Film Festival Frolics

For those of you playing along at home, here are a few more missteps, mistakes and outright idiocy at this year’s Toronto Film Festival:

• Internet service still not reliable and many times, it’s just dead. The wifi at a nearby Starbucks today was about 45 times faster than the film festival set-up.

• For some unknown reason, the festival doesn’t do printed call sheets (a list of people attending each movie premiere). Instead, it does e-mail call sheets. But the festival doesn’t e-mail sheets to everyone and it forgets some movies entirely. Some call sheets are being sent to newspaper or agency editors, some of whom are located in other countries, rather than being sent to the photographer at the festival.

At one premiere, a publicist from a US movie distributor expressed her surprise at the lack of call sheets and then opened her bag to pull out her studio’s own call sheets complete with names, bios and even small photos to help with IDs. Perfect.

• The festival has an e-mail-based RSVP system for red carpet photo access. But, the confirmation of acceptance is not being sent to all those accepted. One photographer got his acceptance e-mail after the event was over and others never received anything.

• At a premiere yesterday, photographers arrived two hours ahead of time as they were told to do so. But there were no film festival people around. Photographers were left standing around. Another example of the festival wasting photographers’ time.

• After a premiere yesterday, photographers were told to leave and come back in an hour for the next premiere. Photographers pointed out that there was no point to packing up all the cameras, computers and ladders, only to come back and set up everything all over again. Film festival person said “it’s policy”. Photographers packed up, walked 110 feet away, stood waiting for an hour and then walked back to the exact same spot and set up everything again.

• At the main red carpet, celebrities arrive on a big concrete area which is normally used as a public walkway. On two occasions, an arriving actor pointed to the ground and asked photographers, “Do you want me to stand on this piece of gum or that one?” and “Where’s my mark, this piece of gum?”

• Festival lost control of three premieres: Robert De Niro, Robert Redford and Ben Affleck. Members of the public wandered onto the red carpet and into the photo pit; up to forty people or so, (friends of movie folks, families of producers/directors, and who-knows-who-they-are), were placed directly in front of photographers; film festival volunteers wandered onto the red carpet; security guards and publicists wandered anywhere they wanted. Utter confusion.

• Had two big world premieres today with very famous people attending. Thousands of fans showed up. Where would you hold such big events? If you’re the Toronto Film Festival, you hold them at the smallest venue.

On that very same night, if you had a small premiere for a movie that will never see the light of day in North America and will attract absolutely no media coverage but only a handful of fans, where would you hold this event? If you’re the Toronto Film Festival, you hold it at the largest venue.

• Let’s say you’re planning to screen a movie from France, made by a French director and starring French actors. What language would be spoken in that film? Go ahead, take a wild guess.

Yesterday, a French movie premiere, which (believe it or not) was in French, was cut short when they found out the projection system can’t do English subtitles. A few hundred English language moviegoers, who paid a premiere price for the gala, had to walk five blocks to a neighbourhood multiplex cinema to watch the screening with subtitles. Only problem, that multiplex theatre was already busy showing its regularly-scheduled films. It all got sorted out eventually.

• Photographers from the three largest wire services in the world, arriving at an event, were told there were no more photo positions:

Film Festival person: We can put you at the back of the theatre. (This is at the end of a hallway with no light and directly across from a gigantic floor-to-ceiling mirror).

Photographers: Can we sit on our stools right here on the sidewalk?

FF: That’s against policy.

Photo: But members of the public always stand there, why can’t we join them?

FF: It’s going to be different tonight. The sidewalk will be closed. We can put you at the back of the theatre.

Photo: We can’t shoot there because there’s no light. It’s too dark to even see. Why can’t we sit here on the sidewalk? We’ll be out of everyone’s way, off to the side.

FF: It’s against policy. You won’t see anything anyway. There’ll be two lines of volunteers standing with arms linked together across the sidewalk.

Photo: If the sidewalk is closed, why do you need volunteers to stand on an empty sidewalk?

FF: It’s for security.

Photo: Security for what? If it’s closed, there won’t be any people, just an empty sidewalk. Why do you need to guard an empty sidewalk?

FF: It’s policy.

Photo: We can’t shoot down the hall and we can’t shoot in the photo pit. Why can’t we be here on the empty sidewalk?

FF: I don’t know why you keep asking. It’s against policy.

So let’s recap: no photographers allowed on the sidewalk which will be closed to the public. Today is going to be different, because it’s policy.

Oh really?

Note the “empty” sidewalk which was “closed” to the public as the actors arrived:

Let’s see: do you allow photographers from the largest wire services in the world to access a sidewalk area, that’s supposed to be closed to the public, so they can get good pictures of a media event for world-wide coverage, or, do you let members of the public wander in, stand around and happy-snap with their point-and shoots?

Yes, it was really different today.