2010 News Updates
February 4, 2010
Casting Opportunity for Native Actors
MISSOULA — Casting Director Rene Haynes will be conducting an open casting session for a feature film to be shot this summer. Haynes' repertoire, which includes "Skins, Into the West, and Dreamkeeper," seeks Native American boys, ages 10-17, for principal speaking roles, with no acting necessary for "Winter in the Blood," a novel by James Welch.
Haynes also seeks Native men and women in their mid 20's through mid 50's for both principal speaking and non-speaking roles. Casting calls take time and those interested should be prepared to wait. For more information, directions, and/or if you plan on attending and would like to receive a short audition scene in advance, please visit the web site at: http://winterinthebloodfilm.com.
Open Casting will be Saturday - Sunday, Feb. 13 - 14, from 11AM to 3PM at the University of Montana UC, Room 332. Free parking is available on weekends by the UC. Boys under age 18 should attend with a parent, legal guardian, or provide written consent to be filmed. The Open Casting session is free for everyone. Anyone unable to attend this casting session, there will be another casting call in the spring in central Montana posted on the film's web site.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by the Char-Koosta News.
January 25, 2010
Montana Film Office Offers All Expense Paid Fam Trip
As part of the its new incentive package, Studio 406, the Montana Film Office is offering the chance for one filmmaker
to win a free four-day, three-night location familiarization trip to Montana. The trip includes accommodations, meals,
transportation and a guided tour of various locations around the state. Additionally prizes include custom Flip Video
MinoHDTs. The contest began October 15, 2009 at 12:01 a.m. Mountain Time (MST) and will end at 11:59 p.m. MST on January
31, 2010. The Studio 406 incentive package bundles all of Montana's incentives, including: a 14% refundable tax credit based on hired Montana labor, a 9% refundable tax credit for production expenses without a cap or minimum spend, no sales tax, free office furniture, low cost or free location fees, long shooting hours, experienced crews, and hundreds of different looks.
For information on the Montana Fam Trip Giveaway or to enter, visit www.scout406.com. Information about the Montana Film Office and the Studio 406 incentive package is available at www.montanafilm.com. Click here for a PDF of the full article by Steve Cha of the P3 Update Magazine.
January 25, 2010
Filming in the Rocky Mountain Region
One simply needs to take a drive along the precipitous cliffs of Glacier National Park to get an immediate sense of the
grandeur of Montana. Alpine meadows straight from Aslan’s hunting grounds surround an environment flush with
crystal blue lakes and steep white peaks. Raging rivers have catered to the careers of Meryl Streep and long desolate
roads have been blessed by Forest Gump’s feet.
The Big Sky on the Big Screen Act adds to this natural wealth of locations providing a 14-percent refundable tax credit
based on hired Montana labor with no cap and no minimum spend. With no sales tax, nor a bed tax with stays longer
than 30 days, the Film Commission has recently announced Studio 406, a bundling of all the incentives “Montana is offering filmmakers something other states don’t, a solid cash incentive backed up with an entire list of extra incentives that save the production significant money and make the entire shoot enjoyable,” says Montana Film Office Manager, Sten Iversen.
Also included is a nine-percent refundable tax credit for all production-related expenditures made with Montana businesses, production service providers, and subcontractors. Montana offers free location scouting, traffic control signage, and even production office furniture and equipment. Vehicle licensing exemptions make it easier for out of state production companies as well.
With no minimum spend and no financial incentives caps, Montana would be an ideal setting for independent filmmakers and big-budget productions alike. Some of the latest features shot this year include: My Sister’s Keeper starring Cameron Diaz, “Expedition Grizzly” to be featured on the National Geographic Channel and Call of the Wild being shot in 3D.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by Nathan Hoturoa Gray of the P3 Update Magazine.
January 17, 2010
Reality series captures every move of Montana ranch families
The spotlight has shined on Bill Galt of White Sulphur Springs before, but not like this. Galt and his ranching family are the subjects of an upcoming reality TV show on the Animal Planet channel that will debut later this year. The show, titled "Cowboys," follows three families that own and operate cattle ranches in Montana through the ups and downs of a season. The docudrama spotlights calving, weaning, cattle drives, auctions and more. The network describes
the show as "set against the majestic backdrop of Montana." The show is set to start airing eight one-hour
episodes in March. Also featured in the show will be Avon ranchers Earl and Glenna Stuckey
and the Hughes Mountain Guest Ranch in Stanford.
"From the traditional rancher who does everything by hand and on horseback to the modern ranch
that uses high-tech equipment and all-terrain vehicles, each family's fortune depends on the success
or failure of the season," the show's description reads. "Facing unpredictable weather, disease and
injuries, thousands of new births and hungry predators waiting for an easy meal, these modern
ranches continue the great American tradition of life on the range. 'Cowboys' is larger-than-life, lifeand-
death, real-life drama."
Two award-winning cameramen followed the Galt family around for eight months starting last
February, documenting the days and nights of Bill Galt, his wife, daughter and son. In the process,
the film crew almost became like members of the family.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by Travis Coleman of the Great Falls Tribune.
January 12, 2010
Funnymen: Local Filmmakers Head to Comedy Festival
Sometimes there’s nothing quite as funny as real life. Many people take the amusing events in their lives and chuckle, recount them to friends or enter them into the digital record of social networking sites. Shane Dowaliby, Nick Andrews and Logan Triplett aren’t like most people. Life’s comical instances are not only conversation fodder for these guys, but inspiration for their craft: comedy films.
“A lot of it does come from just life in general,” Dowaliby, a Whitefish native, said. “If I think of something funny during the day I jot it down on my cell phone.”
And it is perhaps this relatable aspect of their films that led to their ranking as one of the four finalists in the Third Annual National College Funny Filmmaker Competition. Most of the movies produced by their joint project Little Baby Films deal with the day-to-day hilarities of college, which is appropriate for the Montana State University film students. The other Little Baby filmmakers are also Montanans, with Andrews hailing from Helena and Triplett from Kalispell. They met during a film course their sophomore year and clicked so well they decided to form Little Baby Films last spring. Now in their junior year, the amateur funnymen are going up against students from Xavier University, the University of Michigan and San Francisco State University. Their short movies “Heaven” and “Sunday Morning” earned high enough honors after five rounds of expert judging and online votes to be shown in Aspen, Colo., during the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival in June.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by Molly Priddy of the Flathead Beacon.
January 8, 2010
Winter Film Festival at Interpretive Center Focuses on Native Americans
The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center's annual Winter Film Festival begins on Jan. 14 and features a series of films focusing on Native Americans. "Through Native Eyes" is the theme of this year's festival, which features films from the recent PBS series, "We Shall Remain," the earlier series, "500 Nations," and the recent Montana PBS special, "Playing for the World."
A different film is shown each Thursday at 4 p.m. and is repeated at 7. Films are about 90 minutes long and are free to the public. A goodwill offering of a nonperishable food item for the Great Falls Food Bank is welcomed.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by Great Falls Tribune.
January 6, 2010
Montana Cowboys Lead, Coax and Cajole Their Charges Amid a Chorus of Bleats
The tagline for the wonderful documentary “Sweetgrass,” the first essential movie of this young year, is “the last ride of the American cowboy.” I suppose the word shepherd, with its pastoral evocations of maidens in pantaloons and lads with flutes, doesn’t have the necessary grit or mythic punch. But the quiet and cantankerous men in this movie, mostly in cowboy hats — one of which is charmingly ornamented with a sheep pin on the crown — are keeping and sometimes losing sheep as surely as Little Bo Peep did.
Made by Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, the movie largely involves the enormous effort, along with the unintentional humor and grim realities, involved in driving some 3,000 sensationally noisy sheep (how do they sleep?) up a mountain for summer pasture. Although the filmmakers shot for a number of years (taking eight in total to finish it), most of the material in the final movie was shot in 2001, when a Montanan rancher named Lawrence Allested became the last person to take his sheep into the Absaroka-Beartooth mountains on a federal grazing permit. Primarily in south-central Montana just north of Yellowstone, with a bit spilling into Wyoming, this wilderness area encompasses nearly a million acres and, to judge from the movie, looks like paradise.
Click here for a PDF of the full article by Manohla Dargis of the New York Times.
