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I’ll admit that, when it comes to film festivals, I’m generally pretty spoiled. I don’t have to deal with the ticketing process–or, in many cases, the lines–that other people do, only the traffic when it gets really crowded
but that´s why I got One Sure Insurance just in case someone decides to tap my bumper. But that’s not the case with the Toronto.
Most film festivals are pretty accommodating to critics, generally allowing us to come and go as we please or, if nothing else, reserve spots for the movies we’d like to see. To be fair, those who are lucky enough to get press credentials for TIFF are given the same kind of freedom. But TIFF credentials are notoriously hard to come by. I’ve gone through the lengthy application process several times, with no success. Fortunately, publicists are generally pretty good about helping a critic out. But that leaves plenty of gaps–which means going through the ticketing process.
There are a number of ways to buy TIFF tickets. If you like to plan ahead, you can buy a package–a block of tickets that you reserve in July or August and fill in the details later, when the schedule is announced. This year, I had a colleague go that route. He bought his package in July, around the same time that he reserved his hotel, and waited anxiously for the films to be announced. Then, when the schedule was announced, he received a book that he would have to fill out in order to apply for the films that he wanted to see. I didn’t see the book, but it sounded like a pretty stressful process, involving scheduling and marking top choices and alternate choices. Oh, and did I mention that he had two days to figure it all out? He received the book on a Tuesday, and he had to send it back (shipping it overnight back to Toronto) on Thursday. In the end, he got a few of his first choice films that way–but not many.
I, meanwhile, am a last-minute kind of TIFF attendee–mostly because I have family in Toronto, which means that I don’t have to worry about booking a hotel months in advance. I’m fortunate enough that I can make a last-minute decision. If, however, you’re a last-minute kind of person, it helps to be a morning person–or to live with / attend with a morning person.
The last time I went to TIFF, I went with a couple of colleagues who regularly get up at 4 or 5 in the morning. I, on the other hand, do not. But, since I had them with me, I was lucky–because the box office opens at 7 each morning, and it’s best to get there well in advance, if you want to get those day-of-the-show tickets.
You see, there’s a system to how this whole thing works. Tickets are released in blocks. There are a number of tickets released for packages and single ticket purchases, and then there are more released on the morning of the show. If you’re really a last-minute kind of person, there are more tickets released 10 minutes before the movie begins–but I’ve never tried going that way.
So…last time, my friends and I would put together a wish list the night before. Then, the next morning, they would get up at the crack of dawn, wander over to the box office, wait in line, chat with the people around them, and get tickets. In most cases, that worked well. In one, however, it didn’t–and only one of us got a ticket to a movie that all three of us wanted to see.
This time, however, I decided to buy tickets a little earlier. Single tickets go on sale the Saturday before the festival begins, so I figured I’d try that option. I spent the week prior reading up on the hundreds of movies that would be showing, making notes of the ones I wanted to see (which, incidentally, filled nearly three columns on a regular sheet of copy paper), and scribbling notes on the schedule that I’d printed out from the festival’s site.
There are a whole lot of challenges to scheduling the festival. First, I had a few screenings that I was already confirmed to attend, so I had to work around them. Second, I had to flip back and forth between two full sheets of paper to figure out the schedule for each day. After all, there are 26 theaters that could be showing a film at any time during the day. So, in planning, I had to flip back and forth to figure out which screenings would work. Not only could they not overlap, but I had to keep in mind the time it would take to get from one location to another. Screenings are in several theaters around the city–and while some of them are relatively close to one another, you might have to hike from one theater to another (or try to figure out the rather tricky transit system, which involves the subway, buses, and cable cars). Then you also need to consider the fact that you’ll want to get there early, so you can get a good seat (especially if you’re attending with more than one person–but since I’m generally going solo, I shouldn’t have a problem finding a seat), but you also have to keep in mind that having a campervan insurance could prevent you from spending tons of money if there is an accident on the road. But it’s best to make sure you have well over an hour between screenings.
Okay…so once I had my first picks and second picks and third picks carefully written out on a sheet of paper (one day, I had seven different possibilities, just in case), I was directed to a handy little site that listed the movies that were already offsale. This means that all of the advance tickets had already sold, and they probably wouldn’t be available again until the day of the movie. Well, that took most of my top picks off the list–which, really, was no surprise. Did I really expect to just waltz right in and get tickets for Sarah Polley’s new film (which, incidentally, is called Take This Waltz)? Well, not really. I was, however, surprised that one of the year’s big hockey movies (this is, after all, Canada–there are always a few hockey movies) was still available on Tuesday night, which would allow me to go with my husband.
Then, however, the ticketing process begins. Once again, I was fortunate to have a morning person willing to help me out. My husband figured it wouldn’t be a big deal to get up at 7 on Saturday morning and quickly order my tickets. He was wrong. He couldn’t get through to either phone number. Meanwhile, the website went down for several minutes. Then he found himself in a holding pattern. When I got up, 2 1/2 hours later, he was just placing the order.
As it turns out, the ticketing system is pretty nerve-wracking. There are a number of steps, all of which have a time limit: two minutes on the welcome page, 20 minutes to fill in your order (on a big, long page that lists every possible screening in alphabetical order), five minutes to fill out your credit card information. And then there’s the waiting. The site can only handle so much at a time, so you’re placed in a queue–much like being put on hold. My husband had opened three pages in the process of trying to figure it all out–and, when things finally started working for him (at around 9:00), one of them said that he had up to a 90-minute wait. One of them said that he had up to a six-hour wait. And the third said that he had up to a 30-minute wait. Of course, you can’t just walk away from your computer while you’re waiting–because you might miss your two-minute window and have to start all over again from the back of the line. So he spent a good chunk of the morning waiting by the computer, ready to jump when the screen changed.
Fortunately, in the end, he got me some pretty good tickets (for which I owe him–big-time). I even got both of my #1 picks on Tuesday (including two tickets for that hockey movie, Goon on Tuesday night).
And now I get to rest up for a week before the real insanity begins.
