QC film office efforts gain steam

If you build it, will they come?

As Rock Island-based Fresh Films works to choose a site and raise money to build a new $12-million film production studio in the area, the city of Rock Island is still trying to build a website and marketing plans for a new QCA Film Office.

Doug Miller of Davenport-based Two Rivers & Associates was contracted for $1,665 per month (starting July 1, 2022) to establish the film office to better market the Quad Cities to attract film, TV and other media production in the area.

He’s mainly served as an adviser on networking film contacts and promote the QC area for productions, and the former skeleton website that was established (qcregionalfilm.com) is no longer active.

Last November, Rock Island-based dphilms was hired under a $20,000 contract to create a new film office website and pick up the marketing efforts.

City staff had issued a request for proposals for a Film Office Consultant to complete tasks that require technical or industry knowledge not possessed by staff. Activities will include the build-out of the website of the Quad Cities Regional Film Office, search engine optimization, and branding and marketing for the film office.

The contract term will run through June 2024 and will be paid from the $65,000 State of Illinois grant for the Film Office, not requiring any city funds.

The plans have been underway for several years, and funding was made available by the state through a non-competitive grant after advocacy from locals in the Illinois QC who saw an opportunity to incorporate the film industry into regional economic development efforts, said Miles Brainard, Rock Island director of community and economic development.

Unfortunately, the non-competitive grant became available just as the global pandemic hit and so the city was delayed in moving forward with the effort for a couple of years.

Phil Dingeldein of dphilms said recently that QCA Film Office is already up and running on Facebook HERE, and the new website will be ready to launch in the next few weeks. The site is currently live HERE, only with a Coming Soon banner.

“One of the main challenges in attracting film production to the area is in adequately educating potential partners on the advantages of this area and setting up a vital hub on the Web where potential partners can locate us and educate themselves on the resources available,” says the dphilms proposal approved by Rock Island City Council at its Nov. 13, 2023 meeting.

“There is an erroneous perception that the area is devoid of resources, infrastructure, and talent,” the executive summary said. “For a community of this size, the Quad Cities offers a wealth of each.

“Instead, there is a decided lack of community awareness, and regional and national awareness, of all the Quad Cities has to offer,” dphilms wrote.

The new website will include a database of contemporary film production over the past two decades, and an up-to-date database of local filmmakers and talent. dphilms already has a such a compilation of talent and resources that will be part of the site – and can offer location assistance and scouting, talent search, networking and production capabilities.

The website will also include video and photo archives to help promote the QC as filming destination.

Work done so far

Miller said Thursday night that in the past two years, he’s met with dozens of filmmakers locally who have played roles in front of and behind the camera with many years of experience in some cases, to gauge their interest and support of the film office.

“All of them have been very excited about the potential for the future. There is a tremendous talent pool in the Quad Cities area,” he said.

“I have also made contact with various producers and production managers from around the country and in some cases other parts of the world who I have worked with who have shot films here before to promote the Illinois Film Tax Credit along with Peter Hawley, director of the Illinois Film Office to help answer questions that arise during the process,” Miller said. “It takes a while to pull everything together for a film. The process can sometimes take years to make them happen.”

A couple years ago, Peter Hawley and Ted Reilly of the Chicago Media Angels came here through QC efforts to assist local filmmakers who have films that they want to make here in the future. They met with a half dozen prospective filmmakers with projects during that trip.

Jack Newell, the former head of the Harold Ramis Film School of Second City in Chicago shot a film in the Quad Cities last summer called “Bettendorf Talks,” Miller said.

“He shot it in East Moline so that he could use the Illinois Film Tax Credit, even though it was set in Bettendorf. Jack was very happy with the results,” he said. “His plan is to turn it into a series with a little luck. He is heading down to the SXSW Film Festival to see what kind of interest he gets from the film and his pitch. “

Last year, the State of Illinois was featured in a 10 page spread in the Oscar Edition of Variety where Miller was interviewed and quoted about experience in the QC area and the cost of doing business here.

The Writers Guild strike came shortly after that, “which basically brought things to a halt inbound production wise and the SAG strike after that really hit hard across the country, though there were some small indie productions that were able to be lensed around the country including in the Quad Cities, made by veteran filmmaker Stephen Folker’s production company,” Miller said.

The Avati brothers are the ones who blazed the filmmaking trail in the Quad Cities some 35 years ago with their production about Bix Beiderbecke, which was invited to the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, he noted.

Last month, the Avatis were in the QC to shoot scenes for their new film, “The Backyard,” which Miller assisted with.

In total, approximately 20 feature films of note have been shot in the QC in the past 35 years, he said. “Some of them have been in major film festivals winning prizes and entertaining audiences from around the world in some cases with television play.”

Future of new studio

Fresh Films last week was awarded a $3.8-million state of Illinois grant, to help build a new film production studio and sound stages in Rock Island County. It was among three grant recipients (totaling $10 million), including new studios in Chicago and Champaign.

“Fresh Films is beyond thankful to be receiving this grant to build a studio in Rock Island County,” said Kelli Feigley, founder and managing director of Fresh Films. “We worked in collaboration with other local partners to showcase how combining our region’s unique locations and history with soundstage studio infrastructure will attract large-scale TV and film productions to this part of the state.”

“The studio will serve as a catalyst to diversify the local economy, not just in job creation for local talent but also in how it can attract professionals from the entertainment industry, spurring the growth of related businesses and services which adds to the overall financial health of the community,” she said.

“The grant is an investment in economic growth, cultural enrichment, and community development, with far-reaching benefits for the Western Illinois region and for the state of Illinois,” Feigley said. “We look at this as an opportunity for all boats to rise as we partner together to benefit the region and its Illinois residents.”

Fresh Films is looking at potential sites now and will be hopefully selecting a site within two to four months, she said. They need enough space to build a minimum of two 20,000-square-foot stages plus support spaces like office, hair and makeup,  and mill space.

Feigley said it’s too soon to know how long and where funding sources will come from. They also don’t know yet how long construction will take.

“We both want to promote filming in the Quad Cities and both the studio and surrounding locations will draw people here,” she said. “It’s too early to know specific marketing plans for each entity.”

“We will definitely develop a marketing strategy to vigorously market the studio, as well as everything else, to promote filming in our area,” Dingeldein said.

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