With his crazy-distinctive voice and quirky personality, it turns out that Jay Baruchel is as compelling in person as he is on screen.

The Montreal-based actor and writer appeared in Whistler last night to receive a tribute for his contributions to Canadian cinema.

In an intimate conversation in front of a rapt audience, the star of 2009’s The Trotsky and co-writer of 2011 TIFF selection Goon, waxed on everything from the strangeness of having your work friends being the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black on Tropic Thunder (“Morning guys!”), to wondering if Clint Eastwood’s on-set silence meant he liked or hated his work Million Dollar Baby. (He liked it.)

When asked about working with Judd Apatow and his famous, improv-heavy sets, the actor/writer said there’s always a time and place for improv, but that it has to be handled carefully.

“An actors sole job is to service the story. In comedy and in drama, the improv aspect of it is looking for these tiny moments that you can make something out of that maybe wasn’t on paper and nobody could have predicted… I call it the shaping between the lines, the nuances. It should step on any of the fundamentals, it shouldn’t step on any of the people that you’re doing it with, and at the end of the day, if it doesn’t help the scene or the story, it should be irrelevant.”

Working with an ensemble cast with improv can be challenging, he said.

“Sometimes it’s a pissing contest and sometimes it’s a team effort,” he said. [A pissing contest] yields amazing results, but I’m a firm believer that happier people that are connected with each other and in league with one another are more productive, creative and efficient.”

The tribute was part of an action-packed lineup at the festival, toplined by amazing conditions on the slopes and a schedule packed with parties and presentations.

Playback caught some turns in the morning and then kicked off the festival day with the festival’s keynote luncheon, sponsored by Telefilm Canada and featuring Variety features editor David Cohen.

Cohen discussed the state of film today and how he’s seen it change over his tenure at Variety and in the entertainment business prior to that.

Ruminating on technology and the effect it’s had on both filmmaking and distribution, he focused on how both have affected modern movie themes and content.

Saying that there’s been a “proliferation of soulless corporate product” in recent Hollywood film, he reflected that “movies have come to resemble what TV used to look like – aimed at very broad audience.”

But despite Hollywood’s efforts to reach the masses with Transformers and broad comedies, he pointed out that the irony is that fewer people are going to the movies overall. “People getting out of the habit of going to the movies, despite movies being made for mass consumption,” he said. (Which sparked a charmingly curmudgeonly conversation at Playback‘s table about how it’s not the movies keeping people away but the fact that today’s audiences are often so busy texting and talking during films that it’s more relaxing to just watch them at home.)

A few hours later, it was off to the party circuit, catching up with Canadian filmmakers, producers and regional commissioners at the BC Film and Television party at Nita Lake Lodge in Whistler – stay tuned for our in-party Q&A with Vancouver-based producer Liz Levine of Random Bench Productions about her packed slate – followed by the Jay Baruchel tribute and topping it off with the Variety, Canadian Film Centre and Juli Entertainment party at Bearfoot Bistro in the Listel hotel.

There, we caught up with Edwin Boyd director and writer Nathan Morlando and his lovely wife, and Edwin Boyd producer, Allison Black, the CFC’s Tamara MacKeigan and Slawko Klymkiw, former CFC’er and current Emily Carr executive director of communications Barry Patterson and Bridge Studios’ Ron Hrynuik, who was over the moon about the amount of production in Vancouver right now.