See What's Happening at Motion Picture Institute

This is a film that high school students made in Frankenmuth, in a  High School Film  Workshop that was shown at the 2015 Made-in-Michigan Film Festival. The workshop was run by Motion Picture Institute Alumni Lindy Lenk, everyone did a...

Motion Picture Institute would like to congratulate the following students for their award winning films and roles: Best Film: RETAIL Director: David Dzialo Best Director: Chris Eckenwiler for STEP ONE Best Actor: Tom...

The Dark Below, an experimental thriller set on Michigan's Great Lakes, has just been invited to screen in Sweden at a well known genre festival called Monsters in Film this October as well. This past week The Dark Below went to Paris...

The fascinating thing about colors is that every single different hue affects us differently- both psychologically and emotionally. A character in a red shirt will affect the audience much differently than a character in a pale blue shirt....

The popular horror film review website WickedChannel.com has scored The Dark Below a 9 out of 10 in its recent review.   The Dark Below at L'Etrange Film Festival On September 5, The Dark Below will be screening at the...

            Motion Picture Institute is very excited to announce the Dark Below screening in Paris, France on Saturday September 5 and an encore screening on Wednesday September 9th at the...

About The Film You might get some sympathetic shivers watching the plight of THE DARK BELOW’s heroine. As the story opens, Rachel (Lauren Shafer) is drugged and abducted by a ruthless man (David GB Brown) who takes her to a frozen-over...

Motion Picture Institute alumni Robert J. Butler and Ashray Drividian both won big this past weekend at the Reel Michigan Film Festival. "Within" by Robert Butler won Best Picture and the Audience Award, and, the thesis film...

Congratulations to alumnus Robert J. Butler who's film "Within" won the Audience Choice Award at the Cinetopia International Film Festival. About Cinetopia Created for the people of southeastern Michigan, the Cinetopia...

The world premier of "The Dark Below" will occur this summer at Fantasia Montreal, Canada.  The film is premiering alongside some heavy hitters like Marvel's superhero film "Ant Man".   Fantasia has a storied...

At the Cinetopia International Film Festival, my short film "Within" rocked the house. The film generated laughter, tears, and an immediate applause. I received such great feedback after the screening. I wanted to thank everyone for coming...

Motion Picture Institute alumnus Vince Longo was granted access to the archives of Orson Welles for a class at the University of Michigan.  He uncovered a screenplay that led to the search and discovery of the first feature film by Orson...

Cast your vote today for Motion Picture Institute in the Chase Main Street Grants program.  Your vote will help us to reach our goal and earn a chance for a grant that will help to expand film and acting career opportunities to students right...

The Career Tech Field Trip and Job Shadow held at Motion Picture Institute in May was a huge success.  High School students from around the state of Michigan were able to get valuable hands-on experience about careers in the film industry from...

You might have seen Motion Picture Institute at Motor City Comic Con over the weekend! Current Film and Acting students volunteered at our booth, while Wolfman Mac made an appearance from the television show MPI is producing this year entitled...

The Monster Show pilot episode kicked off Sunday, May 17th at the Motor City Comic Con. The show is a ½ hour pilot features Michigan personality Mac Kelly (of Wolfman Mac’s Chiller Drive-In fame) and a cast of traditional monster...

Congratulations to Motion Picture Institute Alumnus Robert J. Butler, who's short film "Within" has been accepted into the Cinetopia Film Festival as a part of the Detroit Voices Competition.   Detroit Voices is a a...

"Five Windows" is a neo-noir thriller about an assassin preparing to kill his rival. As he leads his respected enemy down a trail of deception and illusion, it becomes clear that he is not the only one being tricked. The short film was...

Career Tech Field Trip and Job Shadow Objective: To interface high school students with film and television professionals on an actual film set and film studio. Lesson Plan: The students interact with film and television professionals...

Patient Zero was a short film written, directed, shot, edited in a one day filmmaking workshop for high school students at Motion Picture Institute on April 10, 2015. Students learned camera, lighting, audio, script supervising, and directing at...