My 2010 TIFF experience started back around May when a friend and I made the decision to to the fest again this year. First step for us was to book our hotel for an entire week starting Thursday September 9, going until the end of the fest on Sunday Sept 19th. By booking early (even when we didn't know what or when we wanted to go) we saved quite a lot of money, at least check, if we had waited our hotel bill would have doubled!Once we knew for sure we were going this year we chose to stay from Friday September 10th - Tuesday 14th, we still weren't sure what was playing and this was only our second year attending, so we took the rist and just assumed that there would be plenty of movies we would want to see shown between these days (I would have liked to have stayed longer, but vacation time didn't allow for it).
Once we contacted the hotel and shaved out dates down then it was time to wait. The following months were spent doing research on the possible films that may be headed TIFF's way. I started a list and added every possible film that was mentioned in which I had an interest in seeing (The Fighter, The Hereafter, 127 Hours, Conviction, Trust, Tempest, Beautiful Boy, etc) The reason why I started this list was so I could know what was out there when the offcial TIFF list was released and then I could spent less time on researching what movies were about and more time ogranising.
Next step was to figure out which package we wanted. Since we didn't know what was going to be there and when we decided on splitting a 10 ticket package, which can be shared amoung friends. At first, this was the best option for us. I think the next time I do TIFF I'll have to get either a few of these or a different package entirely. There are just too many there and that has been proven by the shear number I came up with this year. In future, I need to plan for a longer stay and get more movies!
That said, we also didn't know how the new changes would work from last year. We were, as many people ended up being, very confused. Since they added a new cateogory of films called Premium screenings we didn't know how that would affect our options. Premium screenings are now as expensive as galas (approximately $40-50 CAD, depending on where you buy the ticket). I, personally, feel that there is no real distinction between Gala screenings and premium. It apprears to be pretty much the same thing, with having a red carpet and the stars there, but basically they added these screenings because they couldn't really add more Gala, so they added this Premium screening as nothing more than a cash grab. Also, there doesn't even seem to be any kind of rhyme or reason as to why each film has been chosen for each category (regular, premium and gala)
For example: All screening of Beautiful Boy with Mario Bello and Michael Sheen and Daydream Nation with Kat Dennings and Josh Lucas are Regular Screenings.
While screenings of Ceremony with Michael Angarano and Uma Therman and Conviction starring Melissa Leo and Hillary Swank are Premium.
However, films such as The Town with Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner and Black Swan with Natalie Portman are Galas.
My package only includes regular screenings which means if I wanted to see a movie listed under gala or premium I either need to wait and see it later in the week (at which time question and answer periods become less likely) or pay the additional money ($40-50).
What makes it even more frustrating is that there really aren't any packages from Galas or Premium performances. So, before the festival even starts I would say that this is my biggest pet peeve or problem with this years fest...in addition, as anyone knows, it was nearly impossible to get gala or premium screenings if you needed to buy them on the phone or online since the phone lines were down until noon-ish and online was down most of the day.
So, hotel dates are set, packages are bought and then there is even more waiting! We finally get the TIFF list and guess what? It's similar to the list I started creating 2 months earlier (with a few films missing, like The Fighter, for example.)
Unfortunately for my wallet, there were a lot of films I wanted to see and I didn'tg et another package like I was thinking I should. I believe I had a word document with a list of 15 or 40 films by the time the actual schedule was released!
That beings us to the schedule. The is the most frustrating part of any festival. If you aren't from the city or country where the fest is being held and you are going to see a specific movie (as we did with Welcome to the Rileys at Sundance) it makes it diffult to plan flights or just plan your time in general.
Once the schedule was released I started an excel document to list the movie, a brief description of the plot, the stars, the venue and the time. When each column was complete I could then begin elimating movies based on movies there after I leave.
I started a second excel sheet where I added each movie orgainized by day and time. If there was a movie with 2 or 3 screening while I was there, I added them to each screening. I was then able to prioritize which movies were most important. For example, I chose the first showing of Girlfriend, since it was the most likely to havea question and answer period, hopefully with star, Jackson Rathbone, unfortunately I had to give up the first showing of Beautiful Boy which would likely have a q & a with Maria Bello.
So as we finally had our final schedule nailed down it was time for me to head to Toronto (via Greyhound bus at 8am with a trip back home less than 4 hours later, meaning I had only about an hour and a half to get to the Box Office, deal with lines, pick my films and RUN back to the Greyhound station, which I did make, btw! Took longer to get there than was actually in the city for!) to fill out my "advance order book". This is easy, it just takes some time and lots of flipping pages and patience, since apparently the website had a lot of false timing so a lot of rearranging needed to be done while I sat there! The actually box numbers are confusing and convoluted and I will only go into detail about them is someone asks. But I ended up with Box 14 (box 9 was randomly chosen), so I got each of my first film requests.
With only days away we have our checklists of everything we need. The hotel is taken care of. I still need to get the Greyhound tickets to Toronto. I have the train tickets home (we needed to use Via since we have a movie the same day we leave and needed to store our luggage). We pick up the tickets when we get there on Friday morning. My friend has her flight and shuttles all confirmed. Our basic schedules are ready and waiting, containing all of our movies as well as anything extra, like the 100 Monkeys Concert on Saturday and the Block party on Sunday!
So with all this said. The real purpose of theis site is to share my experiences from the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, as well as review each movie that I do see and any celebrities I might meet or see.
You can follow me on twitter @bellasguardian.
The definite reviews you will see here are listed Below and there maybe more to come depending on if I am successful in achieving any rush Tickets!
Daydream Nation
Super
Trust
Conviction
Girlfriend
Vanishing on 7th Street
Never Let me Go
127 Hours
Beautiful Boy
