On any given day there could be as many as 25 actors — from “Chicago PD” stars Jason Beghe and Marina Squerciati to “Chicago Fire”’s Lauren German and Eamonn Walker — popping in to take care of business at Bam Studios in River North.
Recently, I spotted “Chicago Fire” actor Jesse Spencer recording lines there when I stopped by to finish up narration for the final episode of CNN’s “Chicagoland.”
And I couldn’t help but blush when Bam Studios owner Brian Reed told me that I’ve shared a microphone with “Chicago PD”‘s Sophia Bush, arguably the hottest cop in TV history.
“This is a pretty amazing time for the film industry in Chicago,” Reed said. “And celebrities absolutely love Chicago. Some of the actresses freeze their ass off, but they love this city to death and tell us all the time how great people are here. And I tell them that’s because we’re from Chicago. It’s not like L.A. We don’t see them as just stars, we see them as people.”
It’s no secret that Chicago’s become at least a part-time home to more celebrities as it’s grown into a Hollywood boomtown fueled by the six TV series, three movies and unprecedented number of commercials that pumped a record-breaking $358 million into the local economy last year.
You’ve probably heard about all the film locations and how the industry boom has pushed Cinespace Chicago Film Studios and Chicago Studio City on the West Side to expand its stages to keep up with the crush of new business headed our way from Hollywood.
But the crush of film work also has fueled a demand for Chicago post-production outfits like Bam, a boutique audio recording studio that specializes in automatic dialogue replacement.
“The huge push in production earned us a reputation for doing work that’s typically done in Hollywood or New York,” Reed said. “Studios call and say they have an actor who happens to be in Chicago and we need to have him record new audio for a scene once production is over. The fact that this work is being done in Chicago is a big deal.”
Bam Studios counts Pixar and Wolf Films, the production company led by executive producer Dick Wolf and best known for creating the “Law & Order” franchise, along with “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago PD,” among its top clients. But the place is also used for recording radio and TV commercials and video game narration, among other things.