Chisel Industries in Bozeman by Sarah Grant

Hello everyone! So I shot some footage at Chisel to edit a little video together for the blog but it doesn't look as good as I planned so I'm just going to write something for now.

This will be my fifth week at Chisel Industries, an award-winning marketing firm that develops video for television and web using film, HD, 3D animation, photography, print and interactive mediums. If you're a nerd like me, watch some of their videos on their site. I'm sure you'll be impressed and you'll also see some familiar videos - some of which include The University of Montana's commercials.

I'll recap some of what I've done so far at Chisel. My first few days I helped out on a studio shoot for Music Villa. It's going to be an amazing commercial when it's done. They used SUPER macro lens on instruments and shot some really beautiful footage. You don't even recognize that they're instruments!

A few days after that I started working on a promo for Hatchfest, which is a festival here in Bozeman in September. But the interesting thing about it is that it's not just a film festival. It offers mentorship for young people (like us!). Renowned filmmakers come to mentor young people and students. So the fest not only features award-winning films, but also student/young people's films! Hatchfest isn't limited to filmmaking. It's for musicians, designers, journalists, architects and more! I think it sounds really cool and I can't wait to go this year. I would advise you all to go too since Bozeman's so close to Missoula! It's great for networking, learning and entertainment... and if you want, submit your film!

Continuing on, I didn't complete the Hatch promo (yet) because I got another assignment. About 4 years ago, Chisel did 60 second commercials for the University of Montana. Just recently, UM wanted the commercials cut down to 30 seconds each, and I'm the one that got to do the job. I say "got" because this was HUGE for me. These commercials are what made me notice Chisel four years ago. I knew then that I wanted to work (or intern) for them! So this was really exciting that I got to edit something that I fell in love with so long ago! And of course, it's my alma mater :) P.S. I'm Chisel's FIRST University of Montana grad.

In between now and then, I've helped out Chisel's two animators. I finished an edit for Keen Footwear, more specifically Keen Kids. The client said there weren't enough boys in the edit so it was my job to edit them in. I also put in a lot of hours photoshopping for the Keen Utility footwear spot. The animators then took those PSDs into After Effects and animated them. I'm hoping to do a little After Effects work myself... I've taken one media arts After Effects class and really enjoyed it, so I'm crossing my fingers that I get to do a little bit at Chisel.

More recently, I've been going through lots and lots of takes for the "Year of the Nurse" video. Chisel is doing a bunch of videos for Providence At Work, the videos are for perspective employees of Providence hospitals. So, right now I'm just selecting the best takes and will ultimately put together the VO. And then I might start editing the piece, I'm not sure what they want me to do next.

I realize this is getting a little long, so I apologize. I was hoping to put this all in my video, but it just didn't look as good as I wanted it to. And, I'm not really finding the time to edit it together! I'll see what I can do. If not, I'll make sure to take some stills!

Sarah

First Five Days in France

I'm interning in France this summer, along with fellow classmate, Alison Kilts. So far, it has been an adventure! 

There are about 18 students from the U.S., Canada, and Indonesia, and we are based out of a language school (www.alfmed.com) in Perpignan, which is in Southern France. We are busy getting to know the city, making contacts, touring, taking French classes, and brainstorming story ideas. All of our journalistic work will be on www.inperpignan.net. It is not a working site yet, but it should be ready by the end of the week.

I have had so many exciting moments so far! For instance, I was in the grocery store today, and a lady standing next to me began speaking to me in French. I was pleased that she thought I knew French, but I had to admit to her that I did not speak French well enough to communicate with her. She then began visiting with me in English, and we had a great conversation. Many people here are very friendly and willing to help translate or communicate with us in any way they can. I hope they feel as welcome in the United States as I feel here.

Also today, we toured a French television news station (see above logo). I was excited to see that they use Avid NewsCutter! It was interesting to learn how they produce newscasts (which are only 7-10 minutes long, depending on the time of year) and that they even have time for a two-hour break in the middle of the news day! Their news corporations are also undergoing some of the same economic changes as those in the United States.

I'm looking forward to gaining more insight on different journalistic techniques while I'm here. I will continue to keep you updated!

Gillette Vaira

KECI 6/27/2010

Hey all,

So here's a picture of me editing a commercial for Missoula Textiles, and thanks to my coworkers that decided to surprise me with a picture yet again. Last week we went out and shot a few things for stock footage, and then another news promo. They are planning on letting me do a lot more things on my own next week, they just couldn't in the past few weeks because of contracts, their own projects they are getting paid solely for, etc. I also finished up helping the control room with their switch graphics, so everything is working there, and I learned a little bit on how to program the parts in a switcher to allow you to create your own scrolling graphics on an LED screen.

Two side notes: I turned 21 this weekend, so I've been a bit preoccupied with that, although I don't even work at KECI on the weekends. Also, I found this wonderful link that some of you might already be privy to. It's a page on Facebook that alerts you of production jobs around the States, and it seems to be pretty effective!

http://www.facebook.com/ProductionNotices

For those of you in Missoula right now, enjoy the sun while you can!

Love,
Drew

KBOO Portland

It's now my second week at KBOO radio in Portland. It's a community radio station so there is a lot of local programming and a wide range of shows. I've mostly been working with the PM news department writing and researching stories, but I am going to train to be a board operator during in-studio shows too and hopefully start to anchor and report soon. I really like the station so far and I also like being able to hang out with Alison and have her show me all the good bars and restaurants in Portland...even though she is leaving in a few days.
The link I'm posting should go to a little piece on the Oregon summer lunch program that I voiced over and edited, but it might not. http://kboo.fm/EveningNews

Federal Authorities Offer Baltimore Residents A Way Out Of legal Woes

Federal Authorities Offer Baltimore Residents A Way Out Of legal Woes

KECI

Alright, so here's a picture of me at my internship. I'll upload one tomorrow when we are doing an in-studio shoot for a commercial. This cardboard cutout of Ellen sits up in the lobby of KECI, and when I told the guys that I needed a picture for the internship blog, they insisted on Ellen. I also told them that I needed one where I'm doing something, even though I was editing something on the computer that you can see behind me. Tomorrow!

KECI, 06/16/2010

Hi everyone,

So I don't have a picture yet (I'm bringing my camera in tomorrow to get one), but I'll get one. This story on wolves has a stand-up in it at the very end that I helped shoot, but that's pretty much what I have for stuff that is done for now. Other stuff will be finished soon. For now, I have been helping the control room crew upstairs create prompt graphics for their new switcher using Photoshop. It's just simple things that they want animated, so every time they push a button, a message scrolls across the small little LED screen on the switcher.

Cheers,
Drew

WAMU 885 News, Washington

Hello all from the Nations Capital. I'm spending my summer interning with WAMU 885 News, it is the DC NPR affiliate. Been here for over two weeks now and have been working in the Newsroom on various things. What a difference a day feels like when following the News in a major market, as there has been major stories breaking almost everyday. I will be out this week shadowing various reporters that work at the station, and assisting them with research and information gathering. Hope everyone is having a great summer.

P.S. High humidity is not my cup of tea.

Nameplate

So my co-worker Jon made name plates for all the runners.  First day I got to Aspect one of the guys thought that I looked like the Scottish actor James McAvoy. (You may know him from Atonement, or Last King of Scotland) Since we had to do some sort of a nickname I thought this would be perfect. Jon did a pretty awesome photoshop job. 

Please Post Pictures

Hi everyone. I hope you're all having a fun summer so far. In Montana, we finally had a dry weekend. It seemed to brighten everyone's spirits. I was hoping you'd all be able to post a picture of you working at your internship. Please put it on your next post. And don't forget that you can also post links, video and other pictures to the blog as well. I hope you're all having fun this summer. Keep working hard and thanks for being such great ambassadors for the RTV Department.
ray

Second Week at KECI

Hey again all,

So the first week at KECI was pretty fun. On Friday, we went out and shot a commercial for a place on West Broadway that makes fireplaces (was actually in Frenchtown), and then we went to Caras Nursery and Landscaping and shot some stock footage for a commercial they have planned for next year. We also went and shot a reporter standup earlier in the week, and we are doing another one for the same reporter today. After that, we're going to a meeting with Planned Parenthood to shoot a commercial for them, and then we are shooting something for Missoula Textiles on Wednesday. Soon, we're going to shoot footage for our 4th of July promo with both Mark and another reporter. Kind of busy, kind of not.

Our computer with the only tape logger on it crashed this morning and we can't get it to come back up. They got it in 1999, so it was a bit inevitable. We're just trying to keep restarting it to hope for the best because a commercial that Scott and I edited on was saved to it and we might lose the entire thing if we can't access the hard drive again. You know, kind of like when ISIS dies! I showed one of the guys down here how to put an automatic electronic signature on his e-mail this morning...then went to a sales meeting on what's going on this week. Everyone here is very fun to work with and they seem to let me do whatever I want to help them out.

Until next time,
Drew

First Two Weeks

Well Aspect Ratio has been fun, but a little slow. Being a runner is a great intro job to L.A because you get familiar with your surroundings really fast. For instance I know the best routes now to get to the Disney lots in Burbank. I still feel a little nervous going out on them by myself, but I should have the routine down by the end of this week. Sill don't have clearance to go onto Warner lots, they are very picky of who gets on them. 

 Last week I got to watch a few films the editors had been working on. Can't say the name of the film that I watched, but we'll just say it's going to be out in November, and has two very big movie stars in it,  one of whom directed it. It was interesting to see how they cut it into a trailer, what scenes they used, and what kind of an angle they chose to sell the film with. Considering the film I watched would be a very hard sell, the editor did a terrific job. I'm interested to see what kinds of films they'll have coming through this summer since they are nearly finished with their big summer tent pole projects, one of these being doing the T.V spots for The Last Airbender, and Jonah Hex. 

So far I've had  a lot of Montana contacts in this city. A friend of mine from MSU who works for Disney Animation invited me to a screening of Toy Story 3, and after I went to a little get together that she threw for MSU students new to l.a. It was fun to catch up with my old classmates from MTA. Many of the MSU students didn't have gigs lined up before coming down here so I was very thankful that the RTV department was able to give me a hook up. 

Heading to Seattle!

Heading to Seattle! So I haven't actually started my internship, but it's going to be sort of a whirlwind (Since I have to move all my stuff and find a place to live and try to navigate my way through Seattle traffic) so I decided to just do my informational post now. I'm doing my second internship at King 5 in Seattle, it's the NBC station there and I'll be working on a new show called 'New Day Northwest.' It's a news talk show that shoots live every Monday-Thursday mornings. It's going to be a really awesome experience because I'll be working with only eight other people, and they already have stuff lined up for me to do. I'll be organizing audience members and also greeting guests to the show. They also want my help with pitching and researching segment ideas for the show so I've already started to make lists of story ideas. The people I interviewed with were really excited that I knew how to edit on Final Cut, so I'll probably be logging tape and what not, hopefully my skills aren't too rusty! I'm really excited/scared out of my mind to move to Seattle on my own TOMORROW. That's all for now!

Press Release Party!

So my internship is a little bit different. I'm working as a marketing/advertising/PR intern at the Montana Lottery, which is actually part of the state government if you didn't know. So far (I started May 20) its been pretty slow but I have done a few cool things. Every time a winner comes into the headquarters the other interns and I interview the person and write up a press release that is sent out to a list of newspapers and stations in Montana. The week after I had sent out my first release I checked my email to find that Shaun Rainey had received it at his news station! So for those of you working in MT this summer, you should be getting a lot of press releases from me! The biggest winner we've had so far was a $200,000 Powerball winner from Bozeman and today we had a $190,000 Montana Cash winner from Great Falls who was so funny. He and his wife are both in their eighties so he told us he plans on spending all his winnings instead of saving any or sharing it because "there's not much time left." Actually, that sounds really morbid now that I've typed it out but it was funny at the time....maybe you had to be there.

For the marketing/advertising side of the job I got to sit in on a meeting with our ad agency Citrus and discuss ad campaign choices the Lottery will be starting soon. All I'm going to say is that if you see the commercial that uses the word 'bling' in it I fought hard to get that idea thrown out but the people in charge thought it was a fun word to use. Don't blame me for how annoying that commercial will be.

And lastly we interns had to design a marketing campaign to encourage people to play the game 10 Spot and the head of marketing really liked my idea so now there will be posters sent out to every Lottery retailer in Montana with copy that I wrote! I was excited, I'm just bummed they wouldn't give me a crack at the whole graphic design part!

I hope everyone is getting off to a good start for the summer!

-Kaelyn

First day at KECI

Hey lovelies,

So today was my first day at KECI. The whole commercial production crew is really, really laid back, so that's awesome. I found out that the first commercial I get to help shoot is with Missoula Textiles, and one odd thing about it is my boss and my coworker from the Hilton are both going to be in the commercial. It's going to feel great getting to order him around for once.

Today I got to KECI and there wasn't much going on, so I just logged some tapes and then helped one of the editors write a script for the store Stitches' upcoming commercial. Spoiler alert! We decided to go with a '50s style commercial with a little Grease Lighting action. After that I started editing the commercial for Garden City Heating and Plumbing, which was hard to do since the client wanted to shoot them having a meeting with no audio. Not much to work with there.

Hope everyone's having a great summer, and I'll post more to come.

Drew

Day Numbero Uno

So at Aspect for the first day on the job. Pleasantly surprised upon coming to work this morning to find out that this is a paid internship. Yes, I was shocked as well since most get paid nothing (Sorry Drew Stanley!) So my official title is a runner, which is the starter job here. My fellow co-runners (Christine, Brandon, Zoe, and Jon) are at the beck and call for anything that needs to be run to studios.  Also, we burn DVDs after they have been completed by the editors. Got to check out some stuff the editors completed today for the studios heads to watch. Today so far I've helped do a lunch and a birthday cake run. Yes, birthday cake run, you heard right. I've observed it's a very laid back working environment, and everybody is helpful to show me the ropes.  I think there is going to be a lot of down time waiting for stuff to come through, they just finished up the Shrek campaign so they have slowed down a bit. 

As far as the other runners, most are graduates from film schools. Two from USC that I know of. 

I've been invited to a little dinner that's being thrown by a friend Aria of m MSU students that have just moved here. There is a lot of MSU students here, a handful of people I know from MSU. Will keep you posted one the adventures to come at Aspect, and I'm keeping my eyes peeled for celebrity run ins! 

UM Senior highlighted on NPR

One of this year's graduating seniors, Buddy Cowart, is highlighted in a story that aired on NPR. Click here to listen. The story was produced by UM alum Emilie Ritter. Tell me what you think about the story. Have a good weekend (and if you're in Missoula--a dry one too).

The Portland Mercury

Sooooo, kinda last minute I landed a small internship with The Portland Mercury. It's similar to the Independent; Portland's art and culture paper (pretty wacky if the cover didn't already exude that). I'm working in "Production" with them, but it just entails helping with the design of the paper. I just do corrections on the pages to speed up the process, it's identical to the Kaimin, except worse computers... The environment is super incredibly laid back. Which is kinda nice, because I was checking out my schedule for France, and it's pretty intense.

On another note, Sheya and I just got dinner yesterday, I love to see anyone else who wants to visit Portland! I leave for France in three weeks! I'll keep ya'all updated!

Alison

KPAX internship

Hey all, so I am a a couple weeks or so in as an "intern" at KPAX. I have been working a couple hours each day with our promotions guy, James Rafferty. He has taught me a lot about after effects, but I have just begun to play with it myself. I made a weird little promo for our new billings anchor...nothing that would ever go on air haha. It is so fun to play with! I have also been technical directing quite a bit since many people are gone on vacation. Not too many mess-ups so far! Here is a cute little graphic I made for the five thirty news tonight.

4th Day in Los Angeles

Well, I don't start work at Aspect Ratio until Monday. Aspect Ratio is a marketing company out of Hollywood that does marking for feature films. From what I see from their terrific web site, http://www.aspectratio.com/, it's where all the major studios go. They cut everything from trailers, t.v spots, and even credits before feature films.

L.A is a interesting place, going to take a lot of getting used to. For one thing it's huge, I mean big! It's like about 7 cities in one. Went for a beautiful hike up the Hollywood hills and got a birds eye view of all the major film studios. Will keep you updated later in the week when I begin the internship.