When he first arrived in L.A., Ryan Stumpe worked as a grip on all-night horror shoots.

Mangano and recent MSU students meet at least once a month at wine parties organized by Aria Stewart, a 2006 graduate, and her boyfriend, Ryan Stumpe, who graduated in 2003, at their small house in the Silver Lake area.

Both Stewart and Stumpe have worked at a series of short-term movie industry jobs since arriving in L.A.. This is not the kind of work one does if interested in regular schedules and a health and pension plan. But each job seems to lead to the next and the pair remain optimistic not only about the industry, but the importance of their Montana network.

"The people I call friends are Montana people," says Stewart, a Bozeman native who works in editing and post-production. "So many of the jobs I have gotten are because of Montana people.

"It seems like every day someone calls and asks 'What are you doing next week?'"

Stewart came down to L.A. first in 2006 with three friends and no job. She worked at an unpaid internship, supporting herself by waitressing nights in a swanky L.A. club.

"It was good money, but the reason you come to L.A. isn't to work at a restaurant," she said. She went with an MSU friend to a wrap party, traditionally held for cast and crew to celebrate wrapping a production, and heard about a trailer editor who was leaving Universal to open his own post-production house. That led to her first of many jobs in the business.

She recently worked with Scott Chestnut, who graduated in 1978 and is an established film editor, on Boy of Pigs, which Chestnut edited. Stewart served as post-production coordinator.

"I wanted to work for a Montana person because they are different than L.A. people," said Stewart, who recently finished editing the feature comedy Pants on Fire. "They will be straight with you, which is important to me."

"Work is work and you learn something from each project," Stumpe said, explaining that the films frequently go to the Sci-Fi Channel. "Everyone needs content."

From his L.A. base, Stumpe has been able to work on a variety of his own AVERingenuity projects, including Raising the Ghost, a documentary that follows fly fishing anglers in search of the elusive steelhead trout.

Stumpe and Stewart say that they notice that the number of MSU graduates seems to increase, or at least attendance at their monthly wine parties continues to grow.

Aria Stewart: Patience, persistence and MSU connections led to L.A. jobs.

"They offer MSU alums a chance to catch up," Stumpe said of the gatherings. "(They) allow me to keep my crew full of Montanans who, I find, are the hardest working and best people for the job."

"We know kids that went to USC or other schools, but they are all trained in theory," Stewart said. "They had no hands-on experience so (their film school) was not that helpful. The people I've worked for have told me that they like to hire me because I know what I am doing. The fact that MSU has hands-on education was so helpful to me here."

Stumpe said among his aspirations are working with the MSU graduates that came before him -- Chestnut, Scott Seifert, Dahl and Mark Vargo, among others.

"They still give a shit about MSU, what's going on with the program and the kids that come out of the program," Stumpe said. "There's something about the education at MSU that is not in the textbooks. For one thing, it teaches you how to be a lifelong learner."

Chestnut brushes off any suggestion that he is doing anything unusual by giving work to those MSU graduates that came after him.

"If I am in a position to help them I will try because they will try to help me one day," said Chestnut, who grew up in Billings and Great Falls.

After graduating from MSU in 1978, Chestnut was accepted to the prestigious American Film Institute and later returned to Billings to shoot commercials. He followed his future wife back to Hollywood, sleeping on the floor of an apartment rented by his old MSU friends Dahl and David Warfield, Dahl's old writing partner. They also interacted with fellow classmate Jon Johnson, who later would win an Oscar for sound editing on U-571.

Chestnut began in the business editing music videos. His first was for Dahl, which led to editing feature films. Thirty years after graduating, Chestnut is still editing Dahl's projects, including You Kill Me, released last summer.

"The movie business is built on networking," says Chestnut, who now lives in Bozeman and commutes to L.A. after living in California for 14 years. "People want to help in the film business. They have been there. They want to build bridges."

After decades in the business, Chestnut concurs that there is something different about the MSU graduates in Hollywood, no matter what their vintage.

"(At MSU) the feeling is that there's enough work to go around so let's help each other out," Chestnut says. "Maybe part of it is the school has instilled in us a kind of serious, no-nonsense approach to making film. Maybe it's the fact that MSU is based in Bozeman. And Bozeman is such a special place. All of us have that special place in common."

Return to regular view	Text-only              Email this article	Published: 5/2/2008