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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: TIFF: Bell Lightbox (Thumbs up or thumbs down?)
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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover
Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted 11-01-2010 10:44 PM
quote: Caleb Johnstone-Cowan
If it is the only Screening Venue in Toronto it will work. There will be a lot of people who won't go to the multiplexes nearby, people in the film industry and those who see their favourite film is on and go to see it.
There is actually a whole bunch of theatres that could be classified as "screening" rooms for non-mainstream fare.
The Cumberland, Toronto Underground, Kingsway, etc all screen non-mainstreem movies. Let's also not forget about the Carlton which is pretty much dead.
quote: Mark Ogden
I was under the impression that the whole reason for this theatre's existence was to centralize the TIFF and keep it from having to deal with places like the Cineplex Varsity and the Alliance Cumberland (which is getting to be kind of a hole), and that everything the rest of the year was just the icing.
TIFF has pretty much left Varsity and Cumberland. They now use the AMC 24 and Paramount Festival Hall theatre. Ryerson Univerity is also in on the act.
quote:
In a bizarre way I have to admire him though as it takes a lot of talent to come up with the [bs] he does.
News flash Tom: Screening venues have historically had the longest operational lives, by virtue of the very things you can't wrap your head around:
* Versatility in formats for exhibition (Note that they have Digital AND film, including your dead 70mm);
* EXPERIENCED operators, not the "popcorn pushers" like at your favorite chain;
* Attention to ALL facets of proper presentation including screen masking;
* Most also are dual-film projector set up so they can run archival prints;
* Most if not all have great relationships with the studios and make sure the studios are kept happy;
* Many such venues can get films that will NEVER play at the multis because of the lack of care and print protection so prevalent at the multis.
Now since I don't live up in Canada I cannot vouch for if the Bell Lightbox is doing it right or not. But I have been to some of the venues Bill mentioned and they strive to do ALL presentations right, and the films and videos I have seen WERE done right.
Presentation aside. My big question is whether this theatre can support showing "older" movies at $12 or $18.75 a pop without a big blockbuster playing there each week. The theatre alone looks like it cost $30million if not much much more to build as it is brand new.
And just and FYI, I am not knocking film done right, digital or 70mm...this has nothing to do with those arguments. I actually will be attending "Playtime" in 70mm when it does play.
I stand corrected on cost. The entire complex cost $200 million dollars. tiff
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John Joseph Fink
Film Handler
Posts: 60
From: West Hartford, CT
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 11-02-2010 08:52 AM
My impression is the theater is running as a not for profit on land donated, in a building owned by a developer who has supported the festival for years. It's a beatiful venue (I saw two screenings at TIFF last year in Theatre #1, which has a small balcony and seats somewhere around 400.
If anything this replaces the screenings TIFF did at Jackman Hall down the street at the Art Gallery of Ontario and expands it from one screen to five, allowing them to fill the void that the Carlton used to (they used to have 9 screens of art films, now they have a mix). The scheduling is a little odd with new releases not getting a full 4-7 shows a day, but the programing is impressive. My guess is the building was paid for through donations, it runs as an NFP and is a bit like a museum, but King and John is a popular neighborhood, even if locals cry "conspiracy - they're moving the festival south bound" (true, this year The Varsity only ran two screens, where as in years prior they used all 12).
The design is something a chain could/never would build with a lot of open areas the heating bill alone....
Still I walked in and thought "damn these people are serious about cinema" - I'm not sure an equivalent really exists in the US. The Canadian government really does invest invest in film culture, the way the US government really doesn't need to: we're already a huge exporter of the American cultural image via Hollywood.
*** Update: it looks like The Carleton is now the move over house for the Bell Lightbox - Trigger, Uncle Boome, and Carlos are currently playing. Glad to see their back in the mix even if the screens there are comparable to a large TV set.
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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover
Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted 11-02-2010 12:26 PM
quote: Mark Ogden
John: agreed on the Carlton. This place is always going to be cursed with an odd layout and small auditoriums, but I was in it this September and I thought the remodel job was superb and the presentation top-notch. Contrary to what was said above, I didn't notice it being "dead" at all, there was a considerable crowd the afternoon I was there. Much luck to the new owners.
From what I have been told, the Carlton is a flop. 1.5mil on renovation and the theatre is not doing the attendance they were hoping for.
Part of the issue from what I have learned is that they are not getting first crack and the indie movies. For example, "Solitary Man, Lebanon, Girl With The Dragon, Never Let Me Go" all played for a number of weeks at the Varisty, Cumberland and AMC 24 before Carlton got a crack at it.
Back when Cineplex Odeon was running the Carlton, many of these movies only played at Cartlon.
quote: Mark Ogden
I just looked at the on-line calendar for December, and I saw no mention of any of this. Do you have any specific information, Tom?
I have the Tiff program/guide called "180c Essential Cinema". On the last page they mention 70mm coming this December. I will PM you if I find out more.
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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover
Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted 05-11-2011 03:39 AM
Sad, but it looks like at least one thumb down for the lightbox. It looks like it is not doing well, can you blame programming.
Putting more pop
Piers Handling and Noah Cowan get excited by strangers at TIFF Bell Lightbox.
“We’re going into screenings and we don’t recognize the audiences that are in there, which is really good,” says Handling, TIFF’s co-director and CEO.
“For the new guy on the block, we’re feeling really, really happy with how the shows have performed,” adds Cowan, the Lightbox’s artistic director.
Business people normally like to see familiar faces; it means repeat customers. For an enterprise as unique as TIFF Bell Lightbox, now six months old as Toronto’s new home for cinephiles, different rules apply — although there’s still a need to build audiences and to sell more popcorn.
TIFF knows how to attract dedicated film buffs, as it proves for 10 days every September with its world-famous Toronto International Film Festival. What’s tougher to do is keep that momentum going 365 days of the year, and also to pull in the more casual movie fans — in other words, to put more pop into this high-end popcorn palace.
The Lightbox has five public movie theatres within its complex at King and John Sts., ranging in capacity from 80 to 528 seats and showing a wide variety of films. There are also spaces for gallery shows and teaching seminars, plus several restaurants.
Yet a surprising number of Torontonians don’t know this.
A recent TIFF telephone survey, canvassing several hundred respondents, found that just 50 per cent of Torontonians are even aware of the Lightbox, despite regular media coverage during its many years of construction, which has intensified since the gleaming $196-million facility opened Sept. 12.
Anecdotal evidence, including two mini-surveys by the Star (see sidebars), suggests that the Lightbox awareness factor might be even lower than TIFF’s findings. The theatres are usually far from packed.
“What, they show movies in there?” is a commonly heard comment.
True to his glass-half-full disposition, Handling says he’s cheered by TIFF’s 50 per cent awareness finding:
“You know, establishing the venue is a key and you don’t establish a venue like this overnight. I think we now recognize it’s going to take us at least a year, if not longer, for the general public of the city to become aware of the fact that we’re here . . . I was really amazed and heartened to see that one out of two of the general public that we surveyed by phone are aware of TIFF Bell Lightbox. That’s 50 per cent of the Toronto audience.”
The even better news, perhaps, is that the people who do know about the Lightbox seem to be enjoying it, especially special shows such as the Tim Burton exhibition in the ground-floor gallery, which opened in November and wraps up this month.
Handling and Cowan are delighted that the five most well-attended films to screen so far at the Lightbox indicate they’re hitting many of the cultural marks programmers set for themselves, with Canadian, documentary, classic and avant-garde films all represented.
In order of popularity, the Lightbox’s greatest hits to date are:
• Incendies: Quebecer Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-nominated thriller of revealed family secrets.
• Kings of Pastry: A documentary of competitive French pastry chefs, by doc-making veterans D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi classic, in 70 mm.
• Enter the Void: Gaspar Noé’s mind-tripping after-life journey of transgressive devotion.
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives: Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Palme d’Or-winning dreamscape of family ghosts, a film that played in Toronto longer than in New York.
“We’re on track,” says Cowan, speaking of the Lightbox as a whole.
“The key learning thing we had here was that some times of the year do well. For example, the Christmas season was incredible here. And some other times of the year, you’re a little bit slower. But we seem to be following the trends of the other major institutions in the city, the ROM and the AGO especially, and we feel like the numbers that we’re generating from the (Burton) exhibition are really competitive with their shows.”
Hard Lightbox attendance figures are difficult to come by. The few that are available show steady if not spectacular progress.
“As of the end of February, we had 292,000 people into the building,” Handling says, reading off the stats.
“That’s close to six months, so we should be on target for somewhere between 600,000 to 700,000 admissions for the full year because, obviously, during TIFF we’ll have a lot of people coming in over the 10 days. That figure will spike. It will only get stronger.”
Besides TIFF, the Lightbox will also be home this year for the first time for the Sprockets and Hot Docs festivals, which Cowan describes as “people magnets.”
Cowan also announced recently a big exhibition devoted to Italian auteur Federico Fellini, coming in June following a successful run in Paris. He’s confident that will be as popular as the Burton exhibition.
Handling is particularly pleased with how many schools and students have discovered and enjoyed the Lightbox.
“Six months in, and we’ve already got major traction there. We’ve had about 30 universities and another 60 high schools have been in the building since we started, so those are fantastic figures.”
Still, even with the top figure of 700,000, that’s still well short of the 1 million people mark that TIFF is budgeting for, a figure that also includes the touring shows.
Handling and Cowan express confidence in reaching that magical 1 million figure, as awareness of the Lightbox grows: “With the film festival and the Film Circuit and all of our other activities, we’ll get pretty darned close, if not hit it, I think,” says Cowan.
Distributors who supply films for TIFF Bell Lightbox paint a slightly less rosy picture, although they remain enthusiastic about the facility’s potential.
“When I went to see (the 1955 Frank Tashlin comedy) Artists and Models, there were five people in the audience,” says Ron Mann of filmswelike, whose five Lightbox attractions to date have included Uncle Boonmee.
“I thought this was an off night, but apparently this is a frequent problem — people are staying away. Why? It’s not location, because the O&B Canteen is always busy.
“My guess is that there is no experience at exhibition. Take the gorgeous and expensive program: Can you figure out what’s playing on any given night? I can’t!”
The TIFF web site (TIFF.net) is another source of contention. Tom Alexander, the director of theatrical releasing for Mongrel Media, which has opened 13 titles at the Lighbox (including Cannes prize winner Of Gods and Men), calls the website less user-friendly than it should be.
He’s “happy” with the Lightbox, but has suggestions for improvement.
“It’s a gorgeous place to see a film, both aesthetically and technically in terms of presentation. It is truly a world-class cinema complex. However, I think part of the reason for the lower-than-expected box office is due to the look: As beautiful as it is, the high design is somewhat imposing for moviegoers.
“The biggest change I would suggest for the building would be giving more space for showcasing what films are coming up . . . given the street traffic on King St., I think they need to find a way to get people into the building who are in the area. It doesn’t really ‘look’ like a movie theatre and they need the outdoor-facing signage and posters to show what movies are coming up, and to make the complex feel more accessible.”
Handling agrees that the web site needs work. He and Cowan are also committed to improving the signage at the Lightbox, although both reject the suggestion of installing a standard theatre marquee, as many people have suggested.
The one major problem Handling and Cowan admit to is poor concession sales. Concessions are an essential part of the revenue stream for movie houses, but TIFF has historically not viewed itself as an aggressive hustler of popcorn, soda and hot dogs. That may change, because TIFF needs the money.
“Every piece of revenue matters,” Handling says. “We’ve stretched the budget this year by an extra $10 million coming into the building, so our budget has gone from about $22-23 million overall to $33 million. So you’re looking for every single piece of revenue you can find.”
The concession stand already sells popcorn, soda and other theatre treats, recently expanded by offering baked goods and pastries. There’s been discussion about including such high-profit items as burgers and hot dogs, but it’s a touchy topic. Many of the Cinematheque Ontario people who moved to the Lightbox from the AGO are hardcore cinephiles who object to anything more than bottled water in screenings.
Another possible revenue source might be to widen the Lightbox film roster to include the multiplex movies it currently doesn’t show on a regular basis. Why not add such high-end Oscar winners as The King’s Speech, The Social Network and Black Swan to the mix, perhaps as part of a director’s retrospective?
That’s not out of the question, but would put the not-for-profit Lightbox in competition with for-profit theatres, such as the Cineplex-run Scotiabank a few blocks to the north.
Even at the blue-sky stage where the idea is at now, it brings a note of worry to the measured response of Cineplex’s Pat Marshall:
“The focus of TIFF is to keep the festival pure, which means playing Canadian films and art films. We have a theatre (Scotiabank) located not far away from the Lightbox. TIFF uses that theatre and some of our other theatres during the festival. With the theatres being so close to one another, it wouldn’t make sense for them to show the same movies.”
None of these problems are insurmountable or unexpected, and there’s immense amount of goodwill amongst the various parties to make the Lighthouse an unqualified success. Ellis Jacob, Cineplex’s president and CEO, sits on TIFF’s board and also chairs its audit committee. He knows how to make a movie theatre work.
It must be remembered that the Lightbox is still a work in progress, with some finicky physical details still to be worked out — including how to stop a pesky draft outside Theatre 3, “which just makes people’s hats blow off,” says Cowan.
TIFF Bell Lightbox certainly wants to blow minds and hats, Cowan jokes, “but after the film!”
Follow Peter Howell on Twitter: @peterhowellfilm
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he does. 
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