I don’t mean to fall into that whole [tag]Vancouver[/tag] vs. [tag]Toronto[/tag] thing again, but seriously, what is up with the [tag]Toronto International Film Festival[/tag]? I had to Google the website, because it wasn’t a terribly obvious URL (e.bell.ca is perfectly instinctual and obvious), despite the fact that I walk right by what appears to be a future ticket office at College Park 4 mornings out of 5. The advanced draw procedure sounds terribly unwieldy. And, um, where are the descriptions of the films? Am I supposed to decide based on the title alone, or is this just a scam to get me to buy a programme, aka a schedule? Why does the ticket process remind me so much of a stampede, seeing as how the schedule doesn’t even get released until August 29th (and the schedule, I’m assuming, is what is going to have the information on the movies)? Maybe the [tag]Vancouver International Film Festival[/tag] had a similar sort of schedule and I just never noticed because it always seemed like I knew what was happening.
Aside from the fact that I started fairly disheartened with the TIFF to begin with (based on some criticisms of the TIFF I’d read back west last year, that the scene was a lot more glam than indie–which was probably determined just by the number of red carpet glitzy big Hollywood-style premieres that happened), this process makes me feel just a bit roadkilled by money. Oh, and a 10-movie coupon book at the TIFF costs $154, meaning that at the coupon rate, each movie is over $15 each. Eeeps. I don’t recall VIFF movies being more than $11 at their worst last year, but maybe my memory is selective, or maybe air conditioning is cheaper in Vancouver (and if I remember correctly, before the Vancity theatre opened, the VIFF was starting to get so big it was running out of venues in the city).
I just get terrible anxiety when I look at the TIFF website or even think about going to movies at the TIFF. It needs some kind of dictionary, because the difference between a coupon, a pass, a ticket, a gala, a programme, and a schedule is just not obvious. I would be so disappointed if this confusion meant I didn’t see anything.
2 Comments
That’s funny I am working for a client who has a movie premiering at the TIFF and I went to look at the website and also found it terrible.
My big bitch is that like all movie sites the lay -out is pathetic. It’s like they hire cinemetographers to be IA architects for the job. “Hey let’s make all the really important information float out of a tiny menu in the upper left hand corner so we can make this awesome graphic take up 90% of the page.” blech.
Anyways, that being said. Go see “The Journals of Knud Rasmussen” if you can, it’s a really incredible film.
Maybe the tickets are a million bucks I don’t know. If they are, wait and I’ll send you a copy of the DVD.
Thanks so much for the offer, Miriam! Funny enough, I did pick up a schedule today passing by on my way to the subway (note: the “Schedule” is a free flyer consisting of 80% advertising, 15% daily schedules and 5% breakdown of the film groupings–that is to say, no actual descriptions of the films themselves. No, that’s what $32 on the programme is for. Luckily, the website has the descriptions too), and I noticed that nowhere, in that entire schedule, is the price of the films mentioned–no ticket prices, no matinee prices, no pass prices. The only way that I’ve been able to even get an idea of the cost is to read snarky review in Now Magazine–and I heard that gala films cost $34. So far, my impression is: “Hide the cost until we force them to fork it over.” So not cool. Maybe I’ll conspire to hold an un-TIFF, get a bunch of friends together, plunder the Canadian, artsy and foreign DVDs section at the store, secure a projector and a laptop, and just make merry amongst ourselves for the cost of one movie.