It never ends.
• The Toronto Film Festival has large backgrounds covered in sponsor logos. Two days ago, film festival folks told photographers that they *must* get the logo-covered background in all their pictures.
• Film Festival said photographers cannot shoot from any public areas. Photographers must shoot only from designated film festival photo areas. If a photographer shoots from a public area, like the public sidewalk, that photographer will be kicked out of the festival.
• No red carpet? No problem! Just mark the ground with red duct tape. No joke. (Photographers take note: you’re not allowed to step on said red duct tape.)
• In a previous post, the festival said it had a policy that prevents photographers from shooting from the sidewalk adjacent to a roped-in photo area at the Elgin Theatre. Two days ago, when the photo area was overflowing and photographers asked to occupy this small, empty sidewalk area, the festival trotted out this mysterious policy and said “no.” Then the very next night (yesterday), when the photo area had lots of empty positions, the policy disappeared and photographers were allowed to Fill the sidewalk area.
• At a venue located on University of Toronto property, the building is on a small, one-way, one-lane street, (the second lane is used for parking). This road is an afternoon rush hour shortcut because it connects a number of small streets to a major downtown road. A film festival event was scheduled for 6:00 PM, (i.e. the middle of rush hour). Limos carrying celebrities got stuck in rush hour traffic. Who knew?
• At this University of Toronto venue, the arrivals area is on the building’s front landing which is about one step higher than the surrounding lawn. Yesterday, when movie fans decided to get a closer view by standing on the lawn, film festival people ordered them off the grass saying, “This is private property. You have to leave.” Of course, this was nonsense.
Film festival people also told some movie fans that they couldn’t take pictures. More nonsense.
• When actor Uma Thurman showed up for her movie premiere, the crowd wanted her autograph and it chanted “Sign for fans! Sign for fans!” Thurman, who was being photographed at the time, said ‘what the heck’ and strode through the photo pit and into the crowd.
Fans surged forward and surrounded her. Film festival security did nothing but watch. After a couple of minutes, Thurman emerged from the crowd and went into her movie. Huge credit to Thurman for doing this. Fans loved it.
• Today the film festival didn’t bother to close a street for a Keanu Reeves premiere. But they did bother to barricade fans out. To his credit, when Reeves saw how his fans were left out, he asked nearby police to close lanes of traffic so he could cross the street and sign autographs.
• Should we set up the photo area in open shade or in direct, harsh sunlight? Guess what the film festival chose to do.
• Should we put the photo area in a location where photographers can shoot arrivals and red carpet and autograph signing and posed pictures, or, in a location where they can shoot only posed pictures and miss eveything else? Guess what the film festival chose to do.
• Why do publicists outnumber the celebrities by 6 to 1?
However all is not bad. Today, the Internet access was working most of the time and there’s free potato chips, coffee and tea.
Another positive change this year is that photographers are now allowed to touch the red carpet and even walk on it.
In the past, when photographers put their cameras down *before* or *after* an event, their cameras were not allowed to even touch the carpet. Also, photographers were not permitted to have as much as the tips of their shoes touch the carpet. Yes the film festival actually had a person who checked the proximity of photographers’ shoes to the carpet. No joke.
Why does the red carpet have advertising on it? Always a classy touch.
