Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Yes, I paid to watch a movie that was all commercials.


I was in Toronto a couple weekends ago for some training. I had the evenings free so I figured I would see a movie or two. I decided to check the listings for the Bloor Cinema. The Bloor is an old style repertory theatre that plays second run, old stuff and an eclectic mix of new stuff. I'd pretty much go every night if I lived in Toronto. They run Rocky Horror once a month and do things like they recently played a bunch of old James Bond movies.

The theatre is cool. It's an old theatre that's still fairly intact and has that run down feeling that's cool. About the only complaint I would have is the fairly small, almost square screen, it wouldn't look too good for widescreen films.

However for what I was there for it worked fine. I went to see the World's Best Commercials Festival, so it literally was about a movie length of commercials, most were TV commercials but some were Internet and almost short films.

Now you may think it strange that I would pay for such an experience but when I noticed it on their schedule I was quite excited. The New Yorker theatre here in London used to bring this in every year. It was always fun and really popular.

Some of the commercials were public service type but most were for products and most were funny. I laughed more during that festival than I have for any comedy recently.


Some may ask why I don't bring this festival to Western Film? I'd love to do so but I don't think I can for several reasons.

It's only available on video and I don't feel our video system is worth charging money for.

There wouldn't be enough demand to play it all week.

I've pretty much given up on single showings except for things like advance screenings. It's too expensive and too hard to promote and get any kind of crowd out.


For some weird reason I feel this may change in a few years, as cinemas switch to digital projection they will start to show things other than movies, ballet, opera, football games in 3-D etc. Cinemas will become more like entertainment centers and people will get used to the idea of going to the cinema for than just movies again.

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