Pick Your Tix - A Few Tips To Help Get That TIFF 12 Movie List Together

First off, thanks to everyone who's tweeted me, facebooked, texted, emailed, and stopped me outside of Tim Horton's to ask me about my film picks for TIFF12.  Every year as soon as the full film schedule is released I get very anxious to not only read the film synopsis, but to get a tentative schedule together ASAP, tho some years require me to submit picks earlier than others I always wonder "what's my hurry?  There's at least a week to pick."  Then the messages start pouring in and I remember it's because you guys are actually interested in what I see, which is pretty awesome I gotta say.

I'm sorry to report that I don't have my short list together yet, but it's coming soon!  Aside from the film list, the other thing I've been putting off is blogging.  Tonight I got caught in a torrential downpour and didn't walk through my front door until 10pm, I wasn't exactly inspired to write, but upon realizing the alternative was to wade through a sea of 300+ film synopsis and narrow it down to 30... well, I was suddenly inspired to blog!

What I'd like to do tonight is throw out a few general tips that will hopefully help you to pick your films and get your tickets...

1) I'll start with a tweet of mine from earlier today

from @palindr0me (yep, that's me)
"Very useful info for TIFF-goers RT@bombippy Sold out or off sale films for TIFF 2012 as of 2pm, Aug 27. http://tinyurl.com/9huarcw  #TIFF2012"

This is not the first year I've seen this guy's list (I presume it's the same guy), every year he seems to have the scoop on what's available and what's not.  Where from?  I don't know...which sparks some questions like this one:

"How do you know this person is telling the truth?  I know, sounds silly but maybe that's the person's wish list?"

Well...I don't, but I think this guy's on the level. In previous years, with all the exchanges going on, I never paid much heed to what was on or off sale, having one or two tickets suddenly appear in the system for show was a common enough occurrence.  So regardless I would always try to request a ticket even if I'd heard the screening had gone off sale a week ago.  This year there's been some changes to the ticketing system which may make my methods less effective, however when doing your ticket package picks the availability will be updated live.  As you're in the system making your picks, you will be able to see in real time what's available and what's not.  Therefore reference this handy list, why not?  If you really want a show, try for it, however if you see it on the off sale list, you might want to consider having a few back-up choices...which brings me to

2) HAVE BACK-UP CHOICES!  Whether you're making advance picks online or at the box office buying single tickets in person, know your options and have them ranked in order of preference.  This is important for a few reasons:

• You don't want to be flipping around the Official Film Schedule and the Program Book trying to come up with an alternative on the spot.  It's hard, you might not get it done in the one hour window, and/or you're holding up other folk in the box office line.
• It's hard to decide on the spot which film you'd prefer to see, it might be beneficial to have seen the trailer, read some of the buzz, or have some details about the filmmakers.
• When rushed to decide, you might accidentally schedule a conflict.  A film's running time might be longer than you thought and end after your next film starts, or if you're doing back to back movies you might accidentally pick theatres far away from each other and suddenly find you need to get from the Bloor Cinema to the Winter Garden in 20 mins.

It's best to iron out these kinks beforehand, which will just equal an additional trip back to the box office when problems arise.  You can always opt to get a voucher and come back later, but again...extra trips to the box office equals extra time in the lines.  Plus by the time you go back, the tix might be gone.

3) A little dialogue goes a long way... not sure what to see?  not sure about a movie?  Try asking around to see what people think and get their insight.  Sure, opinions are just that, subjective and often unreliable...but that comes at all levels.  It was thanks to glowing reviews in the media after the Venice Film Festival that I found myself in a screening of Dogtooth, a film that has scarred me and my buddy Jack for life.  A number of friends encouraged me to go see Les amours imaginaires, which is how I wound up being the only person in a theatre who thought Xavier Dolan was the most pretentious Canadian director alive (sorry, but completely unlikable characters in scene after scene of contrived screen compositions and excessive slow motion drove me crazy... and I'm a Wong Kar Wai fan!)  But if everyone's abuzz about a great performance or the film has won the People's Choice Award, there's probably something to it.  Above all else it's knowledge-sharing and hyping each other for 11 days of non-stop movies!  Whether it's my partners in crime in the overnight ticket line (come visit us if you like, we basically talk movies, TIFF or otherwise, until the sun comes up -- literally) or a stranger in a RUSH line, most people are more than willing to impart a nugget of film info (or give you a 20 minute detailed plot description about Lars Von Trier's Dogville)

4) Last and most importantly...SAY NO TO SCALPERS.  Now I don't know if this applies to all scalpers, I've personally never met a particularly kind scalper, but the ones that come to snatch up tickets at TIFF are awful.  Last year they camped at the front of the line the day before single tickets went on sale, they were overall vulgar, ill-mannered, and clearly low class.  Their numbers swelled through the evening and into the night as their friends and family all showed up so that they could each purchase the maximum amount of tickets when the box office opened.  There was a bit of an altercation as one scalper got into a heated argument with a dedicated patron at dawn.  The torment didn't even end as we went in for tickets, as we left the box office they were demanding to know how many tickets we got for high profile screenings such as From The Sky Down and Pearl Jam 20.  Hopefully they won't be back this year, if I can, I'd like to take a photo of each of them and tweet "Do not buy tickets from this person".  So if you get a shot of a scalper, please send it to me.

There is never a need to resort to overpriced scalper tickets for TIFF.  If you get to the box office and your desired show is off sale, there is a long list of alternative methods to get a ticket.  Try the box office again the day of the screening, be in line just before 7am when they open, many tickets are released same day.  Get into the rush line.  Aside from Roy Thomson Hall Galas, I've never been turned away from a show where I arrived 2 hours early to rush.  I can't guarantee this will remain the case year after year, but I'm pretty confident when it comes to my choice of films.  It's not just about getting in when they do the final headcount 5 mins before the show, many people show up at the venue with extra tickets and they are directed to the Rush line if they want to sell that ticket.  These are never sold above face value, often for less, once in a while even given away for free.  With 2-3 screening for every film, your odds are pretty good.

Best of luck to everyone in getting the tickets that you most desire.  I'll get back to my long list of titles tomorrow and will be back soon to post some of my wish list and some trailers, hopefully we can even get a discussion going.  We'll be at Pecault Square overnight once again this Saturday, Sep 1st to 2nd.  Watch for our tweets!  Happy TIFF-ing!