MIC Views

Being introduced to something new isn’t always the easiest, but you have to fake it till you make. That’s exactly what my intern partner Yasmine Mathurin, MIC Views Intern Blogger and I did at the Toronto International Film Festival Canadian Press Conference for TIFF’16 on August 3rd. It was our first press conference of its kind and for myself the prestige that came with attending was certainly felt.

I haven’t done anything related media to this extent. I’ve been to CBC and got to meet news anchors, went to CP24 and got a tour of the newsrooms and the old MuchMusic. But going to a legitimate Press Conference and being called “media while surrounded by big media companies like eTalk, CBC and CityNews was a pretty cool feeling! And just a great opportunity to have. I can now say I have some experience in capturing a press conference.

I also realized how small the Toronto film world is because I saw my university friend Dylan Authors walk the red carpet for a the film that he is in called   “Weirdos” – Dir Bruce McDonald. Dylan has never been to a TIFF Press Conference and it was his first time experiencing a swamp of media wanting his picture and an interview.

Let me back-up and introduce myself – Hello TIFF 16, I’m Cherise Solomon, a 3rd year New Media student at Ryerson University, a professional dancer, actor, and part time retail sales associate and now a MIC’16 Social Media Intern.

Still from my video Dance + Water  self-created for a school project. (2015)

My RU program explores new forms of media such as robotics, augmented reality, 3D printing, coding and storytelling across multiple platforms. It’s a pretty interesting program filled with many quirky individuals that are media enthusiast like myself. Half of us honestly don’t know what sector of media we want to be our focus, I therefore take every opportunity to gain as much media experience whenever I get the chance, which is why I took this internship position as a social media intern at Made In Canada for MIC Views online platforms. The perk of getting an inclusive access pass to the TIFF festival made me want to come on board even more! I also wanted to get the full experience of the film world to see if this is media sector I’m interested in. I see my future doing different jobs and roles, not sticking to one thing my entire life. I don’t mind change and I don’t want to get bored. Who does

Although I am pretty good at time management and planning my weeks ahead you never when life decides to intervene. I do look forward to contributing to MIC and using my social media skills to make that happen, and I am especially stoked to meet new people in the TIFF world and capture some Red-Carpet moments! Most of all this internship will give me an extra push to get more field related jobs within media.

The conference was short and to the point. 63 films are in the festival, 37 of those films have a Canadian director. The Rising Stars (Jared Abrahamson, Grace Glowicki, Mylène Mackay and Sophie Nélisse) are new talents to look out for in the industry. Made in Canada encourages Canadian audiences to watch more Canadian made content. Most Canadians, even myself are consumed by American content. We often say that Canadian made TV shows or movies aren’t very good but how much Canadian content have we viewed to compare? I probably have seen at least 5-10 Canadian films, and I saw them in elementary school and university, not on my own time.

During TIFF’16 MIC Views will be your gateway, yours and mine, to finding Canadian content at the Festival lets all see a few before they disappear – It’s up to us Canadians to really support our peers work and talent. I’m excited and looking forward to participating in TIFF”16 activities and seeing multiple films in the festival, industry panels and events. I hope you are ready to see what we capture and post on all of our MIC Views platforms!