Malta High School seniors film ensure everyone can see top floor of Phillips County Museum

There was a time at the Phillips County Museum when a visitor was unable to manage the stairs leading to top floor exhibits, they would have missed out on an expansive section of history dedicated to Phillips County and northeast Montana.

Those days are gone.

Malta High School seniors Ronnie Erickson and Kyle Mitchell, under the tutelage of history teacher Delmer Henry, spent the better part of three months filming the rooms on the second floor of the Museum before taking the raw footage back to school to edit and narrate a film. The results are a 12-minute video which displays portions of the museum that are now accessible to anyone who visits.

"The idea is if a handicapped person comes into the museum and can't get upstairs, they can sit right here and have a guided tour," said Sharon Emond, Phillips County Museum Curator. "They really took their time and did a wonderful job."

Mitchell said that he and Erickson compiled their video footage and then that the two spent a number of hours in each room of the museum, doing research that they felt was relevant for the project.

"It is kind of a running overview of the museum," added Mr. Henry. "There is no way we could have documented every piece of information up there so it's just a general overview of what is available up there. "

Among the vast array of information and exhibits to be experienced at the Phillips County Museum, collections focusing on pioneer life, Native Americans, cowboys and outlaws and dinosaurs are expansive.

"It was a day-to-day process," Mr. Henry said. "We got a little done every day."

All told, the project took roughly 9-to-12 weeks to complete from start to finish.

During the research portion of the project, Mitchell said that he was impressed by the discovery of just how many Phillips County residents are also military veterans.

"The amount of people who served in the military during the World Wars was a lot more than I expected," he said. "There was a lot of historical stuff we didn't know about this county and other counties."

Mitchell, who was born in and has been raised in Phillips County, said that he knew much of his family history was on display at the museum because his mother works there and he has spent time at the museum away from the video project. He said his family has a long history of mining in Phillips County and that he was able to locate at least one family member's name upstairs.

"My Grandfather served in World War II," he said. "So his name is on a plaque so that's a pretty big deal."

Erickson said that she learned a lot of background information about the town of Malta that she hadn't known of prior to making the documentary.

"I liked researching the Saco Room the best because that is where my family is from," she said. "There was the name 'Erickson' in that room on a quilt."

The duo took turns switching between shooting the video and giving the running dialog of the film and though they said that they enjoyed making the documentary, neither has ambitions to become film makers in the future. Mitchell and Erickson agreed that it was nice to be able to try something a little outside the norm as far as a high school project goes. Erickson said that she enjoyed getting out of the classroom to take a more hand's on approach than the normal curriculum usually allows.

"It was nice to get out of our comfort zone," added Mitchell.

The documentary runs for nearly 12-minutes, but not every take made the final cut as some footage was left on the cutting room floor. There was a few bloopers that didn't make the final edit including one in which Mr. Henry was trying to point out locations on a map.

"(Mr. Henry) was trying to point things out on a map with a yardstick," Mitchell said. "He was trying to find the right spot and couldn't."

"You just saw a yellow yardstick shooting all over the place," added Erickson.

"I just couldn't find it and we decided, let's not do that," Mr. Henry said, adding that the three decided to use an easier approach and simply called out where locations were on the map, ditching the complicated visual cues.

"That part was probably the most fun," said Mr. Henry. "Just kind of joking around with these guys. These two are great to work with. They are about as easy as they come to work with so I'm pretty lucky to have them in my class."

Mr. Henry said that he is proud of the job that Erikson and Mitchell did on the project. He said that at a certain point in the process, he backed off and left the two more technically savvy students in charge of the film.

"I've actually learned from them so this was a great experience for me," he said. "I'm proud of their efforts."

The high-end Canon camera used by the students to film the video portion of the tour was procured through monies raised through the Mustang Foundation.