Tribeca: Journalist Perspective - Final

As part of my exclusive behind the scenes of the Tribeca Film Festival, I spoke with Andrea Tuccillo, a film critic and staff writer from TheCinemaSource.com. Andrea gave me the story of what it's like to cover Tribeca from the journalist's point of view.

She said that her editor made most of the decisions as to what movies and premieres the site would be covering. He chose mostly movies that had well-known actors in them because he felt like those would be the movies that TheCinemaSource.com reader would want to know more about. The editor then assigned Andrea a group of premieres that he wanted her to cover.

Andrea's job was to work the red carpet at the premieres. She had to stand amongst all of the other journalists and wait for the actors and filmmakers to come down the line and, hopefully, to stop and talk with her for a few minutes. This wasn't always easy; in some instances the celebrities were rushed into the theater before they reached her.

Another bump in the road was at the Tribeca All Access Awards, where there were some minor celebrities walking the red carpet; however, Andrea was unsure who many of them were. In this case, Andrea picked a few people whose names sounded a little familiar, like Joy Bryant, and improvised some questions. With one actor she even discovered that he was joining the cast of one of her favorite TV shows!

Andrea preferred to think on her feet and to make up her questions on the spot, instead of having a list prepared. She was forced to ask general questions, since she was only covering the red carpet and not staying for the actual screening of the movie. One example of Andrea's interviewing strategy can be seen in her red carpet interview of Tom Kalin, the director of Savage Grace, a drama about the downward spiral of a '60s socialite. She asks Kalin how he got involved in the film and how he felt premiering it at the Tribeca Film Festival.

"Working the red carpet at a film premiere can be a little daunting at first, but I can already see that with a few more under my belt, they will become old hat. I've learned that in order to succeed on the carpet, you need to be confident and assertive. You have to be able to come up with intelligent questions, even if you do so on the spot!" Andrea told me.

Click here to see a video of Andrea at the Savage Grace premiere.

Here's my own video interview with Andrea Tuccillo of TheCinemaSource.com.