Denver Film Festival - Random thoughts at the halfway point.

We are halfway through the Starz Denver Film Festival and as usual there are some terrific films being screened. Many of them, I have noted here.

But a couple of other things have struck me.

First it appears to me that attendance is down. I don’t have anything other than my own observation to base that on, but it just seems that the theaters are not as crowed, there are fewer necessary queues’, and certainly at the Big Night screening there were a number of empty seats on the main floor.

Given the state of the economy, it would not necessarily be a surprise if attendance at any discretionary entertainment event is down. We will see after the festival when actual attendance is reported, whether my perception is accurate.

Second, I miss the ongoing screening of a sponsorship film.

In years past, a clever film noting all the key sponsors of the festival was shown before every screening. Not only has that been missing from all the screening this year, the one that was produced and screened prior to the Big Night film was so lame it was painful to watch (maybe that is why it has only been shown once, to date).

Equally lame is the Magic Cyclops pieces that appear to have replaced the sponsorship film before each screening. With perhaps one exception, all the ones I have not only not been funny, they have not been anything. Moreover, one of them probably has a number of film copyright owners pulling their collective hair out. It suggests that moviegoers bring their own video cameras to the theater and tape what they see for later viewing – so they don’t miss anything. I know it was done in jest – and no one will really believe that the idea was serious - but the humor was so lame, it didn’t really read.

Okay, enough negatives.

Logistically, I think the festival has handled things well. The one time I was involved in a queue, staff handled moving the audience from the queuing location to the theater smoothly and fairly. In the past those logistics have devolved into a mob scene, with little or no order. Well done this year. Also, the addition of a public address system in the court yard has improved (and saved staff voices) the ability to inform patrons of information.