CHICAGO – Chicago’s film and TV industry is growing.
As a massive soundstage campus draws more storytellers to produce their work in the area, the former owners of a local studio are working to build out and diversify the workforce with job training programs.
The Windy City’s story is always being written, built on what came before and what the future holds in store.
Some of those stories make it on the screen, both big and small.
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Two years ago, Michael Scott Jr., a former Chicago alderman, left City Council and took the reigns of a program at Cinespace.
In 2011, Pat Quinn, then-Illinois governor, approved the seed money to build the initial studios, and the site of a former steel factory off 16th Street has grown to a campus of 55 soundstages, the largest in the country outside of Hollywood and home to productions watched by millions.
While the space has grown, so has the program Scott now oversees called Cinecares, started by the studios former owners.