TERRA 537

Look at what they are doing at Montana State University

TERRA is produced by the Department of Media and Theatre Arts at Montana State University in association with their MFA in Science and Natural History Filmmaking – the only degree of its kind.  For more information check out the Program at MSU

“Untitled for James”

MISSOULA – A short film made by recent University of Montana graduate Ali Tabibnejad is one of 100 entries competing for $50,000 and the chance to become a feature-length movie.

Tabibnejad made “Untitled for James” earlier this year as his thesis project, then entered it in OpenFilm.com’s first-ever “Get it Made” competition. The 19-minute movie features a cast and crew made entirely of UM students and was shot on campus, around Missoula and outside Kalispell. Tabibnejad earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in digital filmmaking from UM in May.

More than 100 films are competing in the first round of the contest. The public can view the entries at openfilm.com, and anyone with an e-mail address can create an account and vote for their favorite film during the month of July.

After public voting closes, the top six vote-getters will go before a panel of judges that includes film industry professionals James Caan, Robert Duvall, Mark Rydell, Scott Caan and others. The panel will select one winning film. The winner will receive $50,000 cash and a $200,000 financing contract to turn their short film into a feature film.

“Untitled for James” has been viewed more than 6,000 times and has been consistently among the top six vote-getters since voting began.

-UM News Service

MAPS Media Institute – Community Screening

Check out the education and hands on experience MAPS Media Institute is providing youth in the Bitterroot Valley.

“Every year, the MAPS Media Institute hosts a community-based screening of our students’ latest works. This year, we shot an ‘Entertainment Tonight’ style video to capture the moment.”

MSU Film Students Work Used in Gulf PSA

In early May, Devon Riter and Christi Kuhn were at a party of fellow students in Montana State University’s graduate Science and Natural History Filmmaking program celebrating the end of their first year of graduate school. The mood was high before the conversation turned to the then-recent disastrous BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“I felt like I had to go there,” recalls Kuhn of the conversation. “I felt there was something I could do.”

What Riter and Kuhn did was drive to the Gulf on their own dime, capturing a series of videos that are now being used by national conservation groups to illustrate the human cost of the Gulf disaster.

Riter and Kuhn’s short clips about the Atakapa-Ishak Native people, who live in Louisiana’s Grand Bayou, have been used as public service announcements for the Gulf Restoration Network.  The Sierra Club and other conservation groups also plan to use the videos that put a face on the impact of the disaster on the people who live in the marshes and bayous off the Gulf. The clips can be viewed on Riter and Kuhn’s Web site, Deepwater Films

-Carol Schmidt, MSU News Service

2010 UM Commencement – time lapse

UM School of Journalism student Devin Schmit took a photograph once every minute during the transformation of the Oval on May 14 from its usual park-like setting into the site of a massive stage and 10,000 white chairs, as well as during the ceremony that occurred the following day. The UM Department of Information Technology then used nearly 1,000 of the photographs to create the 62-second video.

UM’s 2010 Commencement ceremony was held on the Oval for the first time in the University’s 117-year history.

UM Foundation – The Journey

The University of Montana Foundation “First Gift” video

University of Montana – Heritage

University of Montana Heritage video, Missoula

Montana Grizzlies – Tunnel Run

The University of Montana Grizzlies

(Update – June 25, 2010) MISSOULA – The University of Montana’s “Griz Tunnel Run” video won a silver award June 23 at the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators annual conference in Anaheim, Calif. The NACMA awards honor outstanding achievement in marketing and promotion.

Awards are presented in 16 categories, with each category divided into three groups based on school size and conference affiliations. More than 650 entries were submitted for the 2009-10 year.

UM won silver in the Group II “Video Board Segment” category.

The UM video was produced by Chisel Industries, a Montana-based company. UM Executive Vice President Jim Foley supervised the production.

Montana State University Lunar Robot

A Montana State University student-built robot won a national contest at the Kennedy Space Center by digging the most simulated moon dirt in 15 minutes

TERRA: The Nature of Our World

TERRA is produced by the Department of Media and Theatre Arts at Montana State University in association with their MFA in Science and Natural History Filmmaking – the only degree of its kind.  For more information check out www.naturefilm.montana.edu