Yep, that time again, my kinderoons o' the screen. Freezing queues and watery coffee, sniffles, sore throats and viral sleep-ins, narcissistic oafs who fail to distinguish the difference between their own lounge rooms and public spaces, but CINEMA the great and powerful for two fat weeks!
The app came down smoothly, replacing the old one while I slumbered. Before that, the program was published online days before it was open for bookings and sales for the likes of me (i.e. non-members). Nevertheless, I could still create a wishlist and had several mini-passes worth of sessions so filling out the ten plus three was a matter for elimination. If that process bores you, please skip the next paragraph.
The way I do it works but it depends on you having time off during the day. A mini-pass is ten tickets plus three weekday morning to afternoon sessions. I pick everything I really want to see and add all sessions for each title to the wishlist. Then, I comb through again and pick off anything that suits less than others. This could be time of day (avoiding weekends where possible) or preferred venue but it speeds up the process. Also, as I dislike overcrowded sessions, I will choose against anything in the selling fast/standby list. Sometimes this means I miss out on films that don't get a subsequent release but that's life. In the end I have thirteen films hopefully good and true with plenty of gaps for the inevitable extra tickets.
I was able to make all these decisions from the website alone. There are some awkward aspects to the navigation on the site, especially when you are trying to use the calendar (returning from a date later than the opening day stays there regardless of what you choose in the drop down so you have to reload the page to use it again). But you can get through to films you might like by following the curated themes in the sidebar, before going deeper and looking around for the more obscure stuff that I like to include in any minipass (the stuff, in other words, that is too low for local cinema release, video on demand or that other way of looking). It took a few sessions over a couple of nights (that long mainly because the week at work was busy and I was coming home exhausted) but I had a very neat selection on the ol' pass and no double screen days.
Good to see the Capitol is back among the venues. It's the home away from ACMI while that gets refurbished and I couldn't be happier at its reappearance. There's one screening at the Exhibition Centre. I've only been there for conferences but the auditoriums are pretty spacey. Also, the Sofitel. I've been to a screening there once and it was fine (not, the Kino, btw, which is also in the extended Sofitel complex). From the first screening I ever went to at the Forum in the late '90s (Wisconsin Death Trip on a Sunday morning) I have felt compelled to revisit and, if it's possible, I like to see my final MIFF film there. That will be the case this time, too.
There's a fair bit of work to do before the festival and my holidays start so, I'll close off here and report with reviews as I see the flicks in the coming weeks. Longer reviews here and potted ones on letterboxd . And then I'll take a week off to catch up on normal releases without crowds, and kick back. Oh, and I'll put a Winter Part 2 Shadows season up with a trailer sometime in the next week.
Till then, see you at MIFF.
No comments:
Post a Comment