An independent feature grappling with technology and relationships begins filming in Chicago on Monday.
“Operator” stars Mae Whitman (“Parenthood,” “Arrested Development”) and Martin Starr (“Silicon Valley”) as a married couple. He “designs” personalities for automated digital customer service call centers; she agrees to be the template for his newest voice.
As he decodes and analyzes her natural behavior, her digital doppelganger — which has none of the unpredictability or agency of an actual human — becomes an appealing alternative.
The movie will shoot primarily in Andersonville through July 24 and also stars Retta (Donna on “Parks and Recreation”), Oscar-winning screenwriter Nat Faxon and Chicago-bred stand-up comedian Cameron Esposito.
Director Logan Kibens is based out of LA but is a former Chicagoan herself and an alum of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She met her wife, Sharon Greene, in Chicago as well. (Greene was a member of the Neo-Futurists for many years and writer of the company’s memorable 2008 production “Fake Lake,” staged in the swimming pool at Welles Park. See my review here.)
Kibens and Greene co-wrote the script, which was workshopped at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and was inspired by their own experiences as a couple.
“The film came from a desire to capture that moment in a long-term relationship when the option of doing the same old thing goes away and you must change together or break apart,” said Kibens.
Her father, Robert Kendall Lindsay, is a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, “so I grew up thinking deeply about our relationship to machines,” she said. The movie’s tech angle “comes from an interest in exploring how strong our desire is to see ourselves reflected — how desperately we long for connection and empathy that we settle for even the coarsest replica.”
Lindsay’s 2012 non-fiction book about A.I. is called “Understanding Understanding: Natural and Artificial Intelligence” and Kibens told me: “That title alone should give you insight into my childhood and artistic upbringing.”
During her time Chicago (which spanned 1999-2008), Kibens worked in post-production at Leo Burnett and was a video designer for theater companies including Lookingglass, Steppenwolf, the Goodman and the Neo-Futurists.
I asked why she and Greene set the story here. “Chicago is still the emotional home for many of our stories, and ‘Operator’ is no exception,” she said. “We’ve also tried to utilize some of the unique and incredible things about the city that just can’t be replicated anywhere else — the beautiful Chicago lakefront, the architecture and landscape, and of course the Neo-Futurists theater, which is a thing in and of itself.”
Here’s Greene: “The Chicago ensemble theater and live-lit scene is where I developed my comic voice and a sense of what kind of stories I wanted to tell. It feels really good to be back to make a movie with that community.”
“Operator” is one of the first feature films to begin shooting in the wake of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s decision earlier this month to put the state’s film incentive on-hold as part of the ongoing budget battle in Springfield.
(The administration’s preferred term of art is that applications for the 30 percent tax credit are being “deferred” — but there has been no date provided as to when, or even if, those applications will be processed. That said, Christine Dudley, who heads up the state’s film office, has assured filmmakers that things will indeed return to the status quo at some point and to go ahead and file their applications in the meantime.)
I asked “Operator’s” producer, Aaron Cruze, what effect this deferral has had on the project.
“The tax incentives were a big part of why our small film could afford to actually shoot in Chicago,” he said, “and it definitely made a significant impact on us. Luckily, we have an investor who cares deeply about us and the film and was willing to make arrangements with us to continue moving forward. Not all projects are so fortunate and we hope to see a reversal of this decision soon.”
nmetz@tribpub.com
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