By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian

Corvallis school administrators weren't too sure what to make of this fellow, who came to them about four years ago claiming to be a Hollywood producer who wanted to teach kids in the Bitterroot Valley school how to make movies. Peter Rosten - the fellow in question - doesn't blame them.

“All I had was smoke and mirrors,” he admitted early on. “I had a business plan and projections, but I was never a teacher - I just knew it might work.”

Today, as his teenage-run production company gears up to produce its first national television advertising campaign, Rosten admits he didn't foresee the success that MAPS - Media Arts in Public Schools - has found.

“Gosh no, I'm not that smart,” Rosten says. “Did I think we'd be hired to do a national TV ad campaign? Goodness gracious. It's been one of the most incredibly serendipitous experiences of my life.”

The program has grown to encompass two full years of classes (Media Arts I and II) in Corvallis and next fall will have to begin offering two Media Arts I classes to accommodate all the students who want in.

It's expanded to nearby Darby, where Rosten lives, as an after-school program there, and will partner with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Montana to offer similar programs in Kalispell, Bozeman, Missoula, Wolf Point and Red Lodge in the coming months - and expand to five more communities the year after that.

In addition to making their own music videos and writing, directing and producing their own movies, Corvallis students have for two years been producing local TV ads. One of those, for the Montana Student Assistance Foundation, led to the national ad campaign.

“We were hired to create a campaign that increased awareness about College Goal Sunday,” Rosten says. College Goal Sunday brings students and parents to 13 campuses in Montana to help them fill out forms for financial assistance, and “they had a 46 percent increase in attendance, which suggests our kids' advertising campaign worked.”

Now, they'll attempt to do likewise on a nationwide scale for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, which was impressed by their work in Montana and became their first-ever national client.

While MAPS has become a revenue-producing entity through TV ad spots, its roots still lie in the movie business, where students not only learn to write, direct and produce short films - they run all the behind-the-scenes duties, from cameras to sound equipment, casting to location scouting, music scoring to editing.

This year's MAPS students are filming a movie called “Maya,” from one of several scripts written by the students. One thousand years after a princess ruled a people who deified and worshipped her, a group that worships the same goddess come across a high school student who looks exactly like the princess.

“It's an adventure-love story,” Rosten says. “They kidnap this young woman, named Maya, to be their queen, but when it becomes apparent they intend to sacrifice her it's up to her boyfriend to save the day and rescue her.”

“Maya” will join “Soul Sight,” a psychological thriller, and “French Love,” a romantic comedy, as low-budget movies Corvallis students have written, produced and directed in the past three years. About the only thing the teens don't do is act in their movies; local stage actors are cast in the films and seem to enjoy the experience.

“We were just talking,” Don Matlock, one of nine adult actors with the Hamilton Players who had parts in “Soul Sight,” said on the set last year. “We all wish they'd had a class like this when we were in high school.”

The reason they have it now is that it doesn't cost taxpayers a dime. MAPS is funded by the Florence Prever Rosten Foundation, named after Rosten's mother, and found early support not just in the Corvallis administrators who decided to give Rosten a chance, but in the Montana Office of Public Instruction, which helped clear the way for Rosten to teach.

Rosten has produced films (such as 1989's “True Believer” with James Woods and Robert Downey Jr.) and several television shows, including “Scarecrow and Mrs. King.” His friend, director, producer and screenwriter Jim Kouf (“National Treasure,” “Rush Hour” and “Stakeout”) introduced him to the Bitterroot Valley, is on the MAPS board of directors, has spoken to Rosten's classes and reads the scripts they intend to film each year.

Rosten hoped to steer MAPS into more public schools, but can't do it on donations alone. A bill to provide state funding to do so never made it out of committee in the state Legislature this session.

Instead, the M.J. Murdock Foundation made a site visit to determine if MAPS was a program it wanted to help.

“When they get on a plane and fly in, you expect they'll be giving you money,” Rosten says.

But once it saw the operation in person, foundation officials said they couldn't. Because of its success in producing TV commercials, “We had already made too much money to qualify for a grant,” Rosten says.

The foundation still liked the program, and Rosten came up with the proposal - since the Legislature wasn't acting to expand the program to other public schools - to spread it via the Boys and Girls Clubs.

That, the foundation said, it could do.

“Like I said, serendipity,” Rosten says. “We've been in the right place at the right time.”

Rosten has already hired three MAPS graduates to help him as the program expands, and will be hiring more as it moves into the Boys and Girls Clubs.

The students earn money, too - they're paid minimal amounts for their days on the set, but the student who came up with the College Goal Sunday campaign earned a $200 scholarship, and the one who writes the national TV campaign will get a $1,000 scholarship.

“We try to pass as much on to the kids who are doing the work as we can,” Rosten says. “They're not hiring me to do the work. I'm just a good sales advocate.”

He's glad Corvallis administrators gave him the chance.

But so are they.

Scholarships - and a crack at fame - available

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian

A chance at brief national fame and a scholarship is available to five Montana teens who'd like to promote student financial aid.

The Bitterroot-based Media Arts in the Public Schools program is casting five roles for a commercial touting the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators this June.

“This is our first national campaign,” said MAPS founder Peter Rosten. “It's pretty amazing for a bunch of kids. The success of our Montana campaign got us the job.”

MAPS leads elective classes at Corvallis and Darby high schools. Students trained in the classes then put together video and radio projects, including some for paying clients. Earlier this winter, they produced a campaign of print, radio and TV commercials for the College Goal Sunday program. In March, MAPS opened a branch club in the Missoula Boys and Girls Club.

The current campaign needs five young people with a variety of ethnic backgrounds, including Caucasian, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian and African-American. Some acting experience is preferred but not necessary.

Applicants should send an e-mail with a photo attached to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it If e-mail is not available, information can be mailed to Peter Rosten, MAPS, P.O. Box 750, Darby, MT 59829.

Selected actors will receive a $500 fee/scholarship, plus room, board and per diem if travel is necessary. The filming should take one day in mid-June.

Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .