Mobile apps for the fest: iPhone, Android and BlackBerry

Official app (BlackBerry only)

Since BlackBerry is a major sponsor of the Toronto International Film Festival, there is an official application available free:

• "tiff.fest.app" from Blackberry App World

News app (Android only)

Canada's largest national newspaper The Globe & Mail has launched their own app for the festival, feeding articles, photos, and reviews to your phone.

• "Globe TIFF" from the Globe & Mail.
  

Mobile website (iPhone/Android/BlackBerry)

Last year we announced an early-alpha release of a web-based mobile application that was designed to work with all mobile telephones — for free.

This year, the open beta release features a better layout with images for each film — in addition to synopsis, film details, and schedule information.

• just visit...
  TOfilmfest.ca/TIFFwidget
  from any mobile phone browser
  
  
  

See you at the fest!
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Sat.02/Oct: Nuit Blanche film-fest events

Toronto's annual sunset-to-sunrise contemporary art celebration Nuit Blanche returns this Saturday (October 2nd, 2010), with a number of film-fest related events:

• The Essential Cinema
  
  The 100 films that represent the "best" and the "most influential" works of all time – filling a gallery with iconic objects, images and video clips that mark these achievements and their ripple-effect through the history of cinema and world culture.
  Two of Canada's greatest living filmmakers contribute new media art projects that dig deeper. Atom Egoyan explores the unusual relationship between the viewer and the screen with 8 ½ Screens, while Guy Maddin's Hauntings I and Hauntings II re-imagines the lost work of master filmmakers to produce the ghosts of cinema's past.
  
  
• Arcadian Renaissance
  
  Remember the days of darkened arcades, bleeps and bloops in the dark? Remember being wrapped in a cocoon of sound and light, transported to another reality with a button under one hand and a joystick in the other? For some, it was a cultural blip. For others, utterly formative. The Indie games community is made up of the latter.
  
  Working solo or in tiny teams with an experimental and creatively singular approach, artists make the simple and engaging games that turned them on to the potential of a medium. For Nuit Blanche, the videogame culture collective Hand Eye Society is presenting several new arcade-style games by Toronto gamemakers in the classic stand-up arcade cabinet context they were meant to be played. For one night, regain the lost feeling of what it felt like to play games in public, without losing any quarters.
  
  Here are the games presented (click for info/download):
  
  
  
  
  And, here's a video, from the exhibit, at Lightbox:
  
  
  
  
• A Girl and a Camera /
  A Girl and a Gun
  
  SUNSET TO 1:00AM: The first female director, producer and studio owner, cinema pioneer Alice Guy Blaché's keen sense of storytelling helped the cinema evolve from documentary actualités into an intricate narrative art form. The films on display also demonstrate her pioneering broaching of sexual and political issues and her remarkable formal experimentation.
  AFTER 1:00AM: The Toronto premiere of Austrian montage master Gustav Deutsch's "Film Ist: A Girl and a Gun", compiling archival footage from the first four decades of film history into a carnal celebration of the quasi-supernatural energy of erotic desire and a dark rumination on the battle of the sexes, set to a spectral score by electronic icons Christian Fennesz, Martin Siewert and Burkhard Stangl.
  [Mature content, suitable for audiences 18+]
  
  
• Singin' in the Dark
  
  The tunes you remember, from the movies you can’t forget.
  7:00PM-MIDNIGHT: Join us and a special on-stage host for a riotous sing-along featuring hit tunes from movie musicals. [Suitable for all ages.]
  AFTER MIDNIGHT: As the night gets later, the movies get darker and the songs get... surprising! [Suggested for mature audiences.]
  
  
  
  
• Grindbox!
  
  A tribute to the beloved American institution of the grindhouse – a term for theatres that mainly showed exploitation films, named after the defunct burlesque theaters located on New York City's 42nd Street where "bump n' grind" dancing and striptease were featured – this presentation of vintage trailers for horror and exploitation films from around the world is a cinematic celebration of the weird, the wild and the wonderful, balanced on the border between art and trash. Curated by Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes.
  [Mature content, suitable for audiences 18+]
  

Night Navigator App
Take your mobile phone with you!

Download the Night Navigator App for Android
("Scotiabank Night Navigator" at the Android Market)
Download the Night Navigator App for BlackBerry
("Scotiabank Night Navigator" at BlackBerry App World)
Download the Night Navigator App for iPhone
("Scotiabank Night Navigator" at the App Store)

ScotiabankNuitBlanche.ca has a home page designed for mobile phones at ScotiabankNuitBlanche.ca/home_m.shtml

See you at Nuit Blanche! ;-)
#TOfilmfest

Tale of three schedules

Shortly after the complete official film festival schedule was released, we provided some advice on scheduling your films.

In preparation for our first film of the festival tomorrow, we tried three different online tools for creating a personalized printed schedule:

• tiff.net
  1. click Login|Register
  2. click Register Now
  3. enter Email, Name, Password
  4. click Register
  5. browse films by title, or date
     
  6. click Add to mySchedule (next to any film screening time)
  7. click mySchedule, to view your schedule
  8. click Export your schedule, to save a .CSV file
     — no way to print, or share, your schedule... :-(


• tiffr
  1. click join tiffr
  2. enter username, email, password
  3. click join tiffr again
  4. there are no films listed on the website,
     instead you must install a 'bookmarklet'
     on your browser's bookmark toolbar
  5. then, browse the official website for a film, and
     
  6. click the Shortlist on tiffr 'bookmarklet' button
     – while viewing the official website for the film
  7. click shortlist to see your list of shortlisted films
  8. click schedule to view schedule (now empty)
     
  9. click view festival planner to see screenings
  10. click ADD on screening to add to schedule
  11. click again on schedule to view schedule
  12. print, share, or export to Apple's iCal
      — no way to export to Google calendar... :-/


• tiffReviews
  1. first, visit google.com/calendar
  2. if you have a Google account, enter your email & password; if not, click Create an account (free)
     
  3. next, visit tiffReviews.com
  4. click FILM LIST (no need to login)
     
  5. browse films by title
     
  6. click Google calendar button beside screening time
  7. click Save in Google calendar
  8. print, or share, using Google calendar,
     — also works with Apple's iCal, too... :-)
     

Since the official film festival website is often unreachable during critical times of film selection and scheduling — both tiff.net's and tiffr's online tools cannot be recommended. Using tiffReview's schedule links – which work well with iPhones (iCal), and Android phones (Google Calendar) – seems the only reliable choice.

Pick the best of the fest!
TOfilmfest
#TIFF10

PS. individual tickets for the film fest are still available!

• Online (Visa only)
• By Phone, 7am-7pm
  at 416-968-3456 (or, 877-968-3456)
• Box-office, King+Peter, 7am-7pm

Film fest apps for mobile phones

Official App
(Blackberry only)

Early last month, the Toronto International Film Festival announced that the official mobile phone application would be exclusive to Blackberry, a major sponsor.

• the official "tiff.app" is still available
  from Blackberry App World

Visa Insider App
(not for iPhone yet)

Today, Visa, another film fest sponsor, announced their own "insider app" for cardholders.

• Android mobile device – find it at market.Android.com
  – or click com.simplygood.visa
  
• Blackberry phone – download from POIfriend
  

Grand Tour Toronto
(purchase for iPhone only)

Also, a travel tool for visitors to Toronto, has come to our attention:

• "Grand Tour Toronto"
  available for $1.99 on Apple iTunes
  
  

TIFFwidget (free, works with all phones)

Finally, just a reminder: late last month, we announced an early-alpha release of a web-based mobile application that is optimized for Apple's iPhone, but designed to work with all mobile telephones – for free.

• just visit...
  TOfilmfest.ca/TIFFwidget
  from any mobile phone browser
  

Pick the best of the fest!
TOfilmfest
#TIFF10

PS.

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• Follow us on twitter.com/TOfilmfest
• Find us on facebook.com/TOfilmfest (click 'Like' to get updates)
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Film festival mobile phone website (alpha version)

The future is free.
TOfilmfest was specifically built on free software, back in 2005.
In fact, it was free advice that led to the website's re-design, and to various venues and sponsors who helped promote it.

This year, with increasing traffic costs, some small advertisements were added – to keep TOfilmfest free.

So, when the film festival announced it's mobile app would only be available for BlackBerry (a major sponsor), we wished for a free solution for all users of mobile devices.

Information wants to be free, so our database is available to other developers for collaboration on new projects.

Today, a new project is ready for testing!

TOfilmfest.ca/TIFFwidget
“a web-based app, optimized for iPhone – but should work with Android”

Since this project is considered an alpha version, it's announcement is being limited to this blog. Please do not spread the word just yet! It's being made available for those participating in the Advance Order process on Monday, August 30th.

A disclaimer from the developer:

IMPORTANT: Screening times listed are NOT official. There should be a high degree of accuracy, but the schedule can change at any time and this page is NOT maintained in real time. Use this form ONLY as a preliminary planning tool and be SURE to double-check a chosen movie’s screening times via the TIFF button.

Unfortunately short films are not included in the data.

Any feedback is welcome and appreciated!

We look forward to future versions of TIFFwidget to bring all the functionality of TOfilmfest to all mobile devices! :-)

Pick the best of the fest!
#TOfilmfest