With apologies for the length of this post, here’s my annual rant:
The 37th edition of the annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is underway. From a photographers’ point of view, TIFF has always been considered to be very poorly-run event. Although from a movie-goer’s point of view, the film festival might be heaven.
I’ve been covering the film festival since 1988 and little has changed over the years. Off hand, I can count only four positive changes over the past 24 years:
(i) A photo pit was covered to protect against rain;
(ii) Many steel barricades were covered;
(iii) A red carpet was relocated from the small east side of a theatre to the much larger west side;
(iv) The central hub of the film festival (TIFF’s new building) has fast wifi (which works about half of the time – perhaps it’s overloaded during the festival?).
Let’s look at a few things (in no particular order):
• Upon checking in last week, each journalist was given a bag of film festival information. For photographers, 95% of this goes immediately into the garbage. Photographers need only two things: a press conference schedule and a red carpet schedule. As always, neither of these were included.
This year, the bag also contained a bottle of diet Coke, a tin of breath mints and a condom. Is there supposed to be a connection between these three items? Is this what a journalist needs for a good time in Toronto?
If it was a package of Mentos mints then I’d understand the reason for the condom.
• This year, the press conference room was moved from an inaccessible location to an easy-to-get-to location. Hurray! But the new location is still too small.
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any large enough space in the TIFF building to properly accommodate press conferences. This of course begs the question: if the film festival building was designed by the film festival for the film festival, then why wasn’t a proper press conference room included? Press conferences have always been integral to the event.
• This year, the press conference stage has bright LED lighting. The lighting is a bit uneven and is positioned too high but overall it’s quite useable. Yay! Although I bet the talent would prefer that there was less glare and they could see the audience.
The overly-large conference table has a white top which just happens to act as fill for those overhead LED lights. Yay!
And now the bad news. The film festival still uses those big ol’ microphones seemingly from the 1980s:
The conference table has big name tags, water glasses, bottles of water and, of course, those lovely microphones. It doesn’t matter where a photographer stands, it’s a nightmare trying to shoot around all that stuff:
• In the past, there was always a problem with too many photographers shooting the press conferences. The problems included an overcrowded room and too much noise from all the cameras clicking. Also, photographers occupied the first few rows of seats and reporters were forced to sit further back which is bad for them.
This year, TIFF changed the rules so that only the five major international wire services, plus Canada’s national wire service, get photo access to the press conferences. This has eliminated the noise and overcrowding and reporters can now sit right up front. Yay!
But the number of video cameras (and tripods) has greatly increased and is starting to create an overcrowding issue. Also, at one press conference on September 10th, more camera noise came from reporters taking pictures than from the wire photographers.
• To accommodate the photographers who no longer have access to press conferences, TIFF created a small, curtained-off “photo call” area right next to the press conferences. Photographers get about three minutes to shoot the celebrities prior to each conference. This is a good move.
The problem is that this photo call area is only half the width it should be. Lack of space is the underlying theme to the film festival. The photo call area does have a photographers’ riser but it’s not properly designed. Perhaps there should be a riser for the talent instead?
• Still no workroom for photographers or reporters. There’s a “media lounge” but:
(i) it’s much too small;
(ii) power outlets are scarce and are located in the floor;
(iii) the tables are silly little round things and I’m not sure what the chairs are meant for (certainly not for working);
(iv) there’s little room for photographers to put down their gear;
(v) this room closes several hours before the work day is over. In the evenings, photographers and reporters are left to work on hallway floors.
• A TV news network was trying to do a stand-up in the TIFF lobby near where there’s a piece of red carpet in front of a TIFF background. Film fans use this same area to take pictures of themselves and friends. The TV news crew (3 people) was told by the film festival that filming inside the building is not allowed without prior permission. The TV crew’s film festival credentials weren’t good enough. Is it ironic that you can’t film inside a building that celebrates film?
• In previous years, not only were red carpets overcrowded but the wire services and daily papers always seemed to be stuck in the back rows. Unlike some other photographers, those from large newspapers and wire services don’t have the time to camp out, up to five hours ahead of time, to get a good position.
This year, the film festival decided to have photographers “RSVP” each morning for the red carpets they wanted to cover later that day. Then before each red carpet begins, an onsite TIFF person assigns each photographer a number: photographer #1 gets first choice of position, photographer #2 gets second choice, etc.
In theory this should eliminate the need to line-up many hours ahead of time and it should prevent large media outlets from always being stuck in the back row. The good news is that this new system more-or-less does work. Yay! Except . . .
In its daily e-mails, TIFF says media check-in starts one hour before the event begins. But in the next sentence, it says photographer check-in is 35 minutes before the event. This has confused many photographers and even some of TIFF’s own onsite people who sometimes gave out position numbers long before all photographers had arrived.
Perhaps TIFF meant to say that TV check-in starts an hour ahead of time and still photographer check-in is 35 minutes ahead of time?
After talking with a few photographers, both news media and non-news media, many are happy with this new system. A few suggested that priority should always go to: (1) major wire services (with Canadian wires first), (2) daily newspapers (with Toronto dailies first), and finally (3) those shooting for stock agencies or themselves. Currently it’s absurd to see someone who’s shooting for themselves get priority over media outlets like Reuters, Associated Press and the Toronto Star.
• On Friday September 7th, there was a very large red carpet involving two very popular movie actors, Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper. This was held in a small venue, the Princess of Wales Theatre, which has no room for fans. Meanwhile across the street at the largest venue, Roy Thomson Hall which has lots of room for fans, a small red carpet was being held. Go figure.
At the Princess of Wales Theatre, many hundreds of fans, perhaps five-people deep, literally lined the four-lane street. Police were yelling at the crowd to move back and to stay off the street. Did I mention the active four-lane road? Did I mention it was 5:30 PM on a Friday afternoon? Can you say “rush hour traffic”? It’s a wonder no one was injured.
When US actor Bradley Cooper arrived, hundreds of people swarmed onto the road. Did I mention the active four-lane road? Rush hour traffic? It’s a wonder no one was injured.
When Ryan Gosling arrived, it was even worse. Hundreds of screaming fans rushed him from both sides of the street. Did I mention active four-lane road? Rush hour traffic? It’s a wonder no one was injured:
Everyone knew this was going to happen. Everyone except TIFF. How did everyone know? Because it’s happened before at the Elgin Theatre and at Ryerson Theatre and at Isabel Bader Theatre. It’s happened at every small venue where there’s no room for fans.
TIFF encourages, and needs, fans to come out. Yet it does nothing to help them.
On the following night, police presence at the Princess of Wales Theatre was much higher and more barricades were put in place.
• On September 8th, a very large event with 17 celebrity arrivals and a huge crowd of fans was held at the small Princess of Wales Theatre. Right across the street, a small event with only four arrivals was held at the very large Roy Thomson venue. Again, go figure.
While it’s impossible to re-locate events on short notice, one wonders how events are matched to venue locations. I assume that larger movie studios might ask for (or demand?) a specific venue and a specific date and TIFF has to accommodate that request.
• How bad is the red carpet at the Princess of Wales Theatre? During a press conference on September 9th, actor Tom Hanks, when talking about the previous night’s red carpet event, asked, “What’s wrong with the Toronto International Film Festival?”
He went on to say that the red carpet at the Princess of Wales Theatre was the smallest and narrowest he’s ever seen. Hanks likened the steel-barricade-lined red carpet to a cattle chute and said that he felt like a bull being led to slaughter. Hanks concluded, “It’s a very, very scary enterprise.”
• Princess of Wales Theatre has been used for big red carpet events in the past, (e.g., the “Lord of the Rings, The Musical” world premiere). These had large red carpets, big photo pits and few crowd problems. Sadly TIFF can’t figure this out. (Hint: rotate the red carpet 90 degrees and then work from there.)
However all of this may be moot as the Princess of Wales Theatre is rumoured to be set for demolition and to be replaced by high-rise condos.
• Roy Thomson Hall red carpet (located in Pecaut Square) is still a mess. Dark and ugly, unless you happen to like concrete covered with gum stains, cigarette butts and food wrappers. This setup is bad for photographers, bad for fans and bad for celebrities. No glamour, no glitz, no nothing:
For some bizarre reason, the Roy Thomson red carpet is literally wedged tightly between two rows of small trees and some black, stone benches. It’s always fun to watch people walk into the black, stone bench that partially blocks the red carpet entrance.
• Ryerson Theatre is even worse than Roy Thomson Hall. It’s almost too dark to focus. Since it’s so dark, red-eye is a huge problem. The red carpet is tiny, (the carpet under my office chair is wider) and the background is too small. No glamour, no excitement. Just dark, dirty and depressing:
Ryerson Theatre could easily be lit since the event happens under an archway which just happens to have a white (okay, a very dirty white) ceiling. By the way, Ryerson teaches cinematography lighting, so maybe they might know something?
• At the much-too-small Elgin Theatre red carpet, why is there 96 square feet of empty sidewalk, directly in front of the theatre, that’s not used (other than by PR flacks who stand around and get in the way)? This seems to be a perfect place to put some red carpet.
• Why can other events (e.g. Canada’s Walk of Fame, MuchMusic Video Awards) red carpet entire streets for hundreds of feet, but TIFF, the world’s second largest film festival, has a problem covering a few feet? At all TIFF red carpet events, the red carpet is too short, too narrow or simply absent.
• Having advertising on the red carpet is always oh-so classy.
• If you have, let’s say, 30 photographers standing in an extremely noticeable photo area and they all have cameras at the ready, guess where the PR flacks will stand? Correct, directly in front of those photographers.
• Fix the accreditation system. Currently, the system ties accreditation to the person and not to the media outlet. This makes no sense whatsoever.
Don’t accredit people who don’t work for a media outlet. Photographers who shoot for themselves or who shoot on spec for cheap stock sites are not news media. Pro sports work this way. Large news events work this way.
At a red carpet on September 8th, 40% of the photographers did not work for any media outlet or news organization. Remove these people and the overcrowding is gone. Same thing applies to the press conference photo calls.
• TIFF forgets that photographers carry . . . wait for it . . . camera equipment. Photographers need room for their cameras, bags, cases, large lenses, laptops and, sadly, their step ladders. All of this stuff requires space.
Photographers also need space to shoot. Here’s a view this week of a red carpet from the *fourth* photo row:
• Why not add photo risers to all venues and eliminate the need for photographers to carry step ladders? Some other events (which use risers) prohibit step ladders and step stools because they understand the risk and liability involved.
• Starting a few weeks before the film festival and lasting a few weeks after, photographers are subject to dozens, dozens and more dozens of useless e-mails from movie PR flacks begging for coverage. Surely the film festival’s media list can be separated into writers and photographers so that the latter group can be spared from the meaningless e-mail blizzard. Or, when applying for accreditation, allow each person to opt in/out of receiving third-party mailings.
• At Roy Thomson Hall, why is the photo area still not completely covered against rain but the TV area has been fully covered for many years?
• Why is it that when TV needs more space, the photo pit has to be made smaller to accomodate. But when photo needs more space, the answer is, “Just squeeze closer together”?
That seems to cover most of it.
