Montreal: Quebec’s advanced film school, l’Institut National de l’Image et du Son, opens its doors to 14 students Jan. 8.

The school is a non-profit corporation with a first-year budget of $1.3 million, $1 million of which comes from federal and provincial governments. The balance is from private industry sources. Longer term financing commitments have been announced, and by year five, the private sector is expected to pick up 40% of the operating cost.

Director/writer Mark Blandford is inis’ artistic director. ‘inis aims to train producers, directors and writers. It will not train generalists. This is what will differentiate it from the university programs,’ he says. ‘In fact, the university programs that exist at l’Universite de Montreal, Concordia and uqam, have all basically gone on the record as saying their best students should graduate to inis.’

Ultimately, he says the school’s orientation depends on feedback from the industry.

‘The whole thing has been started by the industry, is cofunded by the industry, run by the industry and taught by people from the industrythe school is going to be as successful as the industry wants it to be.’

Blandford says the school is looking for candidates with ‘some maturity,’ adding inis will be flexible on admission criteria such as professional experience and age.

Focused

‘When you come to inis,’ says Blandford, ‘you’ve already decided you want to be a director, a producer, a writer. You can’t sort of say, `Well I think I’d like to make movies.’ That’s why the age range is so broad.

‘We need more writers, the good ones are stretched to the limit,’ says Blandford.

He says while writers tend to mature later, ‘directing requires an old mind in a young body, which means the window of opportunity is relatively limited.’

He says the first year and a half of the study program is aimed entirely at the final year when students will undertake a professional production.

The initial January to May session covers a series of common courses, internships and workshops while the emphasis moves to intense specialization courses in the fall to spring second term.

Atelier session topics include project proposal editing, preparation of synopses and bibles, dramatic writing and narrative for features, film and video lighting, group dynamics, multimedia and new technologies and professional ethics. Roundtable sessions with invited speakers will look at subjects ranging from production to post-production, financing, distribution and rights issues.

All inis instructors are working professionals. Department heads are Rock Demers, production; Richard Martin, directing; and Marcel Beaulieu, screenwriting. Beaulieu’s latest credit is the French box office hit Farinelli.

inis’ 15-member board of directors is headed by president Pierre Roy and two vps, screenwriter and novelist Claude Fornier and director/actress Micheline Lanctot.

Louise Spickler, an industry communications specialist and author, is inis’ director general. She will manage the school’s overall and day-to-day operations.

Requirements

Applicants should generally be between the ages of 21 and 35, fluent in French with some industry experience. The application deadline is Oct. 31. Applicants will be restricted to directors and screenwriters in the first year. inis will introduce a program for five producer trainees in year two.

‘We want to train people in both film and television,’ says Blandford. ‘The market is too small to be just a film school or a television school. So writers and directors will be trained in everything from clips to feature films. The minute they go beyond exercises and workshops, probably in the second year, but most definitely in the third, they (will be) working under entirely professional conditions.’

In their final year, students will work on competitive productions selected by an industry jury and funded by inis.

Blandford says the productions are likely to be half-hour dramas, documentaries and long-form video drama, but probably not feature films. An executive producer will oversee production which will use professional editors, technicians, and actors and be done under existing collective agreements.

Development

Taking a cue from the Canadian Film Centre model, Blandford says a professional development program for older, more experienced candidates will be introduced in the second or third year. The development program will be oriented towards specific projects brought forward by a candidate.

There may be financial help for students down the road. The Claude Jutra Foundation, an industry-supported fund, will be set up in the months ahead and inis has applied for status as a training center and as such is authorized to guarantee loans.

Sessions start Jan. 8 at a temporary location in the city’s central east end. By next year, inis will relocate in the new Cinematheque Quebecoise building. Students from Centre d’animation et de design, an animation and new technologies design school closely associated with Softimage, will also be housed in the same facility. Students from both schools will share resources, a welcome interaction, says inis’ artistic director.

Blandford is a former consultant to the program director at Radio-Canada and has won three Gemeaux Awards in the past two years, two for directing and one for editing.

Tuition is $5,000 a year.