What does it mean to be out of the loop?Scott Petersen, director of the Chicago music scene documentary “Out of the Loop,” found out when making the film more than two years ago. Petersen tried to set up interviews with Chicago rock royalty Smashing Pumpkins and Liz Phair. He never received a response.”A lot of them (Chicago bands) are either in the loop or out of the loop,” Petersen said. “Apparently I wasn’t in the Liz Phair loop or Smashing Pumpkins loop.”Nevertheless, Petersen got interviews with respected Chicago bands like the Jesus Lizard, Veruca Salt, Triple Fast Action and many others. Petersen spoke with rock critics, club owners and record label personnel.Petersen was prompted to make “Out of the Loop” after working as a personal assistant to Chicago-based director John Hughes (“Home Alone,” “Sixteen Candles”).”I wanted to have a project of my own, that I could make on my own, that was sort of like my own child,” Petersen said.When the music scene in Chicago was dubbed “Cutting Edge’s New Capital” by Billboard magazine in ’93, major record labels started to view local bands as hopeful signees, and an all-around buzz began to circulate about the scene. Petersen decided this would be the ideal subject for his documentary, he said.”The whole movie is basically about the diversity of the Chicago music scene,” said Scott Giampino, who works in publicity at the independent label Touch and Go, which is located in Chicago.Giampino appears in “Out of the Loop” to give insight about how Touch and Go works as a label and to talk about the many bands from Chicago on the label at the time, he said. Former Big Black member Steve Albini, who was responsible for recording albums by Nirvana, Bush, Guided by Voices and the Pixies, talked about the Chicago rock scene in the documentary.The film illustrated some tension between Albini and rock critic Bill Wyman, then of The Reader, a weekly in Chicago.”There was sort of a vaguely adversarial relationship between me and Bill Wyman,” Albini said. “He (Wyman) was referring to bands in Chicago he really didn’t know about or understand.”Albini, who recently recorded the new Page/Plant record, said Petersen wanted him to give a critical analysis about the music industry and not focus on the actual bands and music, which is more of his main area of interest.Unlike “Hype!,” the recent documentary about the Seattle grunge phenomenon, “Out of the Loop” simply portrays a number of current Chicago bands.Petersen financed the movie through credit cards, a small grant from the Illinois Arts Council and donations from independent filmmakers Kevin Smith (“Chasing Amy”) and Richard Linklater (“Dazed and Confused”). Petersen filmed “Out of the Loop” on video, never working with more than two other people at a time, he said.”Out of the Loop” will be showing at the Wexner Center tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. Call for details.