‘The Bear’ unit production manager has 3 words for Chicago-made projects: Locations, locations, locations

CHICAGO — “Not necessarily realistic. But authentic.”

That’s one credo Carrie Holt de Lama, a veteran of the Chicago film industry, has learned through countless hours of driving around, with a location scout, a filmmaker or alone. Her mission: find a building, an intersection, a vantage point or a vacant lot that suits what a script requires. Preferably something that hasn’t been filmed a million times already.

Aren’t those words “realistic and “authentic” synonyms? Well, kind of. But when you make a movie or shoot a series episode, authenticity often becomes less about objective accuracy and more about subjective rightness. The right locale, the perfect backdrop for a specific scripted scene, often makes zero geographical sense (favorite local example: the where-are-we? opening credits to “The Bob Newhart Show”).

Realism has its gradations. Hulu’s smash hit “The Bear” operates in its own intense realm of poetic realism, dreamy yet nerve-wracking, especially on multiple deadlines in the kitchen. It’s not “documentary style” (a meaningless, generic descriptor). Instead, it’s fueled by series creator Christopher Storer’s memories of growing up in the area, when he first discovered Mr. Beef on Orleans Street.

De Lama is unit production manager on “The Bear,” a large part of which means coordinating with location managers to find, for example, the right house in the right neighborhood for Jamie Lee Curtis (Season 2, Episode 6) to implode on Thanksgiving.

De Lama is also executive producer on the new Chicago-set and filmed “We Grown Now,” which opens the Chicago International Film Festival Oct. 11. The film is very good, set in 1992 in the Cabrini-Green housing projects, among other Chicago locales. There’s a question: How to evoke a physical place, and presence, that has been erased from Chicago history for a generation now? Our interview was edited for clarity and length.

Q: Carrie, walk me through how “We Grown Now” creates its own idea of 1992 Cabrini-Green.

A: That was a serious location challenge (laughs). Here’s this beautiful script by Minhal Baig set in an area of Chicago that doesn’t exist anymore. The location manager Maria Roxas — we’ve worked together a lot — she and I and Minhal drove around Chicago looking for locations. For three years, off and on. For the Cabrini-Green high rises, we found the Chicago Housing Authority senior residence at the Ogden-Ashland-Madison intersection. We used the low-rises that still exist (as did the recent “Candyman” remake), and filmed downtown, at Union Station and at the Art Institute. The Art Institute turned us down three times before we got a “yes.”

For the apartment interiors, we built the apartment in the old indoor soccer stadium on 35th Street, just west of Western. We couldn’t afford Cinespace (where “The Bear” films its interiors) or any traditional soundstage. Too much money for a “tier one” low-budget film, under $7 million. Which is a lot of money.

Finding the right locations is also about finding the overall neighborhood that’ll work with you. Filming has a direct impact on a surrounding neighborhood, with traffic and parking, everything. It’s not easy for the people that live there. I remember working on “Death Wish” (the Bruce Willis remake), we filmed at a Pilsen convenience store. It cost $12,000 to rent. Then the director, Eli Roth, changed his mind about something, we had to go back, and the second-day price went up to $18,000. It adds up. But the people should benefit.

Q: Before we talk about an example or two from “The Bear,” can you catch us up on your production timeline, and how the strike has affected it?

A: First two seasons, we filmed from mid-February through early April. It’s literally the fastest show I’ve ever worked on. The air date is June 23. We need 10 weeks for the writers’ room, so with any luck, we’ll basically be opening on time (for Season 3, next year). On the other hand, Chris (Storer) and Joanna (Calo) weren’t able to put together an outline. Usually, summer is the time for showrunners to think about how they want the show to progress. We should be fine, but it’s a challenge. And we’ll see what happens with (Screen Actors Guild) contract negotiations.

Q: Let’s look at a literally homey example of location scouting. The “Fishes” episode from Season 2 — can you tell us about finding the house you used?

A: Funny story. There’s this guy I know in Evanston, Doug. Doug Holt, my brother (laughs). He and his wife have a house with a certain flow I thought might work. A circular feeling to the layout. We were scouting with Chris and Joanna, and Chris walked in and said: “This is the right house.” We turned the dining room into a sitting room, so it’d be directly across from the living room. My brother had a giant bookcase and the art department said, nope, too many books to take down and put back up. So they made a fake wall to put in front of the books. We made a dining room back by the back porch. And then we did the rest of the dining room scenes on the Cinespace soundstage, because we needed to crash the car through the wall.

Putting these things together is hard sometimes. And sometimes it’s a matter of taking away what’s there, and what you don’t want there. With “We Grown Now” we did a drone shot for the skyline and then we had to digitally remove all the buildings that had been built since 1992.

Q: Next year, we’re scheduled to see the opening of the Fields Studios at Diversey and Pulaski on the Northwest Side. Nine soundstages (Cinespace has 36, almost always full). Do you think it might encourage filmmakers and location scouts to see what’s around a part of Chicago that hasn’t been filmed to death yet?

A: Your instincts are correct, I bet. I like what I’ve seen up there, and the space is really something.

Q: In closing, I’d like to thank you for not including even a second of footage of the Bean in “The Bear.”

A: We avoided it. Chris Storer likes the Chicago he knew earlier on, when he was younger. Millennium Park wasn’t around then. Also, it doesn’t do anything for us. “The Bear” doesn’t need beauty shots of the Bean. That’s not our purpose.

Q: Different as they are, “The Bear” and “We Grown Now” both have no interest in presenting a semi-documentary survey of the city. Everything’s selective in moviemaking, and no two filmmaking approaches are the same.

A: Right. What I’m looking for is the right kind of authenticity for the creators’ vision. Not necessarily realistic. But authentic.

I grew up in Wheaton and moved to Chicago as soon as I could. My dad used to take out the map and teach me the grid, so we could really learn the city. I love Chicago. Every neighborhood tells a different story. I’ve been fortunate to work on projects that understand that.