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Hello, I’m on blog content writing hiatus (maybe?) while I take the time to fix some small blog bugs that I’ve been putting off fixin’ as well as ummm… paying attention to some things in my life that I’ve put on the backburner. It has only been a week since the first inaugural post and I’m already so bored with the whole thing. Who has been reading my public stuff and why? Speak up. The public side of fruityoaty.com could disappear today and I can count the piddlin’ number of people who would miss it!

Toronto International Film Festival started today, but for me, it begins tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to going again. This year, I did unbelievably well in getting all my 1st film choices. Out of 40 boxes in total this year, Box 22 was the first box of orders to be processed in the Advance Ticketing Procedure.

For the uninitiated, the TIFF advance draw (lottery) for those who purchased passes and / or coupons works this way:

A limited number of passes and coupons are sold to the public. When it’s time, these people exchange their envelope vouchers for order envelopes, next they select their 1st film picks (with yellow highlight marker) and 2nd choices (with green highlight marker), and then drop off the order envelopes with corresponding drop-off vouchers before the lottery deadline which was Friday, Sep. 1, 1:00 PM this year. A number is drawn at 1:00 PM and that box number (of orders) is processed first. After your order is processed, you then pick up your printed movie tickets (and possibly, some exchange coupons for the films you didn’t get) with a pick-up voucher. I guess the system is as fair and organized as it can be.

Since Box 22 was drawn, it means those orders were processed first, next Box 23, 24… processed in sequential ascending order… 39, 40, then Box 1, 2… so on… and the poor suckers with Box 21 are last. If you’re sitting in Box 1 to 21 this year, the most likely chance you’ll get all your 1st picks is if you had selected the less popular films. Your TIFF experience is further fucked up if you don’t even get your 2nd choices and/or if your 2nd choices’ scheduled viewing times conflict with your other 1st/2nd choices that you did get.

For the people who did not participate in the advance draw, well… good luck, you unorganized poor losers! The TIFF experience for them means going to the Box Office or the theatres to try to exchange their coupons, running around town to catch their next movie or doing the dreaded RUSH line. The rush line at movie theatres is for people who are hoping to get one of those very few tickets that are reserved and released for purchase only a few hours before the movie starts. Sometimes, a lot of tickets are reserved so, if you’re really desperate to see a certain movie, do the rush dance, but it can be a bit of a marathon, a gamble and a bummer if that person in front of you got the last ticket. I used to do the Midnight Madness movies and the rush lines but that was when I was much younger! OK, I’m not THAT old, but by the end of TIFF, I’ll be feeling old, heh.

My envelope was in Box 27 and therefore, I had a rock solid chance of getting all my 1st picks. Come to think of it, it’s the first time ever that I got all my 1st picks since I started going to TIFF. Yeah, baby!

Every year, I tell myself I’ll be more organized, buy the pass / coupons sooner before they’re sold out, research the films more thoroughly, and drop off the envelope for the advance draw at least the day before, but every year work/life gets hectic and boom… I’m almost late again. Well, almost. This year, I ordered my coupons very late and dropped off my completed envelope about 2 hours before the 1:00 PM deadline. I guess my TIFF tardiness worked in my favour this time. Heh!

You can spot the seasoned, organized or diehard TIFFers because they’re the ones carrying their own yellow/green highlight markers, printed schedules, the $32.00+ annual Programme Book which helps one to decide which movies are interesting, and those 50-movie passes. They also look LOOK VERY TIRED, with bags under their blood-shot eyes. Well, I can’t afford those Programme Books, but I do have enviromentally-friendly markers! Heh.

Yesterday, starting at 7:00 AM, the rest of the public was allowed to purchase single tickets by phone, in person or online. I’m none too impressed with the online ordering system. Last year was the first time you could order a single ticket online. To me, it seems that people who built the online ordering system did not adequately test it last year or this year for load or performance during high peak / volume transactions. Like last year, when I tried to order tickets for 2 more movies yesterday morning, I kept getting all sorts of fucking error messages for 3 whole hours, like this:

recv() error 10054
send() error 10054

This MaxWeb system has experienced an unexpected error. Please try again later.

As a consequence, I didn’t get one of the movies I really wanted and had to select something else. I tried to phone in my order but the phone seemed to be permanently busy. I noticed yesterday afternoon that the TIFF website had a posted notice about the online ordering problems.

I usually go to foreign / Indie / non-Hollywood movies that will likely never see the light of distribution, but this year I did pick that Brad Pitt movie Babel. Well, ummm… Brad Pitt might be attending, hello… and besides, it’s supposed to be really excellent and possibly an Oscar contender. I DEFINITELY don’t go to TIFF to be starstruck and I’m also not a hardcore cineaste… but hello, he’s Brad Pitt!

Tomorrow morning, I’m going to the TIFF Box Office to pick up my tickets. I’ll try to blog about TIFF highlights next week if I have time. In the meanwhile, I bid you all a swell life and…

Adieu,

fruity TIFF