Evans Above

First Tribeca, now Toronto: Starbucks is providing free coffee to journos, who usually take the stuff by IV drip. By mentioning this, I have done what they hoped to achieve and become a cog in their marketing machine. I think I should at least get a coupon…hint, hint.

Lemme get this straight…

Multilateral talks are taking place with the wackos on North Korea. There’s a policy debate on whether more troops should be sent to Iraq. The shuttle report came out yesterday.

So CNN is devoting live breaking news coverage to a bunch of people protesting the removal of a Ten Commandments monument in Alabama?

Let me double check…nope, it is 2003. Must be a slow news day.

There’s an old military axiom that says, “No battle plan survives its first contact with the enemy.”

Certain things are in place:

• You have intelligence on the people you face.
• You know approximately where they’ll be and when they’ll be there.
• Your prioritize your targets.
• You allocate your resources.

Every year, a week before the festival, thousands of festivalgoers line up outside the box office to buy the 400+ page guide and pick up the magazine that lists all the screenings. The “civilians” then head off to the nearest coffee shop to plan their first and second choices for every screening they want to attend, as they prepare to submit their ticket orders.

My strategy is different. I need to prepare a schedule for ten 18+ hour work days. I’m not armed with all the info I need yet, as the press conference and press screening list isn’t released until the day before the festival starts. Until then, I scour the public screening schedule looking for all the red carpet photo ops that I and my other photographer will need to attend.

As I sit there, I realize that two people can’t be in four places at the same time. You have to prioritize. They didn’t mention that so-and-so is attending, but they really need the publicity boost so maybe they will stroll carpet? Do I shoot this 6:45 screening with this veteran performer or do I go out of my way by 7 to shoot this unknown with the buzz? Or do we both shoot elsewhere and hope that we finish in time to be somewhere else?

The battle plan starts to take shape, but will it survive its first contact with the celebrity?

The folks over at TV Barn ponder the question “Why was blackout coverage so New York-centric?”

Arnie’s running. Check out the poll.

The 28th Toronto International Film Festival is now just 29 days away…

Wow. Time does fly.

I really, really hate spam mail.

Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.

I spend too much of my day deleting it.

Argh!

Music channel MuchMoreMusic said they’d be providing 11 hours of live coverage for today’s massive Toronto concert featuring the Rolling Stones.

Obviously the various bands involved must have some bizarre broadcast restrictions because so far MMM has mostly shown videos of the people performing today along with a few snippets of interviews with the 400,000 plus fans attending the show.

Apparently the big two hour simulcast tonight with CBC will just feature a song or two from the various bands and only a handful of tunes from Mick and the boys.

This just in…

Watching the start of Inside Edition…Deborah Norville says, “We have some breaking news…let’s go to the newsroom.” They head off to a story on the rape case against NBA star Kobe Bryant.

Breaking news happens all the time on news networks like CNN. But Inside Edition is a pre-taped, syndicated show that appears several times a day on different channels. So it’s a cheap gimmick to say the news is “breaking” and head to the newsroom like their regular show has been interrupted.

I always thought Nicholson was everywhere.