2012 Press & News
May 2012
Montana hotel to be featured on national TV showA historic downtown Billings hotel will soon be featured on a national television show.
Travel Channel's Hotel Impossible is coming to Billings next week to film an episode on the Dude Rancher Lodge. The show debuted in April and each episode features a hotel that is having problems or is not living up to its potential. Hotel Impossible performs a major transformation that helps get the hotel back on track and improve their business.
The Dude Rancher Lodge has been a part of Billings since 1950 offering guests a rustic, western-style stay while in the Magic City. The hotel is even a part of the Haunted Billings Tour every fall.
A Travel Channel publicist says the episode is set to air on the Travel Channel in early July.
Click here for a PDF of the article from the Kpax News.
May 2012
MAPS student’s film nominated for regional Emmy award
The MAPS Media Institute after-school program is all about guiding students. It leads teens through real experiences of creating media content for clients. The teachers’ and students’ hard work was recently rewarded with a nomination for an Emmy award from the Northwest chapter of the National Academy of the Television Arts and Sciences.
The nomination was for director Luke McLean’s short film, “No Excuses, No Limits.” The film was made for Vocational Rehabilitation, a job service in Missoula focused on helping disabled Montanans. It features several people who used the service and overcame their disabilities in a great way.
“It’s really inspiring,” said MAPS founder and president Peter Rosten. “Being disabled does not, certainly in their lives, present a stop sign. All they see is green lights and they go for it.”
Click here for a PDF of the article from the Ravalli Republic.
March 2012
'A Plumm Summer' to have free screening April 3 at MSUThe screenwriter and director of photography of the film "A Plumm Summer," which was filmed in Bozeman and Livingston in 2006, will answer questions following a free screening of the film scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 3, at the Montana State University Strand Union's Procrastinator Theater.
T.J. Lynch, an MSU graduate and a current adjunct professor of screenwriting at the MSU School of Film and Photography, will be at the screening as will Mark Vargo, an MSU graduate who was director of photography. A few members of the cast and crew will also be on hand for the question and answer session.
"A Plumm Summer," which starred Henry Winkler, Jeff Daniels and William Baldwin, had a limited theatrical release in 2008.
Lynch based his screenplay on an actual event that happened in Billings in the mid-60's in which 'Froggy Doo,' the highly popular string-puppet mascot of a local kiddies show, was kidnapped and held for ransom. The film is a family-friendly mystery about two brothers who embark on an adventure-filled investigative odyssey to solve the "frognapping."
Most of the film's crew members were Montana residents, many alumni of MSU's School of Film and Photography. ASMSU Films Committee, in association with the MSU School of Film and Photography present the screening of the 99-minute film, which is rated PG for mild language.
Click here for a PDF of the article from the MSU News Service. For a PDF of the official press release click here.
March 2012
"America the Wild" with Casey Anderson Premieres in Primetime
GRIZZLY CREEK FILMS PRESENTS BACK-TO-BACK PREMIERES OF “WOLVERINE KING” AND “GRAND CANYON SAFARI” SHOWCASING WILDLIFE AS ITS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE IN EPIC NEW SERIES ON NAT GEO WILD.
(BOZEMAN, MT – March 5, 2012) Southwest Montana film production company Grizzly Creek Films announces the premiere of its new series, "America the Wild with Casey Anderson", commencing a five-week run on Nat Geo Wild. Six new episodes featuring compelling wildlife adventure stories in some of America’s most pristine and untouched wilderness areas. Simply put: it’s epic wildlife drama, as you’ve never seen it before.
"America the Wild" on Nat Geo Wild features award-winning presenter Casey Anderson on a series of breathtakingly wild adventures: he’ll paddle the Grand Canyon, ski with Wolverines in British Columbia, stalk Mountain Lions in Montana, stake out the scavengers of Yellowstone, rappel into a raven's nest, share the beach with a Polar Bear on Alaska's northern slope, and climb to rugged extremes in pursuit of Northern Maine's Black Bears – bringing audiences up-close and personal with rare and endangered species, some deadly, others dashing, in the stunning natural ecosystems that they call home.
"America the Wild" represents the third consecutive season for Grizzly Creek Films programming airing on Nat Geo WILD. The show will premiere in primtime on Sunday, March 11, at 8:00pm ET/PT. Then it will move to Mondays, beginning Monday, March 12 on Nat Geo Wild. Click here to find your local airtime.
Click here for a PDF of the press release from Grizzly Creek Films.
February 2012
Bozeman filmmakers win $20,000 in ‘movie-making magic’ effort
Five minutes before the deadline, the filmmakers of Sanshead Studios submitted a video to Pitch the 406, a contest for the opportunity to win $20,000 in film equipment and labor.
We almost didn’t do it,” said director and writer Matthew Smaglik, 23.
Now, they’re happy they did. Online voting put their pitch for the movie “Magpie” in the top 10 of nearly 30 videos, and four industry judges unanimously voted it the winner at the beginning of this year.
As the winners of the first Montana Film Office competition, the moviemakers will receive “20 Gs of movie-making magic” to film in Montana, according to a promotional video.
"It really helps put us in a great position,” Smaglik said. “It legitimizes the project and our work.”
The winner was announced at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in January.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by Rachel Hergett of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Photo credit by Nick Wolcott/Chronicle.
February 2012
'Winter in the Blood' film a grass-root effort
Andrew and Alex Smith wanted the dog
days of summer. They wanted the 90 degrees and the heavy
sun, but they also needed a miracle — one
day of winter to arrive in August.
The directors of "Winter in the Blood,"
thought they would have to fake it as they
wiped sweat off the young boys' faces
playing two brothers, Virgil and Mose First
Raise.
As if the weather listened to the
filmmakers, a cold wind came from the
north and delivered storm clouds to
complete the scene. It was 40 degrees
cooler than any other day that month.
The crew was able to complete the film on
the plains of the Fort Belknap Indian
Reservation, the home of the late James
Welch, with only a modest dusting of flour
posing as snow.
Five months later in the halls of Missoula's
Wilma Theatre, the moderator of a
question- and-answer session that
followed the premiere of a behind-the-
scenes documentary about the film joked
with the intern assigned to control the sun,
rain and snow, calling him God-like. The
sold-out crowd laughed and gave him a
round of applause.
The Smith brothers were joined by the
"Winter in the Blood" cast, videographers
and interns Saturday night for the premiere
of that documentary, "Visionary Insights," at
the ninth annual Big Sky Documentary Film
Festival in Missoula.
Click here for a PDF of the full article and photo by Michael Beall Great Falls Tribune.
February 2012
Treasure hunters - Anacondans get TV pilot
ANACONDA - By itself, metal detecting may seem like a pretty dull spectator sport. But, with Anaconda residents Tim Saylor and George Wyant in the field, treasure hunting just might catch on with television viewers.
The duo behind Anaconda Treasure.com and a number of self-produced "Extreme Metal Detecting" DVDs is now flirting with their own TV series on the art of uncovering buried gems. Two half-hour pilot episodes of the show "Diggers" will premier back-to-back at 8 p.m. Feb. 28 on the National Geographic Channel, channel 276 on DirecTV or 165 on Optimum. The channel is not part of most basic cable packages. Team ATC, as Saylor and Wyant are known, not only travel across Montana but all around the country in search of historical artifacts lost beneath the surface..
Click here for a PDF of the full article by George Plaven of The Montana Standard.
February 2012
Montana Film Office Names Contest Winners at Sundance 2012
In their 10th year at Sundance, the Montana Film Commission held a reception for filmmakers and friends of Montana at the Movie Media Group Studio on Main Street to announce the winners of the Pitch the 406 Contest. “This contest was designed to encourage filmmakers from all over the country to apply to Montana to win a $20,000 grant toward the production of the next film,” said Montana Film Commission Director Sten Iversen.
A panel of Hollywood judges with ties to Montana judged the event, including Location Manager Mike Fantasia, Producer Marty Katz and First Assistant Cameraman Eric Brown. Filmmaker Matthew Smaglik and his team were the contest winners and will receive a $20,000 production package to produce their project Magpie.
Magpie explores the current Bakken oil boom in eastern Montana, telling the fictional story of a ranch family and how it adapts to the changing world. The script outlines the struggles of a stepfather and his daughter over control and ownership of their family’s future — torn between the fortunes to be made in the oil boom and keeping the traditions of family ranching alive.
Smaglik and his production company, Sanshead Studios, will begin scouting locations in eastern Montana this spring and plan to shoot this summer.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by P3 Update.
January 2012
Dillon native skis all 16 resorts in state in 16 days
BUTTE - Skiing all 16 of Montana's ski areas has long been a dream for Cory Birkenbuel.
The thing is, he's always wanted to do them at once, as in 16 resorts in 16 days. As of Monday, Birkenbuel reached his goal when he made turns at his home hill of Maverick Mountain west of Dillon.
"This has been quite the adventure," the 33-year-old student at the University of Montana-Western and Dillon native said Friday
from the slopes of Great Divide Ski Area near Helena. "It's very emotional - and it's awesome."
Birkenbuel teamed up with Kevin Hilton, a Montana State University film student, to make the journey. Together the skiers are
making a film about the adventure that they plan to take to festivals for skiing and mountain films.
The project is dubbed "Montana's Sweet 16" and is serving as an internship for Birkenbuel, who's majoring in business.
It started with his passion for skiing but it also took some planning. Last summer, Birkenbuel went to the Montana Ski Areas
Association and pitched the plan and the owners of hills all agreed to give him free tickets.
Friends pitched in, too, including the use of a vehicle to make the drive and other contributions.
From there Birkenbuel planned his route, beginning on New Year's Day at Big Sky Resort. He mapped out a schedule to keep
each evening's drive to a minimum. His next stop was Moonlight Basin before heading east and hitting the hills
counterclockwise.
Birkenbuel said throughout the journey he's experienced everything that makes Montana skiing special. That includes great
mountains, quality snow despite a tough year and, most of all, friendly people.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by the Nick Gevock of the Montana Standard.
January 2012
Montana Film Office Announces Top 10 in ‘Pitch the 406’
One of 10 finalists in
Montana’s “Pitch the 406”
contest will be the ultimate
winner of a $20,000
production package to get
his/her film made in Montana.
Selected by viewer popularity,
the top 10 finalists now go on
to be judged by a panel of
film-industry veterans, who
will choose the ultimate
contest winner. The Montana
Film Office will name the
winning filmmaker at the 2012
Sundance Film Festival later this month.
“The judges have a lot of quality film pitches to consider,” said Montana Film
Commissioner Sten Iversen. “We’re thrilled that so many filmmakers found inspiration in
our state’s one-of-a-kind places.”
The top 10 video pitches, proposed by filmmakers from across the country, tell the
stories of Native American plights, ranch family sagas, child abductions and families
facing death and hidden secrets—all of which pitch Montana as the best place to shoot
their films. Through their video pitches, the top 10 screenwriters, directors and producers all make
the case for using Montana’s locations and its ideal cinematographic qualities as the
backdrop of their independent films, from Montana’s long summer “magic hour” to the
natural beauty of the state’s plains, vistas, rivers and unblemished wilderness. The
filmmakers also found inspiration in Montana’s authentic communities, including the
eastern Montana agricultural town of Glendive, the college/mountain town of Bozeman
and the working class neighborhoods of Great Falls. On the financial side, many of the
filmmakers also credit Montana’s competitive incentives as a reason they are seeking to
shoot in the state.
The Montana Film Office launched the “Pitch the 406” contest in September 2011,
calling for interested filmmakers to submit a video pitch on why their project should be
made in the Big Sky state. The winning filmmaker will be rewarded $20,000 in
production equipment and services to shoot his/her project in Montana.
To view the top 10 video pitches, visit http://scout406.com, and for more information on
all Montana’s one-of-a-kind locations and the Studio 406 Incentive Package, visit the
Montana Film Office online.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by Screen Magazine.
January 2012
Grad student calls home Butte actors for film: Butte’s spirited side
The actors bounced a few lines off each other as they prepared to shoot their next scene at the bar of the Silver Dollar Saloon in Uptown Butte.
“Yeah, that will work,” Kelley Mattingly says as he sets up the camera.
This is how the 28-year-old filmmaker wants his first feature film to be: loose and realistic.
“I don’t really have a script. It’s more of an outline,” Mattingly told The Montana Standard between takes Thursday afternoon. “I want it to be more spontaneous and improvised acting.”
The University of Montana graduate student is spending the next two weeks filming the full-length independent movie at locations around Butte. The Butte native’s project, titled “Hotel Finlen,” makes his hometown as much of a character in the film as the other actors.
Many of the scenes for the fictional story are being filmed at Butte’s historic Finlen Hotel, Silver Dollar Saloon and Gamer’s Cafe. Mattingly wants to show the gritty side of Butte, with its neon lights and wandering souls.
The film also stars two former Butte residents who came in from Los Angeles where they work as professional actors. Brick Patrick plays the lead role of Sean — a self-destructive young man who works as a custodian at the Finlen.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by the John Grant Emeigh of the Montana Standard.
January 2012
Local lumberjacks featured in latest season of History Channel series: Montana Ax Men
A group of Kalispell-based lumberjacks is one of six crews featured on the upcoming fifth season of “Ax Men,” a highly rated reality show on the History Channel. The new season begins airing on Jan. 8. A producer with the show said the crew from Siderius Logging would be introduced around the fifth episode in early February.
“We were really excited to go to Montana this year,” said Sarah Whalen, an executive producer with the show’s production company, Original Productions. “The style of logging is different than other areas. We knew it would be very dramatic and difficult logging … We wanted to see how the crews were able to handle their environment in that terrain.”
The Ax Men film crew followed the lively group from Siderius Logging for six weeks last fall as it harvested timber in the Swan Valley southeast of Flathead Lake. Dan Siderius started the logging excavation company three years ago, which presented an intriguing dynamic, Whalen said.
“Whenever you have a young company like that with a lot at stake it’s interesting to follow them,” she said.
The press release for the new season describes the group in a much more colorful manner.
“Still struggling to find its way, Siderius Logging is an outfit with a lot to prove and the egos to do it: over-talkative yarder operator Josh Fite, rigging slinger Travis Reynolds, hook tender Drew Koffler, and greenhorn Jesse Kelleher.”
Whalen said the show’s goal from the beginning has been to showcase the logging industry and its rich heritage by following crews in different regions across the country as they brave the dangers of harvesting timber.
“A lot of our shows focus on the blue-collar heroes,” she said. “This (show) is very much in line with the high-risk, high-reward programming that we do.”
Ax Men has become one of the most popular series for the History Channel and Original Productions, which currently has 14 series playing on seven channels, including the hit shows “Deadliest Catch” and “Ice Road Truckers.” Last season’s Ax Men was the highest rated yet, averaging 2.8 million total viewers. This season will feature logging companies across the country, from Washington to Florida and back to Montana. Ax Men has previously filmed in the state; Season 2 traveled to the Bitterroot and featured R&R Conner Aviation, which does helicopter logging.
Producers were searching for new rugged terrain to capture on film and Northwest Montana stood out as an obvious destination, Whalen said. Logging has a rich history in the Flathead Valley dating back to the first settlers and is still an important source of income for many businesses like Siderius. Producers typically find crews for upcoming seasons by cold calling businesses or organizations around the country. Someone recommended the local company and once staff members from Original Productions flew to Montana and met the Kalispell team, they knew they found what they were looking for, Whalen said.
“We were just crazy about the crew at Siderius,” she said. “The group of guys on the crew were young and very charismatic.”
Once producers decided Siderius was a perfect fit, they worked alongside the state’s film office going through the approval process with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to film on location. With “great” support from the governor’s office, the production was given the green light and the film crew was shipped to Bigfork where it stayed throughout production.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by the Dillon Tabish of the Flathead Beacon.
