| 3 days to go and Counting |
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September 4th, 2000
While the actual start of the film festival is still three days away, this feels like the start. This is the moment of truth, the day tickets orders are ready for pick up. My partners in crime, Don and Pauline, have planned this morning's takedown with the precision of the experienced crew they are. Pauline, our getaway driver, picks me up just after 7 am. Today being Labour Day we have a slight advantage over the transit dependent people, who are forced to rely on holiday transit. Subways don't open until after 9 a.m. on holidays in Toronto. Don, the brains of the operation, has mapped out possible films that can be taken as alternates should we be cornered and pressed for time to make selections. As for myself, my contribution to the job is to suggest stopping by Tim Horton's for coffee on the way to box office. Arriving we find the line is not too long, and our second break of the day comes when we discover the organizers have already put up the board already listing films which have technically sold out. This gives us much needed information to plan the rest of our attack. Don quickly takes down the info and reports back to the group. We quickly scan our notes to see what we've been screwed out of and how bad off we are. Remember we are expecting the worst, consider the whole box 36 fiasco (See yesterday's entry for details). As we scan the list things begin to look up as we realize we are not as bad off as originally expected. To be sure there are disappointments. I failed to get Tom Tykwer's new movie Princess and the Warrior among other things. Don and Pauline have their losses too. As we plan strategies, more accomplices turn up to join us in line, John, Ceri, and Vicki. Shortly after 9 a.m. the line begins to move. Things go fairly quickly at this point. As you approach the front of the line, you are directed to one of the staff behind a long table for pick-ups. You hand over your coupon book, which they used to hunt down your order and then give you the good / bad news regarding how many of your selections were filled. My news is that I received 26 out of 30 selections. Not bad all things considered. There is a quick huddle while we all figure out what we didn't get and what alternatives might work. Don and my schedules are fairly in sync so we try to find alternatives that work for both of us. After less than five minutes of comparing notes we are ready again to hit the ticket line to get tickets for our replacements. This process goes much faster than last year, the festival seems to have put double the number of agents on the job taking orders. A quick visit to the ticket agents to replace the four films I didn't get and I am done. Time to go home, clean up my spreadsheet outlining my films and update my journal. Then time to take a much needed breather between now and Thursday evening when the fun begins. Until Later.... |