The red carpet is taped down at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto as final preparations are made for the opening gala at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

By Jonathan Doyle, citizen contributor

I've been going to TIFF since the mid-'90s, which means I've experienced the festival from several different vantage points. My earliest TIFF experiences were poorly organized, last-minute efforts to see films when I was in high school.

Unfortunately, most of these efforts ended in failure and questions like, "Who knew Wong Kar-wai was so popular?" (Back then, it wasn't so obvious).

The next step in my TIFF development was the journalist phase. Not everyone gets to experience TIFF as a journalist, but I highly recommend trying it some time if you get the chance. For one, it's always interesting to eavesdrop on the early, verbal assessments of other critics, some of which differ quite dramatically from what ends up in print. Writing about the festival also gave me my most eclectic film-going experiences at TIFF, which is a nice way of saying that these years were plagued by far too many regrettable screening choices. As a journalist, you sometimes have to put aside personal taste and watch whatever it is you think your readership wants to read about.

This led me to many a questionable selection, but it also helped fine-tune my sense of what constitutes a lesser TIFF title. At this point, my radar is sufficiently refined that I rarely see any outright disappointments. Unfortunately, this also means I probably miss out on some pleasant surprises.

My next TIFF phase was several years spent working for the festival. This yielded many memorable experiences, but it also came with its own set of compromises. You'd think that working for the festival would be the optimal way to experience TIFF, but I've always found the opposite to be true. As an employee, I rarely managed to see more than two or three movies a day, if that. Sure, I got to hear and participate in all kinds of strange behind-the-scenes gossip, but I also wound up spending most of the festival working. Freed from the daily responsibilities of a job, it's quite possible to see five or even six movies a day.

The best part? There really are enough worthwhile films to sustain that level of binge moviegoing.

Which brings me to my present phase: the semi-enlightened festival veteran. All this really means is I know what films I really need to see and I know how to see them. This may not seem like much, but getting to this point took years of practice. My movie total will be lower this year (mid-30s) than it was at its peak (mid-40s), but that just means I'll have more time to experience and blog about the world around the festival. If day one was any indication, there should be plenty to write about.

You can follow Jonathan throughout #TIFF10 on Twitter at @media_party