{"id":20834,"date":"2018-01-03T14:29:27","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T21:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=20834"},"modified":"2018-01-03T14:29:27","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T21:29:27","slug":"msu-prof-students-experienced-hollywood-in-montana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/01\/msu-prof-students-experienced-hollywood-in-montana\/","title":{"rendered":"MSU prof, students experienced Hollywood in Montana"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"River\"<\/a>

Sony Pictures<\/p>

Actors Brad Pitt, from left, Craig Sheffer, and Tom Skeritt fish in a scene from “A River Runs Through It.”<\/p><\/div>\n

BOZEMAN \u2013 Dennis Aig had just been hired as a film professor at Montana State University when a friend of his from graduate school called in 1991 to ask if Aig and his students might be interested in making an electronic press kit for a tightly budgeted film that would be made the next summer in Montana.<\/p>\n

The film was \u201cA River Runs Through It,\u201d and because of Aig\u2019s involvement, the film\u2019s fans got a front-row seat to the making of the film, which caught America\u2019s imagination and boosted fly fishing as a sport.<\/p>\n

This month marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Aig\u2019s \u201cShadow Casting: The Making of \u2018A River Runs Through It.\u2019\u201d Aig still clearly remembers the call from graduate school friend Patrick Markey, a producer of\u00a0 \u201cA River Runs Through It,\u201d the Robert Redford film based on Norman Maclean\u2019s novella.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met at the Holiday Inn, and as Patrick told me the actors who were in the film, it was a bunch of people I hadn\u2019t heard of before except Tom Skerritt,\u201d Aig recalled. One of those no-name actors was Brad Pitt, whose career skyrocketed after his role in \u201cA River Runs Through It.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the director of the MSU\u00a0College of Arts and Architecture\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0MFA in\u00a0Science and Natural History Filmmaking<\/a>, Aig said that special circumstances in the filmmaking industry also contributed to MSU\u2019s unusual involvement in a feature film. Hollywood was undergoing technological changes, and the industry was then in an era of financial recession.<\/p>\n

\u201cA River Runs Through It\u201d was an independent film that had no studio support at the time, so Markey and Redford, the moving forces behind the film, were looking for ways to keep within a tight budget. They asked if Aig and MSU could shoot some video for an electronic press kit, which was a new approach to publicity in those days.<\/p>\n

\"Aig\"<\/a>

Kelly Gorham\/MSU<\/p>

MSU Professor Dennis Aig and his students had ringside seats for the making of “A River Runs Through It” 25 years ago.<\/p><\/div>\n

Because all MSU film and television professors then also had an appointment to produce content at KUSM, Montana\u2019s public television station, Aig asked if the MSU team could expand the idea into a documentary for MontanaPBS, and the producers agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt soon occurred to me that I had just made a \u2018Hollywood deal\u2019 to make the documentary,\u201d Aig said. He called the documentary \u201cShadow Casting: The Making of \u2018A River Runs Through It,\u2019\u201d after a fly fishing term in the original novella and the film.<\/p>\n

A few months later, in the summer of 1991, Aig and students Andy Froemke and Robert Wilder were on set with full access to Redford, Oscar-winning cinematographer Philippe Rousselot, Oscar-nominated screen-writer Richard Friedenberg, Pitt, Skerritt and actors Craig Sheffer, Emily Lloyd and Brenda Blethyn, among others.<\/p>\n

Other MSU film students jumped in and out of the \u201cShadow Casting\u201d project, including Collin Phillips and Froemke\u2019s brother, David, who was not a student. While the novella \u201cA River Runs Through It\u201d was set in Maclean\u2019s hometown of Missoula and on the Blackfoot River, much of the movie of the same name was shot in Park and Gallatin counties.<\/p>\n

Aig said that 1991 was a busy summer for MSU film students wanting experience on films. Not only was Redford shooting \u201cA River Runs Through It,\u201d but Ron Howard was shooting Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in \u201cFar and Away\u201d near Billings. Both movies provided opportunities for MSU film and television students, resulting in a local run on film equipment, Aig said.<\/p>\n

Aig said one of the early decisions that paid off was his decision to make a \u201creal\u201d documentary (which was Redford\u2019s term) about the film rather than a public relations film, even including interviews of Maclean\u2019s surviving relatives. While Aig has scores of stories about the filming and the collaboration of local outfitters, suppliers and crew, the memory that resonates the most for him was his interview with Redford.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Aig said several previous attempts to interview the star had been canceled, and the documentary crew knew Redford would be leaving town as soon as filming wrapped. On the final day of filming \u201cA River Runs Through It,\u201d Aig and the MSU crew were on the set near Big Sky shooting the scene with the actor playing the older Norman fly fishing in the Gallatin River \u201cwhen, literally, in the last hour of the shoot, with the sun going down, out of the forest comes Bob down to the river in his waders, saying, \u2018I\u2019m ready for my interview.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Aig recalled that the borrowed equipment his crew was using that day was primitive, and Aig had no headset. Because of the noise from the river, Aig couldn\u2019t hear Redford\u2019s answers to his questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI smiled and nodded and kept asking questions, hoping that my questions were coherent and there would be something we could use because we would have no chance to reshoot.\u201d Aig said. The crew raced back to KUSM, put the tape in to see if there was anything they could use.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, it was a great interview,\u201d Aig said of what he still calls \u201cthe most important interview of my career up to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, (Redford\u2019s) publicist, Lois Smith, who was one of the grand doyennes of Hollywood publicists, said it was the best interview (Redford) had given up to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hurdles didn\u2019t end there. Aig enlisted Andy and David Froemke along with Phillips to edit the film. Because at the time KUSM didn\u2019t have the necessary equipment to put the film online, which was the final stage of the film, Aig solicited other PBS stations across the country for help. KBYU in Provo, Utah, responded. Redford put up the MSU crew in his nearby Sundance Resort.<\/p>\n

Finances were another problem. \u201cShadow Casting\u201d had been made on a shoestring \u2014 national PBS rules allowed the production to accept no more than $8,000 from the \u201cA River Runs Through It\u201d production as a licensing fee in exchange for the footage that would be used for publicity purposes. Any larger payment would have been considered an unfair influencing of PBS content, Aig said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest we had to finance ourselves on credit cards,\u201d Aig said. He said it wasn\u2019t until \u201cShadow Casting\u201d was nearly done with post-production and the buzz from \u201cA River Runs Through It,\u201d began to build that underwriting came in from the Grand Marnier Foundation, Eddie Bauer, Field and Stream, and other companies that enabled them to finish the production, Aig said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA River Runs Through It,\u201d which came out in 1992, was a hit, winning an Academy Award for cinematography. The film launched Bozeman as a popular tourist destination and contributed to 25 years of population growth. Aig said he doubts that anyone involved in the production had any idea of the impact the film would have on the sport of fly fishing or the state of Montana.<\/p>\n

\u201cShadow Casting\u201d came out in January 1993, winning several national awards, including best documentary at the Chicago Film Festival. The most important affirmation of Aig\u2019s work came from Redford, who asked Aig to make \u201cVisions of Grace: Robert Redford and \u2018The Horse Whisperer,\u2019\u201d a behind-the-scenes documentary for the Lifetime Channel, when the actor and Markey returned to Montana in 1997 to make that movie, which also starred a 12-year-old Scarlett Johansson.<\/p>\n

Aig said \u201cShadow Casting\u201d was resurrected this fall for a few \u201cA River Runs Through It\u201d anniversary celebrations, including a Norman Maclean Festival in Missoula.<\/p>\n

\u201cShadow Casting\u201d set a very high standard for using students on films,\u201d Aig said. \u201cIt was a great experience for everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOZEMAN \u2013 Dennis Aig had just been hired as a film professor at Montana State University when a friend of his from graduate school called in 1991 to ask if Aig and his students might be interested in making an electronic press kit for a tightly budgeted film that would be made the next summer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":20835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[6596,3556,6597,6422,854,6598],"class_list":["post-20834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversions","category-montana","tag-a-river-runs-thought-it","tag-brad-pitt","tag-dennis-aig","tag-msu","tag-norman-maclean","tag-robert-redford","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20838,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20834\/revisions\/20838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}