the bundle of legal rights, you have a very expensive home movie,” Labate said.

Under the program, organizers said, budding producers could cultivate relationships with both seasoned and aspiring entertainment lawyers early on, in a setting where groups of lawyers and groups of student producers could together build expertise in their areas of concentration.

“What we really need is to have new lawyers in town, lawyers that really see entertainment as a primary focus of their practice,” Sheridan said.

Building a law practice that focuses primarily on the entertainment industry takes time.

Jerry Wayne Glover, an attorney with Chicago-based Entertainment & Intellectual Property Group, said he broke into the entertainment business as a lawyer in 1985, when he was hired by Chicago’s public television station WTTW. Like many entertainment lawyers in town, he started out offering pro bono legal services to artists through Lawyers for the Creative Arts.

And while his private practice today at the Chicago law firm maintains a presence in the city, “we’re not, certainly, reliant upon just the Chicago market,” he said.

Neither is Holland & Knight’s Labate, who brings a background in complex corporate ­restructuring to his entertainment practice, which began 15 years ago on a pro-bono basis.

But that’s not to say there is no demand in Chicago for lawyers to handle a full range of matters in media and entertainment. To the contrary, Labate said.

“The work is here, you just have to get and have enough experience to respond quickly enough,” Labate said. “The market has grown tremendously, and it is going to continue to grow. If you’re not trained, you’re not going to be able to do it in a profitable way.

“There are clients who need high-level ­assist­ance, but you don’t go from zero to ­sophist­icated media and entertainment deals without getting experience,” Labate said. “It’s about relationships. It takes a long time to build the relationships to build the work. You don’t just hang out your shingle and start.”

Cultivating relationships with budding filmmakers through the planned program at Columbia could be one way of shortcutting the road to building such a practice in Chicago, Labate said.

“It’s about really getting to know the creative people while they’re here, and maybe, while they’re younger and less well-known,” Labate said. “These are the people who are going to be making your top films five years from now. Many of them will either stay in Chicago to do their films, or they’ll come back to Chicago. This means that if the lawyers here are good enough, then they will be working on the top deals, they’ll be working with the top producers, they’ll be working on top films that you’ll see released in three to five years.”

While Glover contended that the easiest route to becoming a full-time entertainment lawyer might be to give it a go in Los Angeles or New York, there is another avenue to getting started in the business.

“One of the easiest ways to find clients is to go as a voluntary attorney. That doesn’t pay the rent, but it certainly is a way to get started in representing actual clients in the entertainment field,” Glover said. “And, who knows, you start volunteering, you find a client, they make it big, they stay with you — there you go.”

Daliah Saper, 27, started her own intellectual property and business law firm three years ago in Chicago, with a focus on technology, media, and entertainment matters.

“My clients are five years out; ten years out. They’re still not bringing in the revenue to hire a Winston & Strawn or a Jenner & Block, but they need sophisticated legal counsel that is familiar both with the business aspects of entertainment law and the intellectual property aspects of entertainment law,” Saper said. “We’re catering to the people who are aspiring to be the big-time, or who are content to being in their own niche — independent, local artists who have a local following, or film companies catering to local businesses creating video and advertising content.”

Saper said her firm has been able to carve out a niche by catering to new start-ups, or focusing on businesses with an online presence.

“I think you have to get creative with finding the entertainment client,” Saper said.

And, action
For lawyers, there’s far more to the media and entertainment landscape than the high-profile feature film shoots that use Chicago as backdrop for a few weeks, grabbing headlines with elaborate film sequences and celebrity.

Labate points to the developing area of digital media production, which could mean the creation of almost any audio/visual product that can be transmitted over mediums such as the Internet, satellite, wireless, broadcast, and cable television — and distributed through all kinds of platforms, from the big-screens of movie houses and DVDs, to the postage stamp-size screens of cell phones.

“Everything is moving toward digital media. Films, really, are no more than trailers for DVD sales — even the major ones,” Labate said. “Digital media is where the action is. You have to look beyond [feature] films. If you’re looking into the future and where people are going, there’s so much more than just a ­theatrical release.

While the city is seeing more independent film production activity, “We’re talking about $500,000 to $1.5 million productions,” Labate said.

As a lawyer, “If you limit yourself to independent filmmakers, of course there’s not going to be enough work,” he said. “But look past that into media, there’s lots of work to be done, and there’s going to be more of it.”

TeamWorks Media, a sports and entertainment content company in Chicago that counts ESPN and Coca-Cola among its clients, is one example of an independent production company that provides a hybrid of media services, including digital media production, integrated marketing, and branded entertainment creation.

For instance, the 7-year-old production house — which is situated in the Near West Side, not far from Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions studio — is the creator of a series of promotional spots, which initially featured rapper Talib Kweli, as part of the Big Ten Conference’s “Welcome to the Big Stage” men’s college basketball campaign.

The company has also produced national documentaries, such as one created for and about the Harlem Globetrotters, “The Team That Changed the World.”

“There is this booming content industry [in Chicago] that’s under the radar,” said Kevin Krebs, one of the company’s founders. “When we started our company, our whole premise was that there’s a lot of production in New York and L.A., but Chicago is a viable market. Throughout the seven years, whether it’s been documentaries or commercial productions, we’ve focused on trying to get that business in Chicago.

“When we founded the company, it was in knowing that this era of convergence was coming,” Krebs said. “Broadband was the fastest-growing medium ever — faster than broadcast television, cable. Now, you’re able to, through mobile and the Internet, cater to a specific niche in a very smart way, just because the technology is there.”

With the opening of the Internet and the growing number of avenues for the distribution of digital media, comes a demand for original content, such as webisodes or television programming that airs initially as an Internet download, or vignettes made exclusively for cell phones.

New media can mean new challenges for lawyers whose clients are the producers of that content.

“Those lawyers who have viewed themselves as entertainment and media lawyers need to stay on top of this rapidly evolving world,” said Jeffrey H. Brown, an entertainment lawyer and a partner in Michael Best & Friedrich. “Those who want to represent clients in this arena have to make sure that they still have a fundamental understanding of the underlying substantive areas of law — that’s copyright, contracts, trademarks, rights of publicity and privacy.”

They also need to be sensitive of technology that doesn’t exist now.

“When you’re dealing with contracts you have to try to anticipate ­developments that don’t currently exist, and try to build into your deals and ­contracts a mechanism to address how technology in business deals may evolve in the future,” Brown said.

While advances in digital media technology means movies can effectively be made anywhere, some say Chicago can play a strong role, largely because of the talent that exists here — including the many film and media schools in town, theater companies and musicians, and a strong advertising industry.

“Chicago is always about corporations making money and artists creating world-class art,” Labate said. “You have to monetize media production, and there has been great uncertainly about how to monetize the Internet. How do you take your short film and make money out of it? The way you do that is to get to all kinds of mediums and formats. That’s where L.A. is right now, that’s where New York is right now. My bet is Chicago is not far behind them.”