3to1 Studios was recently featured on Ruth L. Ratny's ReelChicago.com. The article is available here.

"As a new young company, 3to1 Studios is surging ahead with production of a whimsical short film a month for podcasting and enough commercial business to pay the rent....

The name comes from the three commercial services offered in-one venue—film, web design, and graphic design—said Josh Reichlin, partner, editor and graphics designer.

The shop opened last February in a 300-sq. ft. studio in the Fine arts building when four Columbia College grads teamed up with veteran producer Floyd Webb.

They are editor and graphic designer Reichlin, cinematographers Andrew Maxwell and Gabriel Patay (son of corporate producer George Patay), and sound designer Ethan Cheng.

In addition to rent-paying work from steady work from Hockeytrainers.com, Chicago Tap Theatre and Hecky’s Barbecue and the stream of shorts, 3to1 also produces PSAs to encourage support of the arts, also for podcasting.

“The shorts are dark and interesting and dreamlike subjects, whimsical, Chaplinesque, horror, a silent film parody and an animated series. They are usually three to five minutes and everyone contributes his ideas,” said Webb, including “friends who come up with ideas so we don’t get stale.”

The animated series, of which two episodes have run, is titled, “‘Four Angry Men.’ It’s about a pirate, a detective, a skeleton and a robot whose mission is to save a millionaire who is held captive by cannibalistic types on a remote island,” Webb chuckled.

“We are 21st century company,” he said. “We cover the whole digital realm, as well as traditional film. We use whatever media the client wants, from miniDV to HD to 35mm. The November PSA was shot on film to get a look we wanted,”

“Support the Arts and No One Gets Hurt,” was shot in Lower Michigan Ave. over a weekend and features a man under siege by four sinister people carrying musical instrument cases.

Cost was kept to a low $2,000, thanks to donations garnered in support of 3to1’s conscientious goals. Their Fine Arts Building neighbor, William Harris Lee and Co. Violin Makers and Dealers, loaned instruments to the production. Crew and actors’ pay is mostly in 3to1 t-shirts.

Webb produced PBS’s American Masters’ Nat King Cole documentary that aired last May. He is currently working on the docudrama, “The Search for Count Dante” that explores the life South Side Chicagoan known as “the world’s deadliest man.” Web is investigating the speculation surrounding Dante’s untimely death in 1975 at age of 36.

“We’re not making money yet,” he acknowledged. “As a new company, the thing is to ramp up slowly and get known. We’re not headed for Hollywood. We’re trying to establish an entity that has a good reputation for creativity.”