Midwesterners might not be crazy about the perception that they all grow up on corn, but Amelia Dellos and her husband, Eric Anderson, are using it to bring some recognition to the area’s film community.
When Dellos’ aunt and uncle first met Anderson and learned he grew up in Iowa, they said he was “corn bred,” and the term stuck. Dellos, 40, and Anderson, 41, of River Forest, launched the film production company Corn Bred Films about a year ago to showcase the screenplays they’ve been writing together for 10 years.
During an interview last week, Dellos said she’s noticed a progression in the Chicago theater scene. A decade ago, anyone who thought it would be on par with New York’s would be laughed at, Dellos said. Now more filmmakers are starting their careers in Chicago, and the city is becoming “a real contender.” It doesn’t rival Los Angeles, the mecca of film, but it’s gotten to the same level as New York, Dellos said.
“It’s really important to us to shoot as much as we can in Chicago or the Midwest,” Dellos said. “We feel there are stories, there are voices here that need to be heard.”
Dellos said she became a writer at an early age, partly because her parents were “voracious readers.” Her dad would give her books that were meant for older kids, she said, and they’d talk about the story and the characters when she was done. She said Anderson grew up loving movies, and had a lot of time to write once he lost a job in marketing after the two got married.
Despite their local focus, however, one of their current projects is a screenplay going into production in New York in early April to become a full-length feature film. The plot for the romantic comedy Other Plans comes from a John Lennon quote: “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” Currently, Dellos and Anderson are rewriting the screenplay to fit New York. They wrote the first version eight or nine years ago to be filmed in Chicago.
The couple is also working to raise money online for Zompocalypso, a comedy and horror zombie movie that Anderson hopes will be in production in late summer or early fall.
Dellos just finished shooting a documentary about Bertha Honore Palmer and the Chicago Fire that will air on WTTW Chicago, she said. She’s also in the middle of writing a screenplay for a film about a girl growing up during the time of John Wayne Gacy’s murders, which occurred close to where Dellos grew up in Chicago.
A love of movies doesn’t make writing one easy. Without mutual support, she said, neither she nor Anderson would be doing what they’re doing. Dellos said the two get so wrapped up in their projects that they find themselves arguing about what a fictional character would or wouldn’t do. But they also provide encouragement for the other to continue.
“You need to have somebody say ‘keep going’ because it’s really easy to quit,” she said. “You just keep writing and writing, and eventually something happens.”
Check out their work at www.cornbredfilms.com.
