Toronto Film Festival 2020 Review

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Most of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is being held online due to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. There are in-person screenings at a few temporary drive-ins in downtown Toronto and at the indoor theatres in the TIFF building.

I spent one day at the film festival yesterday and that was, according to TIFF, one day too many. No photographers or TV are allowed this year. Reporters are also not allowed at any location.

Opening Night with No Openings

If your organization or business was facing its worst year due to the pandemic, would you want free publicity to help mitigate the situation? If your event was open to the public, was funded by all three levels of government and was held at some government-owned properties, would you feel somewhat obligated to allow news coverage?

Not the Toronto Film Festival.
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Getting Ready To Return To Business

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Sooner or later there will be a demand for photography services again. It may still be several months away but photographers should do a few things now to be ready.

Face Masks

Customers may require photographers to wear face masks. Some local governments may require everyone to wear a face mask in all indoor locations. Be prepared for this now by buying some face masks.
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Being Clean

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I often photograph NBA basketball but due to the ongoing coronavirus threat, the NBA and other pro sports have shut down. This photo shows the view from some really cheap seats in the Toronto arena. It may be hard to believe but there are even worse seats in the building.

Every professional photographer knows how to minimize risk: carry a backup camera, have extra batteries and memory cards, tape down cables, don’t overload a boom arm, etc. But what about minimizing risk to your cleanliness?

After 30 years of photographing in locations like hospitals, seniors’ homes, prisons, food processing plants, drug manufacturing sites, pharmaceutical labs, commercial kitchens and in countless private homes, here are a few little things I’ve learned.
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Photography Speedometer

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Does a camera have a speedometer?

I received a request a few days ago to photograph a Toronto conference later this month. The event organizer said they expected the photographer to deliver a minimum of 125 pictures per hour. Huh?
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Photography By The Minute

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Someone emailed earlier this week to say they needed a photographer to cover a business workshop in Toronto. Seven guest speakers will each be giving a presentation and then there will be a panel discussion with all seven.

The event wanted pictures of just the panel discussion because it’ll be the only time that all seven speakers are onstage together. The panel discussion is expected to last an hour depending on how many questions are asked by the audience.

The event person said they needed “only a few” photos of each speaker, the overall stage and the audience. They asked for a quote for “just 15 minutes of your time.”

Where to begin?
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Accelerated Investment Incentive and Photographers

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A picture of US actor Willem Dafoe during an interview in which he’s definitely not thinking about Canadian income tax.

Canadian professional photographers, like many other business owners, may be thinking about income tax this time of year. They may even be thinking:

. . . prior to the introduction of the Accelerated Investment Incentive, a property in Class 8, which has a prescribed rate of 20 per cent, would be eligible for CCA of 10 per cent of the cost of the property in the year it becomes available for use, due to the half-year rule. Under the Accelerated Investment Incentive, the taxpayer will be eligible for CCA of 30 per cent of the cost of the property—that is one-and-a-half times the CCA calculated using the prescribed rate of 20 per cent or three times the 10-per-cent CCA that could otherwise be claimed in the first year.

– Federal budget 2018

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