If you don’t cover the annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) then you may want to skip this very long post.
I wasn’t going to write another annual rant about the Toronto International Film Festival but since someone at the film festival apparently reads this blog, this might be the only way to get through to them. But it’s still very much like banging your head against a wall since any positive change can take many years to happen.
A “thank you” goes to someone for taking notes from last year’s blog post and making a few changes this year:
1) After eight years, TIFF finally broke the bank and bought some red carpet to cover the stained concrete sidewalk at its premiere venue, Roy Thomson Hall (aka David Pecaut Square).
2) The limousine route at Roy Thomson Hall was changed this year so that arriving cars no longer drove though the photo area and through crowds of people. Also in previous years, if more than one car arrived at a time, there’d be a mini traffic jam right in front of the photographers.
This year, the limos never drove through anything or anyone and they didn’t block any photographer. How about that! It took eight years for TIFF to figure this out but the new limo setup worked very well.
3) TIFF added two lights to the Roy Thomson Hall red carpet area so that night arrivals were no longer in darkness and cameras’ autofocus didn’t have to struggle. A bonus was that the lighting technician listened to the numerous photographer complaints about the colour of these tungsten lights and he added CTB filters.
The problem is that two lights are simply not enough. Celebrities arrived in a dark area lit only by two nearby street lamps and they greeted fans in darkness. The entire area needs at least eight properly placed lights if not a couple sets of lights on trusses.
4) TIFF bought some rain umbrellas! So when it rained as celebrities were arriving, it was no longer necessary to borrow umbrellas from the public or hope that the limousine drivers had umbrellas.
5) Press conferences finally used microphones that were small, discreet and properly positioned.
Other good news was that TIFF raised the press conference light level back to what it was a couple years ago. It took 38 years to properly light a press conference and then last year, for some unknown reason (cost?), the light level dropped by three stops. This year, the light was back (coincidentally, 2015 is the International Year of Light).
More good news about press conferences was that there were far fewer this year. Instead of back-to-back conferences for five or six hours per day, there were only one or two per day. This meant there was time to edit and transmit in a timely matter. Some days had no conferences at all which allowed for a few extra hours of sleep.
6) Photographers have to wait inside a red carpet photo pit until officially released. This can take 30 minutes or longer after the celebrities have gone past. At Roy Thomson Hall, this isn’t a big deal anymore because photographers can now edit and transmit from the photo pit, except if it rains because most of the photo pit is still not covered.
At other venues, editing onsite is not possible due to lack of space. So standing around after the event for at least another 30 minutes wastes photographers’ time.
At the Princess of Wales Theatre on a rainy night, after all the actors had gone inside the theatre, photographers were left waiting around. Most were dry under the building overhang but two photographers, who were exposed to the rain, decided to leave rather than get more wet. When the TIFF person noticed the two missing photographers, she literally ran down the street after them and ordered them back. (Why?) The two came back only to continue standing in the rain.
However the good news was that at another venue, the red carpet folks said, “We know you guys have deadlines,” and they always let the news photographers leave as soon as possible.
And now the bad news
1) Several photographers boycotted the Elgin Theatre and the Ryerson Theatre because these venues are too small or too dark and dingy. These theatres desperately need, at least, red carpet and lights.
Some photographers gave up on the photocalls because of the absurdly small location.
2) The press conference room still has no work space for photographers but it did have a new storage area for cases of bottled water, boxes and other odd stuff.
Photographers know how to take pictures. In my case, I’ve been shooting press conferences for almost 30 years. This year, rather than let photographers do their job normally, the film festival decided to create an official photo position:
Here’s the position photographers have used in the past:
After a few days, the film festival stopped telling photographers to use the official position and let photographers shoot the conferences properly.
TIFF previously tried this about 10 years ago when press conferences were held at a nearby hotel. It created a photo position behind a pillar and behind a metal truss holding up the lights. We were expected to shoot through gaps in the truss. Really.
One last note about press conferences: please tell the movie studios that the room is small. Having more than six or, worst case, seven people attend a press conferences is a waste of time. The actors/writers/producers seated in a second row onstage can’t be photographed and they only get asked a single “charity question”, if that. (A charity question is when the moderator asks a meaningless question just so that person has a chance to talk.)
3) It’s painfully obvious that the film festival’s “press office” has no one with any press experience whatsoever, let alone any knowledge of press photography.
• The press office e-mailed a preliminary press conference schedule but it adamantly refused to e-mail the final schedule. Why?
The press office said my editor could stop by and pick up a copy of the printed final schedule. When I pointed out that my editor is on another continent, the person offered only a blank stare. She had absolutely no idea that people could be working from outside Toronto.
• The press office absolutely refused to give out the full red carpet schedule ahead of time. Why?
When I asked for a copy of the schedule, the press office people literally laughed out loud at me. I pointed out that we needed the schedule to preplan our 10 days of coverage and to coordinate with our coverage of the Venice Film Festival which overlaps with TIFF. But the press office people said nothing. They couldn’t have cared less.
The press office said that each day’s red carpet information was only released each morning, a half day ahead of the events, to which I replied was too late. My editors were on the other side of the world so TIFF’s half day ahead was really a half day behind. Sadly, the press office couldn’t comprehend the concept of times zones or deadlines.
By the way, the *exact* information I needed was, a week earlier, made publicly available on TIFF’s public web site (but not on the TIFF press site which is very telling). It was also being given out by TIFF’s public ticket offices and a nearby theatre had posted some of the information in its front window.
So the public got the information well ahead of time (albeit in a confusing format) while the press office refused to give the same information to the press. Why?
• As in previous years, the press office refused to give photographers the list of contact information for the publicists of each film. Why?
This list is used to arrange one-on-one interviews and photography of various directors, writers and actors. This is especially useful for films that don’t have red carpets or press conferences.
After I was refused a copy of the list, a reporter who was standing behind me and overheard my conversation with the press office people, asked for two copies of the list. The press office gladly handed him two. The reporter then turned and gave one to me.
4) The film festival again shut down one of the city’s busiest streets and all intersecting streets for four days for a street festival. TIFF didn’t learn anything from last year.
Clearly, this is being driven by ego otherwise it would’ve been cancelled after last year’s street festival. The alternative is to actually plan a real festival. Bring in an outside group to organize it because this is obviously well beyond the ability of TIFF.
5) Yet again, a very large red carpet event (with Johnny Depp) was held at the smallest venue. It was absolute chaos on the street. Was that more than 40 photographers packed into a space big enough for 18? The following afternoon, 28(?) photographers packed into the same tiny space for Penelope Cruz while the two large venues sat vacant.
The Keith Richards movie had double the number of allowable photographers squeezed into a small photo pit. Yet the big photo pit, 12 feet away, wasn’t used. Why?
6) On a couple occasions when the photo pit at Roy Thomson Hall was overcrowded but the TV pit was 40% empty, for example on closing night, the film festival refused to enlarge the photo pit into the empty TV area. Why?
7) Met one photographer who was shooting the film festival for free. Another photographer was getting paid 35¢ for each picture download. There were some amateur photographers shooting only for themselves. One “international wire service photographer” had only a cell phone camera. Yet they all had TIFF “press” credentials.
8) Photo positions used to be based on circulation size and that worked reasonably well. So this year, TIFF ignored it and apparently randomly assigned photo positions. This meant that photographers shooting for a small outlet or just for themselves often got front a row position while photographers working for the largest newspapers and wire services in the world got stuck in the back row.
9) Since the press conference room is so small, there’s no way to fit all the photographers. In the past, up to 40, or more, photographers would crowd into the conference room, fill the front rows of seats meant for reporters and make a lot of noise with their constant camera-clicking. On some occasions, the crowd size exceeded fire regulations.
So a few years ago, the decision was made to allow only five international wire service photographers plus the film festival’s own photographer into the press conferences. This instantly eliminated the crowding and noise issues. Every newspaper, magazine and web site in the world either already subscribes to at least one of these wire services or can get pictures from them, in some cases for free.
This setup worked quite well. So this year, TIFF ignored it and randomly allowed various photographers to wander into the press conferences which brought back the noise and crowding issues.
10) It was no secret that several TIFF people weren’t happy with their $13/hour pay and they were happy to tell reporters about it. (TIFF has a rule that you can’t interview or photograph its people).
11) Since TIFF changed (i.e. improved) the limousine route for Roy Thomson Hall, this opened up a new viewing area for the public on the north end of the red carpet. But the film festival, asleep at the wheel as always, didn’t bother using it. A large number of fans could’ve had a prime viewing position but TIFF chose to do nothing.
12) At the end of each festival, TIFF demands that every photographer send in tearsheets of their print-published photos. If you don’t know what print is, ask a photographer from the 1990s. If you don’t know what a tearsheet is, ask a photographer from the 1980s.
Collecting tearsheets might be easy for a photographer who works for a local print paper because they have direct access to their own publication.
But TIFF has no idea what a wire service or agency photographer is or does. Really they don’t. I’m expected to find every print publication in the world that used one of my photos, get a copy of those issues sent to me, and then send in tearsheets (i.e. the entire printed page containing the photo and it must also have my photo credit). Of course, this is impossible to do.
No other event demands this. Why do they need them? This appears to be nothing more than a type of ego-surfing. Like much of the film festival, this makes no sense.
A few suggestions
1) Not sure if this means anything but at all press conferences combined, male guests outnumbered female guests by about 3.7 to 1. Combining all the red carpet events I covered, male talent outnumbered female by about 2.6 to 1.
Also, combining all the events I covered, the number of “visible minorities” was three. Although, depending on how broadly you define that term, that number could’ve reached about ten.
2) Maybe it’s time to get rid of the orange-and-black Halloween colours on the photo backgrounds. It’s definitely time to move away from the orange-and-white Home Depot theme on the banners that line each red carpet. Pretend that appearance matters and use more elegant colours.
3) To Bell, a film festival sponsor: It seems you learned that last year’s three-storey building erected at Roy Thomson Hall right next to the photographers, and which blocked their view, was idiotic and a waste of money.
But this year’s one-storey, patio-style deck didn’t really help your guests.
The problem was that this raised deck prevented your guests from getting up-close with the celebrities and doing selfies with them using their nice Bell cell phones. Here’s a secret: a raised platform surrounded by a four-foot-high railing isn’t a good idea. If you need help with this, either give me a call or ask RBC which almost did it right this year.
4) Except perhaps for the film programming, little at the film festival seems to be fully thought out. The street festival, the red carpet layouts, the press conferences, the photocalls, the overall marketing of the event. Everything seems to be done as cheaply as possible with the least amount of effort.
The recent Toronto Pan Am Games were well organized and well run. Its press office was superb. Its venue press people, both paid and volunteer, were very helpful and they understood what photographers do and need. Sure, the Pan Am Games had five years of planning but the Toronto Film Festival has been around for 40 years and it still can’t get things right.
There are a couple Toronto companies that specialize in red carpets, press conferences, photo calls and other celebrity events. They also know how to work with the press. Hire one of these companies. I’d be happy to recommend one such company.
5) The way the festival is set up, big-budget Hollywood films, which don’t really need any marketing help, get all the attention while small films, which desperately need exposure, get little notice.
The Toronto Film Festival should decide if it’s about bringing films to the public or if it’s about helping Hollywood studios market their products. There’s no wrong answer here but it can help TIFF gain some badly needed focus. As every photographer knows: no focus => no interest.
Throughout the year, TIFF runs other short festivals and exhibitions, each of which has a specific focus. But when it comes to the main event, the International Film Festival, TIFF thinks that bigger is better and that more is better. The result is a scattered festival with no apparent purpose other than to continue doing what was done last year.
You have to first appeal to industry types and the media which is how/why the Toronto Film festival started. Then movie fans will follow. Right now, the film festival seems to have lost touch with everyone except its corporate sponsors.
6) The film festival needs to “retire” its senior executives on a regular basis, perhaps every five years. Many large companies do this. By continually bringing in new people, you bring in new ideas, new perspectives, new goals. The 40-year-old Toronto Film Festival is well past its best before date.
Added September 2016:
To put it bluntly, TIFF has become a dumping ground, serving up hundreds of new movies with hardly any discernible sense of curation.
Added February 2017:
The Toronto Film Festival announced that it will scale back the number of films shown by 20%.
Added August 2017:
The Toronto Film Festival scaled back the number of films by 15%.
