Ryan McNeil
During the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, some jackass caught a few minutes of the Borat movie on his cellphone and posted it online.
Ever since then, the studios have gone apeshit paranoid, and the festival organizers have bent over to appease them. There are security guards in many screenings with night vision scopes looking for would-be pirates. There is a still frame warning that gets displayed before every single movie. And during the introduction of each film, an anti-piracy warning is read to the audience aloud by a festival programmer.
Now the festival-goers being the savvy bunch that they are, they quickly started making fun of such lunacy. The still frame and announced introduction are almost always met with calls of “ARRRRGGGHHH!!” by the audience – a trend that began with the always-feisty Midnight Madness patrons.
But here’s what I don’t think TIFF gets – furthermore I know the studios don’t get this. 99.9% of the people attending The Toronto International Film Festival wouldn’t even conceive of pirating a film. These are people who care about movies so much, that they endure long lines, unpredictable weather, a gauntlet of an ordering process, and huge crowds for the pure joy of cinema. They have paid premium prices to see these movies – the last thing 99.9% of them want to do is share it with the world for free.
Even if that 0.01% tried to rip something off – the audiences TIFF is drawing have started getting their back up over other people in the crowd texting during a film. What do you think the reaction would be if someone saw their neighbour actually recording the movie? We holler “ARRRGGHH!!” because we think it’s funny – but also because of the complete absurdity of the warning.
Why am I bringing all of this up? Because today, during my screening of FIFTY DEAD MEN WALKING- a movie that no reasonable person would pirate -my experience was interrupted by a volunteer silently and inexplicably sifting around the side of my aisle seat, and even around my feet. Apparently the security guard to my right “Thought he picked up something on his sensor”.
Dear TIFF – Your anti-piracy measures are overkill to the point of ridicule. Smarten up stop harassing your patrons.
Do they actually have night-vision goggles? This is ridiculous.