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.

Some interesting differences between movie-going in Canada and England.

This was the first trip I had taken outside North America. I've visited the States a few times and overall it's similar to Canada, although I did get some funny looks when I asked for vinegar for my french fries in the US.

There's some interesting differences in England, some good, some bad. I was in enough different cinemas that I think it's safe to say these are probably common to the entire country.

They are called cinemas only, whereas we often use cinema and theatre interchangeably. If I said theatre over there they assumed I was talking a live show. This makes sense to me, I often calls for people looking for the live event theatre on campus.

No cinema I was in had a pre-show, they all had curtains which stayed closed until the film started. I can't decide about that. I kind of like an interesting pre-show and since Western Film has one I'm in a bit of a conflict of interest. On the other hand it was kind of nice being able to relax and just wait for the show to begin.

They play way more commercials and fewer trailers. One show I checked and there was half an hour of commercials and trailers. The proportion was different. Here you usually get about 5 minutes of commercials and 15 minutes of trailers. There it was about half and half. It wasn't all bad though, most of the commercials were quite entertaining, even multiple times. I did wish they played more trailers though as I really like trailers.

As an example, around here we get those boring Telus ads with the fish etc. asking us to turn off our mobile phones. In England they have this.

In some cinemas they have assigned seating. Some of the bigger prestige cinemas, most notably the big Odeon in Leicester Square have assigned seating. It also has different levels with different prices. I'll do a post on it later. The cinema closest to my sister's place had an interesting arrangement. Most of the cinema was general seating but there were a few rows in the middle that had assigned seating and were bigger chairs. They cost extra but it was nice to be able to book tickets for Indiana Jones online and know I would get a good seat.

There's a lot more digital presentation in England, I'll be doing a post on this later.

This one was my sore point. Every cinema had stale popcorn!? I never saw an actual popper as we do here. They seemed to get it in from somewhere in big plastic bags. It was dumped into a bin under the counter and served from there. It was interesting they had a choice of salted or sweetened popcorn. They didn't have butter or similar products. They also didn't have the seasonings we have, white cheddar, dill pickle etc. If I wasn't such a popcorn addict I wouldn't have bought it, especially when it was outrageously expensive once the money exchange was factored in.

Fewer movie ads on Telelvision?

I've read a couple thing recently that indicate the studios will probably do fewer ad buys on TV. Some companies are switching advertising dollars to the Internet, figuring the primary audience for movies, teenagers and young adults, will be more likely to see it.

Technology like Tivo and PVR's are another reason. So many people are recording things to watch later and/or skip the commercials. The usual advertising strategy of blanket ads the last few days before opening weekend goes out the window if people don't want the shows until after the weekend.

I see the latter point. I got a new computer a few months ago with a PVR built in. I record pretty much everything to watch later. However I am watching more TV in total. I basically gave up on watching TV series because they were constantly moving them around and I would miss some. With the PVR there's a guide for up to two weeks ahead so I just select the items I want to record. I started watching 3 series, Bones, Heroes and Ugly Betty. I do fast forward through the commercials but if I see one that looks interesting I'll go back and watch it especially movie commercials. On the other hand I just got around to watching some episodes of South Park I recorded back in March. There were a lot of ads for Fido which is long gone from Theatres.

I can think of one thing that would help. Instead of concentrating the advertising in the last few days before the movie opens start the commercials a couple weeks earlier. Most people who record things probably watch them fairly quickly.