Making the cut - Hollywood pros help Corvallis, Montana teens film commercial. Media Arts in the Public Schools (MAPS)

June 27, 2007

The Media Arts in the Public Schools http://www.mediarts.org/ class was back in its Corvallis High School mini-theater base, only there was no lesson going on. This was the real deal: a five-figure, paying gig for a nationwide advertising campaign. The fact it was happening testified to MAPS' success over the past three years helping Ravalli County teens learn the business of show business. The presence of a paying client means that experience will be spreading across the state in a few months.

With the passage of a $100,000 federal appropriation this summer, it's projected to expand to Missoula, Bozeman, Wolf Point, Red Lodge and Kalispell this fall. The new outlets will be run through local Boys and Girls Clubs. Graduates of Corvallis' MAPS program will be teaching classes in Missoula and Bozeman.

Rosten uses his Hollywood connections to bring in as many professionals as he can to work with students. On Tuesday, they followed instructions from the man who made Johnny Depp look like a proper pirate: Martin Schaer. He was the camera operator for two of the three “Pirates of the Caribbean” http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/pirates/movies and more than two dozen other major motion pictures. Schaer moved to Montana after working on the 1986 film “Disorganized Crime” in Missoula and Hamilton. For the Corvallis gig, he was donating his time.

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/06/27/news/local/news02.txt