Welcome to GIFTS! Here's a brief introduction to Galiano Island's amazing little film school, using the typical one-week MIP as an example.

It's Sunday evening, and students are arriving for the beginning of the one-week Media Intensive Program at GIFTS. For many, this is the first time they've ever been to film school, the first time they've been to the Gulf Islands, and they're excited. They've already met some of their fellow students on the ferry, and the anticipation is building.

When they disembark from the ferry, they find the Reels on Wheels film school bus waiting to take them up-island to GIFTS. Arrival at GIFTS brings the realization home: this is a rural film camp, surrounded by forest, with an unpaved driveway and a rustic collection of buildings forming an intimate courtyard, and a place where focus on the task of filmmaking is unavoidable. By 9:30 pm they're gathered in a circle in the meeting room with the other 31 students, being introduced to the prospect and rules of living together for a week while doing the seemingly impossible: create a complete production in one week from scratch. Everyone is assigned to their rooms, usually with one or two roommates, and instructed to rest up before the big week.

Monday morning is right down to business, with a discussion of Media Literacy and the formation of production teams. We'll follow the Drama students, since that stream is available every week.

Drama students meet with their Scriptwriting mentor and begin the process of understanding scripts and brainstorming or haggling over script ideas. By the evening, they have basic script ideas, and they meet their production mentors for the week and pitch their ideas to them. Then they study Visual Storytelling (a GIFTS curriculum specialty) and wrap up just before bedtime... and just how intensive this week is going to be sinks in , after a very full first day!

On Tuesday students alternate between finishing the script and technical workshops, and by the evening the script is in its final stages while the pre-production planning of actors, locations, and props is carried out. By now, a real cameraderie is building in the camp, with friendships blooming and the excitement of Sunday turning into the highs (and lows) of creative intensity. Whether they realize it or not, students are deep in the throes of learning new skills in collaboration and creativity, skills that for many will have the most impact on their lives out of all the week's changes.

Mealtimes are a welcome opportunity to connect with others not in your group, or even to nurse the creative fire and keep working. The abundant healthy food gives a feeling of security and helps keep the energy levels up.

Wednesday and Thursday are the shoot days for the Drama crews. Now they're into what many imagine when they think of filmmaking: lights, camera, action! They get to see some of Galiano, and perhaps meet some of the residents who have agreed to act or provide the location for a set. Some are enchanted by the incredible beauty of the place, and the landscape and forest inevitably makes its way into the shot list. Everyone gets a turn to Direct, to operate the camera and audio equipment, to design the lighting, and occasionally to act in one of the other videos being produced that week.

Thursday night they're back at the school, meeting with the in-house composer about the soundtrack they've imagined, and preparing the footage for editing. Friday is a day of post-production: editing workshops start things off, and by the end of the day they're discovering how well their planning worked, and are putting together all the pieces: story, visuals, music and sounds, and credits. The video is finished by bedtime, although a change in plans or perfectionism can result in a very late bedtime as the absoluted deadline approaches.

Finally, the Saturday afternoon screening approaches, and the beginning of the week seems so far away.... The air is now filled with tired satisfaction, anticipation and curiosity about the finished product on the big screen, and of course all the complex emotions that follow an intensely creative period of personal discovery. The public and friends and relatives begin to arrive for the screening, and things get really festive. The screening itself is a celebration of accomplishment, as everyone realizes what a truly amazing thing has happened. These films are finished! And not only are they good entertainment, they are moving, enlightening, funny, scary, technically stunning, provocative, or beautiful... and sometimes they are all these things. And best of all, this is the realization that caps it all off: the movie you made is YOURS. It's done, you understand how it happened even if it does seem like magic, and you can do it again.

There's a flurry of handshakes, hugs and address exchanges as people load up the bus with their gear, and pick up the tape of all the week's productions. Then it's off to the ferry, and the big, bad world out there, with all its wonderful filmmaking opportunities.

Here are some other accounts of the experience, first hand: Kristen McGregor's story for the Youth One website, "This one time... at film camp...". We 'll post links in the News section to other stories about GIFTS as they appear.

A Super8 workshop in the courtyard.

On the set: a vampire movie.

On the set: the GIFTS kitchen.

The mentors work closely with students.

An editing workshop.

Non-linear editing.

The world premiere screening ceremony.