Local Alberton man reaches the big screen

ALBERTON – A Mineral County resident recently reached new career heights as a film he worked on premiered across the state.

Alberton resident Abe Kurien worked as second assistant on Crimson Winter, an independent vampire film, which showed in Missoula last weekend. The movie’s premier was held in Helena on January 24.

The film was made entirely in Montana with most of the filming in and around Helena. Most of the people involved in the film were also from Montana with only a handful of people from outside the state.

“There were key players from the Hollywood area,” said Kurien. “The camera man and some of the lighting crew.”

While his background was in camera operation, Kurien’s role in the film was to work the clapperboard.

Most of the work for the film was done around February 2011. The experience was described as grueling at times. Winter weather conditions in the mountains and caves around Helena led to hard days of work. Sub zero temperatures and working in two feet of snow made for a less than hospitable environment.

The schedule was also difficult. Kurien recalled he worked at least 12 hour days most of the month. The longest day he remembered was approximately 15 hours with four hours of rest before the next day began.

“There were times we would start shooting at noon on a day, finish at three or four in the morning and then have to be up at nine or ten the next day in a new location,” said Kurien.

While the film took approximately two months to film, Kurien was only involved for one. His contributions took place during the winter shoots during February. For the month he was involved, Kurien relocated to Helena full time to avoid the hassles of a big commute.

However, he would not change it for anything. The overall experience was amazing and enjoyable, despite the occasional hard conditions. Kurien was at a loss for words about how to describe the experience.

“Just to watch the whole thing come together was absolutely amazing,” he said. “Then to see it on the big screen was just great.”

This was Kurien’s first full-length motion picture. The rest of his video experience has been in smaller films or broadcast media.

Kurien has been involved in broadcast film for approximately 25 years. He first got involved in the industry while going to school for business in Chicago in 1989. He had an opportunity to get video of an accident and later submitted the footage to the local ABC station. The footage was aired and the news director, who was also a teacher at Columbia College, a film school in Chicago, suggested Kurien consider the school.

After the initial rush of seeing his work on the screen, Kurien changed his goals. He transferred to Columbia College to focus on film and television. After graduation, he worked on the editing side of films in Chicago for a while before moving on to work on small films, commercials and a variety of other projects before settling in Mineral County in 1999.

While most of his work now is professional freelance, Kurien also shoots footage for Grizvision. The program is part of the University of Montana’s athletics department and streams their sports games. The majority of his work has been with sports as it was the niche he fell into most of the time.

“I’ll end up getting called out depending on what they need,” said Kurien. “I do a wide range of stuff.”

He has also worked with Montana PBS, ESPN and Good Morning America. During the Jordan Gram trial, he worked with GMA as a cameraman and had footage broadcast on global television.

Gram was tried in Missoula for pushing her husband off a cliff. She later confessed to the crime.

Kurien would like to work on feature films again in the future. However, he is in no rush and enjoys his work on sports as well as small freelance projects.

“I’m not hesitant to do any aspect of film or television,” said Kurien. “I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to be doing, I don’t know what tomorrow holds. If it has something to do with television or film, I want to be a part of it.”

Kurien’s parting thought was a wish for others to share the experience of discovering a passion and dream. If someone has a dream, he said, they should go out, pursue it and make it their own.