MSU filmmaking program starting to prove its point

It’s true. Scientists really can produce good films, says Ronald Tobias, director of the Science and Natural History Filmmaking program at Montana State University-Bozeman.

By Evelyn Boswell, MSU Research Office

As the first students in the program complete their final year, Tobias said the three-year program is starting to prove itself. It’s the only one in the world that offers a master’s degree in Science and Natural History Filmmaking. It not only has 45 students, but two of the students recently won major awards.

John Shier was one of two recipients of the "Michael Brinkman Emerging Filmmaker Award" given at the 2003 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. Tracy Graziano received a grant from the American Wildlife Research Foundation.

"The big question everyone was asking was ‛Can you really educate scientists to become good filmmakers?’" Tobias said. "Now we have proof that scientists can be every bit as creative and inventive as any filmmaker. For us, this was a big milepost."

Shier’s prize gives him four-months use of a Panasonic camera and equipment from other companies to film a one-hour documentary on the bears that live in the Gobi desert. Shier will fly to Alaska in July to film brown bears in the Katmai National Park and Preserve. He will then head to Mongolia, where he will spend three months in the Gobi desert. He hopes to complete his documentary in spring 2005.

"When I got it, I was really excited," Shier said about his award. "This will be my first project outside of school. At least now I will have something to work on, and it’s a good start. If the film is good, it should open some doors."

The Wisconsin native has a brilliant career ahead of him, Tobias said. Besides his filmmaking ability, "He is a success story in his ability to generate funding (over $100,000 so far) and has been working with a wide range of people from the Sierra Club to the National Park Service to the National Science Foundation."

Shier graduated from Marquette University with a degree in electrical engineering. He worked in the field for eight months, but left his job when he learned he’d been accepted into MSU’s filmmaking program.

"I knew that was a perfect fit. I knew that was what I wanted to do," he said.

Shier has already completed one film and is working on two others at MSU. His first film was a documentary on grizzly bear research in Glacier National Park. His thesis film is a documentary on Gary Strobel, an MSU scientist who searches the world for exotic fungi that produce useful compounds. He is also assisting Sara Slagle, another film student, who is filming bears in Yellowstone Park

Graziano will use her grant for her thesis film. She plans to compare eastern and western coyotes, while weaving in Native American trickster stories. Graziano has already filmed western coyotes in Yellowstone Park. She is now in Pennsylvania to film the eastern coyote.

"The film will be presented in a mystery format where the audience discovers along with the scientist the reasons why easterns are larger," Graziano said.

Graziano graduated from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with a degree in biology and another in cinematography. As an undergraduate, she wanted to do "just what the grad program here at MSU is for: to increase the science content in science and natural history films and to get the story right," Graziano said.

Tobias said, "Tracy is a wonderful example of someone who knew from the very first day what film she wanted to make and stuck with her vision even though the money didn’t come easily. Her persistence and her belief in the value of her project carried her through."

Evelyn Boswell, (406) 994-5135 or [email protected]

http://www.montana.edu/commserv/csnews/nwview.php?article=1325