And on the sixth day to go TIFF created madness.
Crazy, absolutely crazy. Lineup to drop off the envelope - people scratching their head and looking at pieces of paper - all trying to assemble their final schedule for TIFF08.
Just to rewind for a moment.
10 days and nights
300 plus movies
1 schedule
How did it come to all this madness - with its maddening lineups, its maddening scheduling riddled with spacing and conflicts, the maddening days of too little sleep nights, the maddening realization at 3 in the morning that the selections have to be handed in the morning and the realization that those last few picks and desired movies will just not fit or the decision on what those are in the first place ? And because the decision was made to not skip the employment and instead see TIFF at night during weekdays and weekends and purchase the Festival *Lite* package of 30 tickets. Yet it ends up going into work late so that you could [ and see below ] anyway end up on this final day to get the selections in before the 1 p.m. deadline, racing downtown in the morning on The Better Way [ knows as take the car to all the propagandists ] to the box office gives an appreciation to what it is to not to have to make that daily commute downtown. And still the necessity to buy that one more cup of A&W coffee in the Eaton Centre Food Court and open up the advanced schedule book to make the final markings of first and second choice and still taking another hour to complete the book with yellow first choice and green second choice and end up making way too many yellow markings and hoping for the best that the conflicts will play themselves out to a model daily schedule of movie watching perfection then to get to the Toronto Life Building across the scrambled crosswalk and fly past the volunteer pointing up to the escalator to the final destination - only to see another lineup just to drop off the envelope into the dropbox - and to be floored by the sight of people huddling at steel tables in the food area still poring over pieces of paper and now you know the rest of the story.
[ The lineup - at the end of it was a table of more TIFF volunteers to meet and have them ask if any last minute help was needed in going over the book to which the reply was what could possibly go wrong now - and then the envelope is handed over and being told that it is going into Box 50 ]
[ Then the race to get back north up the TTC way to the place that pays for all this movie mania in the first place. Fun? Wow ]
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
/* It's the final countdown! */ - 08TIFF minus one day to envelope submissions
Hello fellow fans
Have you had your sleepless nights trying to plough through the programme book and the online site [and of course the TOfilmfest site for their ratings and plot capsules] to make your final schedule. It may be easy for some, not easy here at all. Too many sacrifices.
To keep you apprised: you have to get your submissions in before 1 p.m. on Friday, August 29 Toronto time, no exceptions and we have been witness to the final countdown from the volunteers.
It is the absolute madness.
There is no overnight box office!
No hay overnight dropbox! to paraphrase Mulholland Drive so get down to Toronto Life box office before 6 p.m. Thursday [ today in most parts of the world ] or be there at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning [ Friday in most parts of the other world ] - do not forget the little ticket that goes in the glassy window of the envelope, and hang onto the one that says pickup. You will need that on Monday.
Keep trying to have a happy fest
Vielen gluck !
song of the moment: The Cranberries - Dreams ... we can only dream of the festival to be
Have you had your sleepless nights trying to plough through the programme book and the online site [and of course the TOfilmfest site for their ratings and plot capsules] to make your final schedule. It may be easy for some, not easy here at all. Too many sacrifices.
To keep you apprised: you have to get your submissions in before 1 p.m. on Friday, August 29 Toronto time, no exceptions and we have been witness to the final countdown from the volunteers.
It is the absolute madness.
There is no overnight box office!
No hay overnight dropbox! to paraphrase Mulholland Drive so get down to Toronto Life box office before 6 p.m. Thursday [ today in most parts of the world ] or be there at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning [ Friday in most parts of the other world ] - do not forget the little ticket that goes in the glassy window of the envelope, and hang onto the one that says pickup. You will need that on Monday.
Keep trying to have a happy fest
Vielen gluck !
song of the moment: The Cranberries - Dreams ... we can only dream of the festival to be
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
T minus six days = TIFF fever in the air and here's looking at you kid
August 26, 2008
On a perfect cool summer evening in Toronto with strappies and shorts in abundance - and the feel of real downtown - Toronto International Film Festival 2008 opened up for serious business - today was the first day to pick up the big programming books and the schedule is online - and now comes the pondering and the grr-ing as we head towards that Friday at 1 p.m deadline. The evening was jacket and sweater type of cool in Toronto - and down at Toronto Life Square in the outdoors it was a perfect night - standing under the big lit advertising signs - holding the TIFF bag full of all the programming goodies - including chocolates, Starbucks coffee and a box of TARDIS filled with a Stella Artois glass - and a marker pen and a penlight - and the programming book - and the just out Best Buy exclusive Heroes box complete with season 2 and a Kensei helmet ! [ we had to buy that separately - that's not part of TIFF ]
But we digress - for this summer eve was devoted to Summer Romance - on the theatre screen in on the stage at Toronto Life Square - amidst the hubbub of Toronto's busiest tourist intersection that is Yonge and Dundas and the glare and the glow of the overhead billboards lighting the evening - especially one touting the Traveling Pants 2 and the Sisterhood looking so fetch - the screen sprang to life with the story of German couriers in Africa during the Second World War carrying two exit visas - and three people.
It was a perfect day and night - chill in the air - sitting on the ground on a carpet or lucky enough to bring a chair - the people sitting under the stars drawn together by the chemistry of the stars and the on screen magic that is movies.
Have a great Festival !
On a perfect cool summer evening in Toronto with strappies and shorts in abundance - and the feel of real downtown - Toronto International Film Festival 2008 opened up for serious business - today was the first day to pick up the big programming books and the schedule is online - and now comes the pondering and the grr-ing as we head towards that Friday at 1 p.m deadline. The evening was jacket and sweater type of cool in Toronto - and down at Toronto Life Square in the outdoors it was a perfect night - standing under the big lit advertising signs - holding the TIFF bag full of all the programming goodies - including chocolates, Starbucks coffee and a box of TARDIS filled with a Stella Artois glass - and a marker pen and a penlight - and the programming book - and the just out Best Buy exclusive Heroes box complete with season 2 and a Kensei helmet ! [ we had to buy that separately - that's not part of TIFF ]
But we digress - for this summer eve was devoted to Summer Romance - on the theatre screen in on the stage at Toronto Life Square - amidst the hubbub of Toronto's busiest tourist intersection that is Yonge and Dundas and the glare and the glow of the overhead billboards lighting the evening - especially one touting the Traveling Pants 2 and the Sisterhood looking so fetch - the screen sprang to life with the story of German couriers in Africa during the Second World War carrying two exit visas - and three people.
It was a perfect day and night - chill in the air - sitting on the ground on a carpet or lucky enough to bring a chair - the people sitting under the stars drawn together by the chemistry of the stars and the on screen magic that is movies.
Have a great Festival !
Friday, August 22, 2008
/* Are you in or you out ? We're in */ - from lost in translation to TIFF08
We just talked ourselves into going to TIFF08 this year !
Outside world definitely meant 50 films was not going to be a possibility - and since the last couple of TIFFs it was 50 or nothing at all - this year meant nothing at all.
However, something just kicks you in the stomach inside every time you see some bit of TIFF buzz and when you see those undeserving people from E! Canada promising everything from the red carpet - well, we just had to be there
Interviewer: Gary Numan said machine rock is the next big thing
What we do is what we do. Not everyone is going to like what we do.- Joy Division
Outside world definitely meant 50 films was not going to be a possibility - and since the last couple of TIFFs it was 50 or nothing at all - this year meant nothing at all.
However, something just kicks you in the stomach inside every time you see some bit of TIFF buzz and when you see those undeserving people from E! Canada promising everything from the red carpet - well, we just had to be there
Interviewer: Gary Numan said machine rock is the next big thing
What we do is what we do. Not everyone is going to like what we do.
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