Car Modern 2011

I must admit that I have never gone into Roy Thomson Hall. There has just never been a concert or event that I wanted to go to that was held at the Hall. The location is prime and it is just a stone's throw from the new Bell Lightbox, home of TIFF, and they had a gigantic red carpet set up for the Toronto Film Festival.

Passing by one afternoon I got to see part of the lineup ready for patrons to wait in, and circle, as they attend a movie premier - they would have to wind down long aisles protected by plush, red velvet ropes, until they finally reached the entrance to the Hall and the hallowed popcorn counter.

The building itself looks like a large space ship that took a fancy to our city and landed smack dab in the middle of a bunch of skyscrapers. No alien was at home giving those nasty probes, but security was tight for protection of  movie stars. By the way the 35th annual TIFF party ends today. You can see what the photographers had to go through for the event at the Lines of Sight blog. The Toronto Star has a lot of photos of the many celebrities that came for the Festival. Sarah Silverman and Clint Eastwood are two stars that I wish I had seen wandering around Toronto.

While waiting to take this very picture I was joined by authors of the website Toronto.ca who were hitting up people as they looked to market and discuss their website. I foolishly confused it with Toronto.com and thought that I hadn't visited it - yet I now realize that this official City of Toronto website is where I often go to see the festival and events scheduled in Toronto. I said that I tended to visit BlogTO (which seems to be a website about poutine), Torontoist.com (I love the G20 stuff, even when their readers complain) and Toronto Mike (he sees a lot of dead people).

The popularity and clout of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) continues to expand every year. Helicopters fly high over the city looking for crowds that have gathered to see the stars of the world descend on Hollywood North. Special sniffer dogs check out theatres for any crawly insects but none were to be found and festivals in other parts of the world were crushed with the all clear verdict. Green eco friendly taxis shuttle movie stars from the airport to the various TIFF venues. Lineups at red carpet events start to fill up early with people hoping to catch a glimpse and take photos of celebrities.
Often criticized for being too eletist and too successful (TIFF responded by saying "Part of Bailey's mandate has been to expand the festival so it appeals to a greater demographic. He rejects the criticism that TIFF has become an “elitist” institution."), the crowds make it difficult to get tickets and into the movies that make up the festival, so organizers have created the World's biggest outdoor movie screen on one of Toronto's iconic landmarks - the Royal York Hotel on Front Street. Their plan was to bring some of the premiers out of the Bell Lightbox (pictured at top) and show the movies to the masses. However recent labour problems and strike walkouts, which include operators of the massive movie projector, have put the brakes to the plan. Martin Sheen even joined the protest for a short period to show his solidarity with the workers at the luxury hotel.
I have created a mock up of the screen showing the premier of Rainn Wilson's new movie "The Crimson Bolt" to show what the movie premier could have been.