VIFF opening gala

So I had a blast projecting visuals at the Vancouver International Film Festival opening gala.

The party was at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Georgia in the main ballroom. This picture is Cathy Falkner with Sandy Buck. Sandy planned the whole event which is an insanely big job. Cathy was helping do the decoration on the night.

In the background you can see my visuals! They were on two giant odd-shaped fabric backdrops on either side of the band, plus one little projection on the escalator outside the ballroom. It was fantabulous, in my opinion.

The worst thing about this gig was having to look at this dog over and over again. Especially when it was blown up twenty feet high at the party. It’s the cover of the 3rd VIFF guide and hoooo boy, it’s as bad aesthetically as Alan Franey’s hair inside the book (thankfully I didn’t have to scan that).

The first VIFF guide, I learned, was actually a RIDGE theatre guide which simply got filled up by the first fest. An odd sight to see. As you can see, by #3 they had added the Vancouver East Cinema and then soon after that added the Hollywood.

The Gala lacked Sushi but I’m sure there’ll be plenty floating around VIFF.

Suzanne Ward helped me install and hang the projectors, which resulted in no Telefilm executives being crushed by falling hot DVD players. My past weeks’ nightmares concerning such scenarios are over.

Here’s Suzanne and Cathy looking fab.

Reg and I did the Critical Mass ride on Friday. It was great fun riding around downtown Vancouver blocking traffic and generally promoting the end of automobiles. There were naked lesbians, as is par for the Critical Mass course, and surprisingly, even when those folks weren’t in sight, the drivers we blocked seemed generally supportive. Maybe they thought it was a parade or something.

We did happen to bike past the Telefilm Party at the Vancouver Film Centre, which was hilarious. We screamed “MONKEY WARFARE!” at Wayne Clarkson, the head of Telefilm Canada. He smiled broadly back at the streaming godless hordes on their anarcho-cycles and easily spotted the gigantic Reg who’d been shouting at him.

Neither Reg nor I made it to the Anza for the likely screening of clips from Monkey Warfare. As of this date I’ve not heard if they actually showed or not; hopefully they weren’t cheesed off that the DVD’s arrived without us.

I tell you this though – I’m gonna do critical mass every month. It was amazingly fun.