This
year’s TIFF may be my last, never say never but I think I’m about to
retiring my milk crate (I stand on one to elevate myself over the heads
of the PR people and security personnel on the carpet). If I don’t
retire I’ll trade in my milk crate for a ladder and show up much later
than the 10-12 hours that are required to secure a decent spot on the carpet
rails these days.
When
I first looked at the schedule this year I thought it was terrible, but after I
put my list of galas together it wasn’t so bad. This year TIFF surprised us with
some substantial changes to the venue layouts. The Prince of Whales
(POW) theater was one of the worst venues for us fans in the past, so much so that last
year Tom Hanks even said that he felt like cattle being lead to the
slaughter. TIFF appears to have heard this criticism and put up
barricades along both sides of King street and went so far as to
completely close down King street while talent was on the carpet,
halting even street car traffic at times. I was told that an area for
fans was created at the Elgin/Winter Garden theater this year too. Roy Thompson Hall (RTH) was even changed up this
year. Bell the largest corporate sponsor added the "Bell Fan Zone" an area across the carpet from the traditional fan rail. This
new area was to be used for viewing older movies after the carpet
closed at 09:30pm, but it soon became a fan area that proved to be a
good location for normal autograph seekers, but even the hounds were using
it as the week progressed.
The
festival started Thursday with a 30th anniversary reunion for the “The Big Chill” cast members, with most in attendance minus
Jeff Goldblum and William Hurt. Tom Berenger showed , but some how I missed him, DAMN!!
I’ve seen some of the cast before, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly and Jobeth Williams were new for me.
I
was able to update some older images of a few stars like Nicole Kidman
who I capture back in the old days of point and shoot. Managed a nice
full frame head shot i’m really pleased with, not looking at the camera
but a really nice 3/4 profile in really good light which is often hard during
the early gala at RTH due to the sun’s location. Another update was
Kate Winslet who was looking very nice and very pregnant.
A lot of new talent for me this year too, including Matthew McConaughey,
Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, Collin Hanks, Benedict
Cumerbatch, and the Hemsworth brothers Liam and Chris. A couple of other
stand outs for me were Brendan Glesson who I’ve alway like in anything
he has done and Taylor Kitsch for his portrayal of the Pulitzer prize
winning South African photographer Kevin Carter in “The Bang Bang Club”.
Three new Oscar winners were added this year including Julia Roberts and the director/producer team of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Six other winners were also updated this year Colin Firth, Chris Cooper, Nichole Kidman, Kate Winslet, Tim Robbins and Director Paul Haggis.
Not
a bad year overall, but the waiting game is getting to be too much for
the quality of the images I’m getting. I may look at getting a decent
ladder and then pick my battles a little better by limiting the number
and locations that I attend. New talent only and then only the people
that interest me. I found myself giving up early on locations this year
because I wasn’t interested in the talent, as was the case of Daniel Radcliffe. I could care less to see Harry so I gave up my front row spot to a young woman who was clearly a Potter fan. It worked out as I got
to see Matthew McConaughey who was at POW later that night, someone who
was more interesting to me and I didn’t plan on seeing when I put my
schedule together. The fan friendlier venue change at POW had a lot of
us rethinking our locations this year. Next year, maybe???
