2009 Festival Ticketing Update

The Festival has done a bit of rebranding and has a new site at http://www.tiff.net/ (tiff.com was already taken by an Internet marketing company). The Festival has also put up a brochure explaining the ticket packages for the 2009 festival, which I'll summarize below. The brochure can be found here: http://www.tiffg.ca/tiffgalerts/web/docs/awarenessbrochure.pdf.

Note if you are a donor, you can start buying packages as of 10:00 AM on June 1. Otherwise, Visa card holders can start buying packages as of 10:00 AM on July 6. Cash and debit purchases of packages can be made starting10:00 AM on July 13. This is only to buy the ticket packages listed later in this posting. Single tickets to individual films will not go on sale until 7:00 AM on September 4, although this is now 5 days before the festival actually starts.

If you buy a ticket package and thus participate in the advance ordering process in August, the festival has increased the time between picking up your package and having to submit your order. Last year, you only had 3 days to complete the process. This year, you have 6 days, from 10:00 AM on August 25 to 1:00 PM on August 31. Completed packages will be available for pickup starting 7:00 AM on September 3, which is before the Labour Day long weekend this year. Note that September 3 is a Thursday, so unlike previous years, you will want to plan to take this as a vacation day if you expect to have to make exchanges.

The Festival has clarified the difference between Roy Thomson Hall and Visa Screening Room galas, and the rest of the festival:

Premium Screening: Approximately 6% of all films fall into this category. These are the first public screenings of a film at the festival, occur at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room, and have at least one of the following criteria:

1. Be a red carpet event.
2. Be at least a North American premiere.
3. Include a Q&A with either a director or principal cast.

Regular Screening: Approximately 74% of all films fall into this category.

Not sure what makes up the other 20%! Also note that a lot of the regular screenings usually have cast and/or crew show up, and have Q&A's after the film.

For the ticket packages, there were generally modest increases, although the Festival packages get the biggest bump. The Wavelengths package actually dropped in price; not sure what that means for the programme itself. Additional packages for the Visa Screening Room have been added, including some reasonably priced options that guarantee tickets,but only on specific days. Anyone thinking of picking one of these up in order to see the next Brad Pitt film, might want to be careful, since there's no guarantee on when films will be scheduled at this point. Some packages held in price from last year, like Midnight Madness.

Packages where you choose the films:

10 Ticket Package
$159.14 (up $4.64 from last year, no discount for students and seniors).
See up to 10 films (maximum of 4 tickets per film screening).
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall or Visa Screening Room premium screenings.
Can participate in the Advance Order Procedure.
A single purchaser can buy a maximum of 10 10-Ticket Packages (for 100 tickets total).

Festival Package
$524.27 (up $15.27 from last year, $443.93 for students and seniors).
See up to 50 films (maximum of 1 ticket per film screening).
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall or Visa Screening Room premium screenings.
Can participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Festival Package Lite
$386.25 (up $11.25 from last year, no discount for students and seniors).
See up to 30 films (maximum of 1 ticket per film screening).
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall or Visa Screening Room premium screenings.
Can participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Day Package
$201.88 (up $5.88 from last year, $162.23 for students and seniors).
See up to 25 films (maximum of 1 ticket per film, each must start before 5:01 PM).
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films.
Can participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Day Package Lite
$139.05 (up $4.05 from last year, no discount for students and seniors).
See up to 15 films (maximum of 1 ticket per film, each must start before 5:01 PM).
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films.
Can participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Student Card
$19.87 (up $0.58 from last year)
Can see multiple films on a given day from the first screening to 11:59 PM, up to a maximum of 5 per day.
Must have valid student ID to both purchase the card and enter screenings.
When purchasing, must select the date for the student card. Films are selected the morning of the day selected.
Quantities are limited per day.
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Sutton 2 Day Package
$699 (no discount for students and seniors)
2-night stay at the Sutton Place Hotel over the final two days of the festival (September 18 and 19).
2 tickets to the Closing Night Gala at the Visa Screening Room.
4 additional tickets that can be redeemed for any regular screening (i.e. not Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films).
1 Programme Book.
2 Festival t-shirts.
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films other than the Closing Night Gala.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Sutton 3 Day Package
$999 (no discount for students and seniors)
3-night stay at the Sutton Place Hotel over the final three days of the festival (September 17, 18 and 19).
2 tickets to the Closing Night Gala at the Visa Screening Room.
6 additional tickets that can be redeemed for any regular screening (i.e. not Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films).
1 Programme Book.
2 Festival t-shirts.
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films other than the Closing Night Gala.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.


Packages where the films are chosen for you by the Festival:

Visa Screening Room Evening Package
$350 (no change from last year, no discount for students and seniors)
1 ticket to Visa Screening room films from September 11 to 18, for either the 6:00 PM or 9:00 PM screening (note you may have to select one time period for the length of the festival).
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Visa Screening Room 2 Day Package
$35 (new this year, no discount for students and seniors)
1 ticket to Visa Screening room films on September 15 and 17, between 12:00 PM and 5:59 PM. It is unclear how many screenings this would include, but based on the price, I would guess one per day.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Visa Screening Room 3 Day Package
$50 (new this year, no discount for students and seniors)
1 ticket to Visa Screening room films on September 14, 16 and 18, between 12:00 PM and 5:59 PM.
It is unclear how many screenings this would include, but based on the price, I would guess one per day.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Visa Screening Room Weekend Evening Package
$131.25 (new this year, no discount for students and seniors)
1 ticket to the 6:00 PM Visa Screening room films on September 11, 12 and 13.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Visa Screening Room Mid Festival Package
$131.25 (new this year, no discount for students and seniors)
1 ticket to the 9:00 PM Visa Screening room films on September 14, 15 and 16.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Double Date Gala Package
$299.04 (new this year, no discount for students and seniors)
4 tickets to each of two galas pre-selected by the Festival (for a total of 8 tickets).
Dates, times, and films to be announced by Thursday, September 3.
Guaranteed that both films will not occur on the same day.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Wavelengths Package
$55.40 (down $11.09 from last year, new $47.09 for students and seniors)
1 ticket to each of the Wavelengths screenings.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Midnight Madness Package
$156.51 (no change from last year, $100 for students and seniors)
1 ticket to each Midnight Madness screening.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Globetrotter Weekend/Evening
$112.53 (no change from last year, no discount for students and seniors)
6 films are pre-selected for you.
Films are guaranteed to start after 5:30 PM on weekdays or anytime on the weekend.
Also receive 2 vouchers for the fall Cinematheque fall season, and a pound of Starbucks coffee.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Globetrotter Daytime
$99.23 (no change from last year, no discount for students and seniors)
6 films are pre-selected for you.
Films are guaranteed to start between 8:30 AM and 5:01 PM.
Also receive 2 vouchers for the fall Cinematheque fall season, and a pound of Starbucks coffee.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Festival Experience Weekend/Evening
$68.54 (no change from last year, no discount for students and seniors)
3 films are pre-selected for you.
Films are guaranteed to start after 5:30 PM on weekdays or anytime on the weekend.
Also receive a pound of Starbucks coffee.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Festival Experience Package
$63.42 (no change from last year, no discount for students and seniors)
3 films are pre-selected for you.
Films are guaranteed to start between 8:30 AM and 5:01 PM.
Also receive a pound of Starbucks coffee.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Roy Thomson Hall Closing Night Film and Cocktail
$180.25 (up $5.25 from last year, no discount for students and seniors)
1 ticket to the closing night gala at Roy Thomson Hall.
Invitation to an after-party.
Only balcony seating is guaranteed.
There is no guarantee that any celebrities will be in attendance.
Cannot participate in the Advance Order Procedure.

Tags: 2009,tickets,tiff

Objectified

Objectified is director Gary Hustwit's follow-up to his well-received documentary Helvetica. Continuing on with the theme of design, Objectified takes an expanded view and looks at what design is, how it affects people, and where it is going in the future. Hustwit interviews a number of design luminaries, including Jonathan Ive, senior VP of industrial design at Apple and the principal designer of the iPhone among many other products.

A number of designers talk about what inspires them and the things they come up with. But even though the film celebrates the work they do, it also raises at least some questions about a profession that can at times be at odds with environmental sustainability and really only addresses a small percentage of the people on the planet.

Objectified is a really interesting documentary that makes you appreciate the beauty and artistry of everything from a laptop computer, to a chair, to even the most mundane household objects that we all take for granted, like a toothbrush or a vegetable peeler.

Director Gary Hustwit was in attendance and did a Q&A after the film.

• Hustwit still had questions to ask about design after completing Helvetica, hence the continuation of the theme in Objectified.
• Hustwit wouldn't reveal specifics because he's still working it out in his head, but his third documentary will also share a design theme.
• Seeing more about the process of design during the course of filming and interviewing subjects has caused him to think more about why he makes films, but didn't necessarily affect how he made this film.
• He found it interesting that all the designers he interviewed seemed really interested in their camera gear and that all wanted to try to redesign it and make it better.
• On their way to interview Jonathan Ive, the airline lost the crew's tripod and boom mike extension, so they had to jury rig ones from stuff they bought at Home Depot, and were a bit embarrassed to show up at Apple with it.
• Before filming, Hustwit talked to a lot of designers, educators, and writers to get a wish list of topics and people to interview, but he also did have a number of people in mind that he wanted to have for the film.
• He was intrigued to find out what was on the designers' minds, who they were as people, and what drove them to do what they do.
• He hopes at some point to be able to make a documentary about Tom Waits.
• Hustwit has known Kristian Dunn, guitarist for the band el ten eleven, for 15 years, and finds his music clicks with Hustwit's visual imagery, hence the music in the film.
• Hustwit mentioned that documentaries generally aren't scored since you don't know what the editorial cut will be until close to the end.
• With Helvetica, he just told musicians he was making a movie about the font, and found it interesting the things he got back.
• Luke Geissbuhler, the director of photography, also worked on Helvetica, Borat, and Bruno. His father is a Swiss designer.
• Hustwit says he is learning from Geissbuhler, as he hadn't done any filming before Helvetica, and Hustwit ended up shooting about 30% of Objectified himself.
• Editor Joe Beshenkovsky has worked on a number of episodes of the cable version of This American Life.
• Objectified, despite its look, was kind of low budget and a bit of a credit card movie, but hundreds did end up working on it.
• When asked, Hustwit said that there needs to be a dialog on sustainability, but it does come back to us as consumers; he thinks there is a change going on in terms of patterns of consumption. If more people understand the things behind design, maybe they will think more about what they buy.
• Designers were asking the question of how you justify making all these things, but the system depends on consumers continually buying things, especially now with all the talk of recession.
• Everything is designer; it's about re-evaluating and redesigning to make things better. Designers, especially in Europe, are being involved in more discussions about public policy, in part because of this philosophy and methodology of looking at problems.

Tags: 2009,films,hotdocs