{"id":117707,"date":"2025-09-19T14:14:35","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T18:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=117707"},"modified":"2025-09-22T16:25:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T20:25:34","slug":"report-unsung-heroes-tv-film-werent-forgotten-tiff-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/09\/19\/report-unsung-heroes-tv-film-werent-forgotten-tiff-week\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT | The Unsung Heroes Of TV & Film Weren\u2019t Forgotten During TIFF Week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L:
L: Photographer Neil-Anthony Watson (Photo courtesy of the artist); R: Portrait by Neil-Anthony Watson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Toronto International Film Festival is 11 days of films, stars, and celebrities throughout downtown, including, of course, legendary parties to celebrate the talent. At least two events, though, looked to draw a little more attention to the unsung and lesser known heroes of the television and movie worlds.<\/p>\n

During the festival\u2019s second week, Behind the Camera House<\/a> hosted an event at Mascot Brewery, on King Street West right in the heart of TIFF 2025. Co-hosts included \u2014 and embodied the kinds of professions being celebrated \u2014 publicist Andrew Seth Cohen<\/strong> of Impact24 PR, Chris Bridges<\/strong>, the Special Makeup Effects Department Head, Prosthetic Designer, and Makeup Artist on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, composers Dillon Baldassero<\/strong> (Davey & Jonesie\u2019s Locker), Erica Procunier<\/strong> (Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go), Thilo Schaller<\/strong> (Il Doge: A Portrait of Redemption), and Tom Third<\/strong> (Modern Whore), and assorted actors, producers and writers.<\/p>\n

Networking is crucial in the film and TV businesses (it really is about who you know), and events like the meet up boost your professional profile as well as your professional ego.<\/p>\n

\"Images
Images from the Coming Home: A TIFF Portrait Studio & Activation Celebrating the Unsung Heroes of Film (Photos courtesy of Coming Home)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the first TIFF weekend, Coming Home: A TIFF Portrait Studio & Activation Celebrating the Unsung Heroes of Film was an event to do just that. It celebrated Canadian creativity with not only portraits and cocktails, but Canadian and local companies and products.<\/p>\n

The space, a pop-up location at 45 Ossington, was transformed into a \u201ctypical\u201d (read: upscale) Toronto apartment for the theme of \u201ccoming home\u201d, with contributions from Whence Furniture, Sassa Fras (fragrance), and Mitsu (floral design), plus over 35 pieces of art, curated by Andrea Gelinas. Gelinas is a Toronto-based dentist and designer whose dental studio is renowned as a welcoming, art-filled environment. Every detail used the event was Canadian, and if possible locally, sourced.<\/p>\n

Photographer and art director Neil-Anthony Watson<\/strong> was a co-host, and he captured portraits of some of the attendees. He generally works with film rather than digital photography.<\/p>\n

“There’s an arresting quality with film that you can never get with digital,” he says. Over his career, Watson says that he works with TV and film projects routinely, along with other major clients. “The thing that I specialize in is taste,” he explains.<\/p>\n

He’s lived all over the world in pursuit of photography, including spending a decade as an art director. “I never really developed by own point of view,” he says. “What’s the throughline? It’s just my taste. I’m doing my best to put it into practice.”<\/p>\n

He contrasts photography with drawing and visual art. “Photography is not as subjective as drawing,” he says. “You can’t lie.”<\/p>\n

Last year at TIFF, he photographed the AAA+ list crowd for Variety and Chanel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had maybe a minute to two minutes,\u201d he recalls. That was the amount of time he had for each celebrity shoot.<\/p>\n

This year, he wanted to do more for the people who aren\u2019t on that AAA list, with a focus on Canadian emerging artists. He partnered with Coming Home Founder & CEO Tabitha Vallerie to create a relaxed and intimate portrait studio. It resulted in an entirely different experience both for him and his portrait subjects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose were real conversations,\u201d he say. \u201cI got to meet people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He slowed the shoots down from a minute or so to 20 minutes for each person. He wanted them to feel at home, and relax, and feel appreciated. The results show in the intimate and relaxed portraits displayed at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cTIFF shines a global spotlight on film, but Coming Home is about celebrating the community that makes cinema possible \u2014 the people whose names may not appear above the title, but whose artistry defines what we see on screen,\u201d said Tabitha Vallierie\u00a0<\/b><\/strong>, Founder & CEO of Coming Home in a statement.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s to the many, many people behind the scenes, the lesser known and the unsung, for all they do to keep us entertained and enlightened.<\/p>\n

Are you looking to promote an event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? Have a\u00a0news tip<\/u><\/a>? Need to know the best\u00a0events<\/u><\/a>\u00a0happening this weekend? Send us a\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>note<\/u>.<\/em><\/strong>
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Two events during the Toronto International Film Festival looked to draw a little more attention to the unsung and lesser known heroes of the television and movie worlds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":117717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41660,4967,41496,23,42281,63],"tags":[42282,3311,30394],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Copy-of-Copy-of-INTERVIEW-14.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-uCv","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117707"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117788,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117707\/revisions\/117788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117707"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=117707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}