[TBH]

Congratulations for thinking about this so early. You'll thank yourself later.

I agree with everyone who has said *don't* lie about gift money and call it income. It doesn't make sense to me.

If you really, really want to open a Roth before you finish school and get a job, why not start actually reporting your videographer income? You should really report it anyway (not that I'm so virtuous, I'm just scared of the IRS) and that way you can contribute to the Roth, up to the amount you're reporting as earned income.

If you don't want to do that, I think the idea of opening an investment account (sharebuilder or similar) is great because it will be psychologically harder for you to touch the money than if you leave it somewhere more accessible. Also, you can start getting some hands-on experience with asset allocation and mutual funds (or at least hands-on experience talking to advisors at your investment company about such things).