Creating the TIFF Digital Studio
Beginning in late 2013, the Toronto International Film Festival underwent a major digital transformation. The TIFF Digital Studio started as a pitch to the organization to lean into original digital content; in the five years I was with the organization, the team I was a central part of – and eventually led – created and shared work that I am still extremely proud of, and in the process built a massive global community of film lovers.
Film is for lovers.
A passion for cinema is a powerful thing – and the TIFF Digital Studio, a dedicated team of producers, writers, web developers, video editors and social media experts, was able to harness that passion in large part because every one of us felt the same way about movies as our audience does.
Our multidisciplinary team created original content, designed and built digital platforms, and crafted the visual identity and aesthetic for TIFF. The core insight was that film lovers were hungry for experiences – digital and otherwise – that spoke their language, and did so in a way that felt as cinematic as the films they love.
Original Video Our in-house video team created original video essays, portraits and interviews, as well as capturing all on-stage events at TIFF year-round.
Social The social team created a voice and aesthetic that connected deeply with film fans, and grew our audience exponentially (engagement rates rose 1,800% in two years, and our cross-channel following leapt by more than 200%).
Written Editorial We created The Review, a weekly newsletter and online hub for great writing, video and audio content.
Web Design and Dev Our in-house design and dev team rethought the TIFF digital experience from the ground up, constantly iterating to improve UX and UI.
Podcast Network We developed the TIFF Podcast Network, a series of shows that looked at film from various perspectives. TIFF Long Take, a show that I conceptualized and executive produced, won NOW Toronto’s Readers’ Choice Podcast of the Year in 2017 and regularly hit the top of the TV & Movies chart on Apple Podcasts.
Studio 9 During the September Festival, we created TIFF Studio 9, a small room on the fifth floor of the TIFF Bell Lightbox that played host to some of the world’s most talented and well-known actors and filmmakers, as well as many who deserve to be better known.
Official Portrait Studio We created the TIFF Official Portrait Studio both as a way for our audience to get a more intimate look at filmmakers and actors in attendance, and as a way to create valuable partnerships with companies like Apple and Huawei.
Live Coverage During the September Festival, the Studio aimed to make as many moments as we could available to our global audience, with red carpet live shows, streams of our press conferences and on-stage events, and original daily live shows. We were honoured with a Webbys nomination in 2018 for our work.
Graphic Design The Studio handled the design of all TIFF branding, publications, collateral and marketing, introducing an aesthetic that was unique to TIFF and as cinematic as the films we showed.
In addition to our ongoing work, we regularly initiated special projects to deepen the audience’s involvement with the TIFF brand. Here are just a few:
POP 01, 02 + 03 In the summer of 2016, the TIFF Digital Studio curated and built a three-instance series of virtual reality showcases at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in downtown Toronto. Over the course of three separate three-day exhibitions, we completely transformed our large gallery space into a celebration of the latest and best work in VR, partnering with our friends at The Verge and hosting three panel discussions with VR creators.
TIFF x Instagram Shorts Festival Film is not a medium that can or should be constrained to the big screen. In partnership with Instagram, we put the call out to filmmakers all around the world to enter their short films – 60 seconds or less – into our digital festival. The films we received (from more than 50 countries) were brilliant, beautiful, hilarious, miraculous. And the stories behind them were even better.
Facebook Live Announcement Short Film To celebrate the launch of our Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival, we did something that we’d never seen before: we shot an original short film – live on Facebook. The realtime broadcast featured Canadian celebrities Rick Mercer and Sarah Gadon as well as a taxidermy fox and a horse-head mask. It was weird. It was great.
The volume of work the TIFF Digital Studio team created is astonishing, and so is the awesomeness of that work. But I believe the most exceptional thing about what we did is our unwavering focus on a single strategy, expressed across thousands of individual executions: We made things that people who love film would love. And the results are undeniable.
We were recognized by the Webbys in 2018 in three categories – we were honourees for our social media and nominated for both our TIFF x Instagram Shorts Festival and our live coverage of the Festival.
We created a massive and deeply engaged audience across our digital channels, inviting people in Toronto and across the planet to share our love of film and give us their time and attention.
