For the first time since the Illinois Film Office’s Production Guide switched from print to a digital publication, sometime in the mid-‘90s (to the best of anyone’s recollection), it is currently in the process of an official and complete updating.
The IFO’s Julie Morgan is overseeing the massive directory revision. She is informing — and warning — crew and vendors: “In order for your listing to remain in the Guide you have to fill out a NEW application or be removed!”
Your new listing may be created by clicking here.
Morgan sent emails to roughly 3,100 individuals, either listed in the Guide, or to new individuals who want to be listed. “New categories have been added and those categories no longer viable were eliminated,” she says.
For the list streamlining, the IFO is using Charlotte, N.C.-based Reel-Crew Online Production Directory software. Integrating with the IFO’s website, the program allows local crew and support services to register and have their information instantly available at all times.
“The new Guide is expeced to go live within a month,” Morgan says. “During that time, the Guide is still searchable at ceo.ilprodguide@illinois.gov.
One filmmaker remembers the very first print Production Guide that was introduced in the early 1980s. He described it as “thick, spiral bound, with a red cover and you had to wait a year until the office updated your listing for the next print edition.”
