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Tuesday, September 18, 2007
TIFF #14 (Vickie's Diary): Your TIFF 2008 Wish List?
Okay, now that the fest is over, what irked you about it? What would you like to see change next year? How could the festival improve? Post your suggestions in the comments section and let us (and them) know!
Well, I mentioned this before, but the out of town ticket delivery panic I experience every August is something I wish I could change, but I doubt that will happen.
I think removal of the 30 ticket package was a mistake. Many people complained. They seemed to reserve more seats in every venue for corporate sponsors and others. At Roy Thompson, all I had to do was wait, because they released reserved seats every night, and we would get a nice spot. That works for me, but it prevents others from obtaining tickets. I do understand it's hard to assure everyone in the reserve section will come. It just seemed like a heavier number this year.
Oh, in the long movie lines, could Starbucks serve coffee and another place serve food? HAHA.
I was endlessly irritated with the lineups to purchase my tickets, or pick up tickets I'd already bought. The volunteers who think they own the city during TIFF become a little control happy when ushing people from one section to another (Bay&Bloor). You should be able to print off your tickets. This would take care of A LOT of problems. Also, ensuring that the site doesn't crash 100 times a day would be nice.
I didn't see the Starbucks coffee jet-pack people at all this year -- an appearance just for Battle in Seattle would have been so fitting. There were some Dole fruity drink samples being given out, but their timing was hit and miss.
I wish they would close the small year-round Manulife Centre box office during the festival and get some larger temporary space nearby. The College Park and WestJet (Roy Thomson Hall) box offices always had much shorter lines, but that's no help if you're up in the Varsity/Cumberland area already.
And yeah, online ticket printing would be great, especially if the web site was up...
What irked me is that Volunteers who get what works out to $5 an hour (that's how much the vouchers seem to be worth) don't do nearly as much as I used to do at a movie theatre for $6.40 an hour. Some are really good, others didn't earn their keep, and they need more training methinks.
Standing at an individual theatre to check tickets is easy... try checking tickets for 9 simultaneous theatres and not letting people into the wrong ones: that's more of a challenge.
What also irked me: TIFFs policy to not allow cleaning equipment into a theatre when people are being sent in... a three row pop spill they refused to clean, so I went to the washroom for a bunch of paper towels - some wet - to clean the area around me myself with reasonable success.
Two thoughts off the top - I like the lottery, it makes things more fair. There are stories of years past of people getting to box offices at 2am to be first in line.
Second, the 30 pass. It will be back in some form next year. A contact of mine inside the festival said that they dropped it to get a read on filmgoer numbers. They seem to be trying to figure out the pricepoint, or number of coupons, etc. It will be back in some shape or form.
For me, the only real killer was the gold/platinum Visa cardholder line at The Elgin that gets to zip past people that have been waiting for an hour. Corporate sponsorship has its perks, but enough is enough.
I disagree that the lottery makes anything more fair. It makes it more random, but not more fair.
The coupons and passes are non-refundable, so poor placement in the lottery means you have to pick new films. If I'm paying $10-18 per ticket, I'd like a ticket to the film I actually want to see and ordered...not just a "chance" that I *might* get a ticket to that film if I happen to get lucky.
When was the last time you bought a concert ticket this way...just *hoping* to get a seat to the show you selected and not to an alternative gig by another artist somewhere across town?
I don't know any other film fests who hand out tickets this way.
7 comments:
Well, I mentioned this before, but the out of town ticket delivery panic I experience every August is something I wish I could change, but I doubt that will happen.
I think removal of the 30 ticket package was a mistake. Many people complained. They seemed to reserve more seats in every venue for corporate sponsors and others. At Roy Thompson, all I had to do was wait, because they released reserved seats every night, and we would get a nice spot. That works for me, but it prevents others from obtaining tickets. I do understand it's hard to assure everyone in the reserve section will come. It just seemed like a heavier number this year.
Oh, in the long movie lines, could Starbucks serve coffee and another place serve food? HAHA.
I was endlessly irritated with the lineups to purchase my tickets, or pick up tickets I'd already bought. The volunteers who think they own the city during TIFF become a little control happy when ushing people from one section to another (Bay&Bloor). You should be able to print off your tickets. This would take care of A LOT of problems.
Also, ensuring that the site doesn't crash 100 times a day would be nice.
I didn't see the Starbucks coffee jet-pack people at all this year -- an appearance just for Battle in Seattle would have been so fitting. There were some Dole fruity drink samples being given out, but their timing was hit and miss.
I wish they would close the small year-round Manulife Centre box office during the festival and get some larger temporary space nearby. The College Park and WestJet (Roy Thomson Hall) box offices always had much shorter lines, but that's no help if you're up in the Varsity/Cumberland area already.
And yeah, online ticket printing would be great, especially if the web site was up...
What irked me is that Volunteers who get what works out to $5 an hour (that's how much the vouchers seem to be worth) don't do nearly as much as I used to do at a movie theatre for $6.40 an hour. Some are really good, others didn't earn their keep, and they need more training methinks.
Standing at an individual theatre to check tickets is easy... try checking tickets for 9 simultaneous theatres and not letting people into the wrong ones: that's more of a challenge.
What also irked me: TIFFs policy to not allow cleaning equipment into a theatre when people are being sent in... a three row pop spill they refused to clean, so I went to the washroom for a bunch of paper towels - some wet - to clean the area around me myself with reasonable success.
For me, the list would be fairly simple:
* lose the ticket lottery
* lower the prices and DROP those add-on fees to pay for the freakin' Bell Lightbox...you wanted it, you PAY FOR IT
* bring back the 30-coupon book
* add screenings on the afternoon (and morning!) of the first Thursday
Two thoughts off the top - I like the lottery, it makes things more fair. There are stories of years past of people getting to box offices at 2am to be first in line.
Second, the 30 pass. It will be back in some form next year. A contact of mine inside the festival said that they dropped it to get a read on filmgoer numbers. They seem to be trying to figure out the pricepoint, or number of coupons, etc. It will be back in some shape or form.
For me, the only real killer was the gold/platinum Visa cardholder line at The Elgin that gets to zip past people that have been waiting for an hour. Corporate sponsorship has its perks, but enough is enough.
I disagree that the lottery makes anything more fair. It makes it more random, but not more fair.
The coupons and passes are non-refundable, so poor placement in the lottery means you have to pick new films. If I'm paying $10-18 per ticket, I'd like a ticket to the film I actually want to see and ordered...not just a "chance" that I *might* get a ticket to that film if I happen to get lucky.
When was the last time you bought a concert ticket this way...just *hoping* to get a seat to the show you selected and not to an alternative gig by another artist somewhere across town?
I don't know any other film fests who hand out tickets this way.
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