A Part of Life

By Sharon Ness
Learning to trust the natural environment through a grandmother.

- Hazelton BC - 2008,  4:42

English Subtitles


Gitksan Subtitles

My True Thoughts

By Sherylanne S Hillis
A survivors story of struggle and hope.

- Hazelton BC - 2008, 2:43

English Subtitles


Gitksan Subtitles

Gwiis Gaaks 'Wiigyat

By Michelle Moore
A traditional story about greed, animated in the very modern software program: After Effects.

- Hazelton BC - 2008, 3:24

English Subtitles

Gitksan Subtitles

The Art of Making Bread

By Jeannette Mowatt
The family tradition that is found in making bread.

- Hazelton BC - 2008, 2:28

English Subtitles

Gitksan Subtitles

OUR BARN

By Cody Stephens and Kirsten Stephens-Barnes
The personal stories of of how Hockeyville Hazelton is a family tradition.

- Hazelton BC - 2008, 5:13

WINNER of The 2008 Youth Award at the Regent Park Film Festival ! 

English Subtitles

Gitxsan Subtitles

The Hiding Place

By Marvin Skulsh
An epic tale about an ancient war between the Gitxsan people - between the village of Kispiox and the people of the larger Nass village.
- Hazelton BC - 2008, 2:35

English Subtitles

Hazelton - Screening

It is always important to share the films and honour all the hard work.

What a lovely screening with an attentive audience.

A round of applause for the filmmakers!

Marvin, Cody, Kirsten, Sherylanne, Jeannette, Michelle and Sharon

TOP: Marvin, Cody, Sherylanne, Jeannette, Michelle, Sharon & Steve
BOTTOM: Kirsten, Lisa, Elisa & Catrina

A quick Q & A and gift giving

Elisa and Michelle - all relaxed now the work is done

Jeannette and Kirsten - great films were made!

Marvin brought his Mom!

Hazelton - Production Day 5-6

Jeanette finished her film! The photos she took of the bread baking process are edited together with photos of her family, old and current photos – it is a beautiful homage to her family and highlights the role of women within it.

Michele has been drawing most of the week – generating beautiful images in Fireworks and then importing them into Photoshop to add some visual zing! Wii-gyat, her main character, is a handsome fellow with a feathered cloak and raven mask. She has placed him within a forest scene that she photographed and then filtered through Photoshop. The bears that are a part of the legend she is telling were photos lifted off the internet and then cut and manilpulated in photoshop. Since she has been working so hard creating her images, she is editing fast toward the finish line!

Marvin has really filled out his story – the Final Cut timeline is almost complete. His animations have worked out very nicely. Today he is adding sound effects. It is hard to find a good arrow sound! But we are able to download a free one from an on-line sound effects site. He has really filled in his film with sound and the story is coming alive! The combination of sound and image in his film is very effective. By the end of the day the movie is almost done, tomorrow there is a bit of tweaking (some spelling on the text) creating end credits, a title card, a couple more sound effects and a current photo of Kispiox to come at the end of the legend to bring it up to current day.

Sharon has been working very independently, coming and going with cameras and recording gear! Sharon has done a lot of work on Photoshop creating the backdrops for her movie from a variety of images and layering them together . They are gorgeous! Just watching her work is inspiring. She has very clear direction and knows what she wants!

Sherylanne has been editing her story poem together and she has done a bit of everything! A bit of animation, quite a bit of photoshop work creating some beautiful collages! She has created a very cool sound design in Final Cut and did her own voice recording and photography. The way she has edited her images together is very organic and loose – she is very confidant with her choices and it shows! At one point she said that movie producing is too much work – but it is amazing what she has created from a personal vision! It is a moving, personal piece and the editing is really working well!

Cody and Kirstin have constructed an ambitious short movie – moving between a personal history and the wider community. They have taken old family photos and recent shots of the community and created a very cool story. The search for music that can go underneath the images took a bit of time but finally they find something that they both like – the choices are limited from the cd sound effects we have, and the ones available on Imovie.

More great lunches – yummy shepard’s pie with cheese on top!  

How to change the settings on a digital camera

Sherylanne works on her storyboard for My True Thoughts

Mentor Catrina and Sherylanne make plans for media gathering

Jeannette works with mentor Elisa on her edit 

Another room full of filmmaking magic

Jeannette puts finishing touches on The Art of Making Bread

Mentor Steve works with Cody and Kirsten on OUR BARN

More photoshop!

Kirsten scans her photos

Mentor Lisa helps Marvin

Marvin creating his collage imagery in photoshop

Marvin takes a photograph of an archival photo to use in The Hiding Place

Working on A Part of Life

Michelle uses After Effect on her film

More editing on Gwiis Gaaks 'Wiigyat

Sherylanne's Uncle watches the edit 

Cara and Aiden working together!

Hazelton - Production Day 3-4

Today Lisa shows us how to import images onto the computer and then magically manipulate them using Photoshop Elements. Participants will now be able to scan, import , crop, manipulate and layer their images, bringing them to life!

Sharon has gone to interview her mom, Marvin is on a roll, scanning images of the gorgeous collage he has created depicting two villages on the Skeena.

Michele has her legend storyboarded already and is working on drawing her character on the computer with a bit of help, from Steve, the animation guru!

Jeannette has started her storyboard and is spending her afternoon scanning photographs of her family.

Kirsten and Cody are scanning pictures as well – going through memories and scrap books of their early hockey days. By the end of the day, they have laid out their story and planned to incorporate little animations into a photo montage.

Sherylanne has broken her poem into sections and chooses images to illustrate her words. Her uncle Errol is a talented local Gitxsan artist who has brought her a photo album containing images of his carvings and crests.

It is impressive how far everyone has gotten already! 

Cara Morten taught and talked about the importance of sound. Little Aiden helped (of course) as well!

Jeannette works on her script for The Art of Making Bread

The whole room is busy!

Marvin makes edits on The Hiding Place

Mentor Lisa gives Sharon some editing tips

Sherylanne learns photoshop from mentor Catrina

Hazelton - Production Day 1-2

Six students show up this morning at the Gitksan Wet'suwet'eb Education Society College with written stories in hand. It is a keen group – today is actually a school holiday! 

Michele, brought in a fairly elaborate story which by the end of the morning she decided to save for another time, and focus on a shorter, simpler story – a Gitxsan legend – which she felt would be easier to complete in the week. Sounds like a good plan! She will save her other idea for later!

Cody and Kirsten, the brother and sister team are making a story about hockey and how it ties into the community of Hazelton. They are making the point that the ice arena has been an integral part of their youth and there should be something done to save the arena which is falling into disrepair.

Jeannette is doing a story in honor of her mom and grandma about how she learned her breadmaking skills. It is a lovely story about family tradition and passing on family knowledge through everyday activities.

Marvin’s movie is a legend told to him by his mother and grandmother about the war between two villages that lead to the naming of the village of Ans’p yaxw which translates as“The Hiding place.”

Sherylanne is creating a movie about an inner journey, incorporating an original poem that she wrote.

The rest of the morning is spent developing ideas for images to go with the stories and writing storyboards.

Steve Sanderson talks about animation

The new filmmakers are listening!

More thinking about story....

Delicious lunches are supplied by the school and we watch videos from other “Our World” project to get inspired and see how other students have told their stories. We even get to try traditional foods - herring eggs, kelp seaweed with salmon eggs, smoked salmon and tomatoes & onions, rice and fried bread with huckleberries for dessert – so delicious! The herring eggs are a real delicacy that has other students and teachers from the school lining up to get a tasty treat

Steve gives a talk on storyboarding – what is the first the first written language, he asks? It’s cave painting, the first written form of story telling - he likens story telling to totem poles – a visual language that tell stories. Storyboarding movies is also about putting words, stories, ideas into pictures.

Hazelton - Arrival

Hazelton is a beautiful place nestled in the Roche de Boule Mountain Range and sitting at the edge of the Skeena River!