The Monkees

I'm thinking about adding the run time of each movie I watch to my list this time around. I normally don't. But why the hell not?

This is a slight sore spot for me. I understand where you are coming from, but technically most of the things we watch, or at least what I can see are DVDs. It's a sore spot because I run the Holiday Challenge in November/December every year and I think it was the 2nd year we did it, both of the threads were moved from DVDTalk to MovieTalk and that was the only challenge that was moved and it was irritating. But whatever.

caligulathegod

I always thought these should be in Movie Talk.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I think so too but I never go there so I'd miss them. I don't mind them here.

Travis McClain

Disclaimer: I merely posited the idea of going by running time and not movie count; I am not trying to execute a coup!

I disagree that "logging running times misses the whole point." Whether we're trying to fit in 100 movies in a month, or watch, say, 6000 minutes worth of movies in a month, there is still an objective goal. I understand that monitoring minutes as a concept sounds more clinical, and hitting a number goal sounds more like scavenger-hunt fun, but they're both still goals. Number of Titles Watched and Time Spent Watching are the only two units of measurement, and one must be employed; otherwise, it is not a challenge.

By going with Number of Titles Watched, films with longer running times are less attractive. As demonstrated, watching all five Frankenstein films instead of the five more recent films I cited leaves the viewer with an additional three hours to spend; I could sneak in almost three of the Dracula movies, then, bringing my total to 8 Movies Watched instead of just 5, with only a little more time spent. The advantage clearly goes to shorter films.

However, if the challenge measured Time Spent Watching, then there is no advantage. Instead of choosing 8 flims from the 1930s and 1940s, a viewer might instead favor more recent films and not be penalized for it; Oldies Viewer's 8 titles don't outrank Newbie Viewer's 5 titles, because they've both spent comparable time with the titles of their choosing. And that, I believe, is entirely the point of the challenge.

But, again, I'm just throwing this out there as something to think about. Everyone else favors tracking Number of Titles Watched, and that's what I'll do. I have no intention of counting commentaries, or multiple cuts of the same film, because I agree that those merely pad the count. I never thought to ask until now, but I'm guessing movies watched in a theater during the eligibility period count? One of our local theaters is doing its annual Horror Through the Decades film series in October, showing a film each Saturday at midnight from each decade from the 1940s through the 1980s, with a 1960s double-feature. I doubt my wife and I will make it out for all five weekends, but we're hoping to get out to at least one; maybe the double-feature.

Shack

Well it perhaps misses the point of this challenge. This gets brought up every year, and the answer might be to have a separate challenge for number of minutes spent watching horror.
Absolutely. And no doubt, that's how some people plan their movie watching for the Challenge. Me, I watch new titles I've wondered about, and return to my favorites no matter what their length. For instance, The Exorcist is a movie I love, and I'll watch it at any opportunity, even though it's twice as long as other horror films.
Wow, that sounds like a great series. And yes, they will all count!

caligulathegod

What a lot of people don't get is that it isn't so much about running times, quantities, or who can get the most films in. It's about the movies. Ever flip through the channels and come across some movie you love and then you stop and actually watch it all the way through? Ever look over your shelf of DVDs and see a bunch of titles and think, well, maybe I'm not in the mood for this right now even though I love it? Ever get into a conversation about movies and someone will mention a movie you've been meaning to see but have never gotten around to it? Ever think, it's October and I'd love to watch some Horror films but what should I watch? Ever want to have a sense of community with your fellow DVDtalkers? That's what it's all about. It's not about numbers but about looking over your fellow DVDtalkers' lists and getting inspired to see a movie you hadn't thought about, or seeing who shares your tastes or is in opposition to yours. That's what was so depressing about perusing the Sci Fi lists. There were many lists with over 100 entries but not more than 10 titles actually listed. Seeing the X-Files listed 70 times in a row was disheartening, to say the least. Anyway, it's about having an excuse to sit and watch a specific genre just for the joy of the genre.

Trevor

Do I hear an echo?
I slightly disagree here. It's about the movies if the challenge is set up for only movies. The challenges here at DVDTalk almost always allow non-movies. If we want a movie only challenge, then we have to either get the rules changed or create one ourselves.
Exactly!
Yep.
Hey now! You may prefer movies only, and think that your list is more "pure" if you only watch "real" horror, or sci-fi, or whatever the challenge is. But there is no need for comments like that. People have different tastes. If one person watches the one hundred greatest films of all time as determined by elitist film critics, and another watches 200 kiddie cartoons, they should be treated as equals. As long as the rules allow it, we shouldn't be judging people's tastes or choices.
You didn't say movie-only there.

caligulathegod

We're getting good feedback this year. Keep it up, everybody, even you disagree with all of us. Feedback and debate is good.

The Horror challenge has been one of the few that names "movies" right in the title. The other challenges probably aren't as well represented "theatrically" as Horror. Holiday needs anything it can get, indeed it is probably mostly TV. Sci Fi has been part of TV since Captain Video, so it fits. Academy Awards challenge has built in parameters.

Perhaps disheartening was too harsh a word. I never said anything about taste, though. Doesn't matter if people watch 2001:a space odyssey or Battlefield Earth, it's all good. I'll even admit there's kind of an elegance to completing an entire TV series. It just made for some boring lists. Besides, Horror as a genre probably has the shittiest films ever that actually get a modicum of respect. Would any other genre give Joe D'Amato the time of day?

Anyway, in sports, whenever one side gets too successful they tweak the rules to make it more competitive. The first years we had a few that made 100+, but last year we had multiple 300+ lists. No one cheated, but perhaps it wouldn't hurt to purify the challenge a bit. Not asking much. Horror Movie Challenge? Let it be about Horror Movies. No DVD extras, no fluff, no Docs, no TV shows. Just Movies.

NoirFan

Whoops, I forgot about Tod Browning's The Unknown, with a running time of 49 minutes.

Trevor

Good points. Although I still say we need to steer away from making it competitive. We don't want to encourage sheer volume (although I admit I was guilty of that in the last challenge, I had special circumstances). We want to encourage discussion and some form of "group participation".

When we started this thread last year there was discussion of a list of movies for people to share in, I think one per day. I think that would be a great idea. Post a list of a somehow-agreed-upon top 31 films, ending in Halloween, and encourage everyone to watch it that specific day, giving us all something to discuss that day.

If we have prizes, we definitely need to discourage any thought of cheating by having absolutely no reward for mass numbers. Any over 100 go into a random, no difference between someone who watched 100 or 300.

And we should encourage comments on each film we watch. The best part of the challenge for me last year was reading all your comments (and writing my own.)

At some point, we need to make this discussion a little more useful. Instead of just random comments about all of the various factors and rules, perhaps we should tackle one subject at a time, and help Chad finalize the rules.

It would be nice to have everything set well before October 1st, to help people plan purchases and rental queues.

RagingBull80

caligulathegod

Yeah, I agree with all those. Random drawing for those that meet the challenge makes the most sense.

NoirFan

That sounds like a good idea. Perhaps a separate thread for the pre-designated 31, to make discussion easier? As far as the actual films involved, how about each member planning on participating in the Challenge posts a list of their 31 suggestions, and the most popular 31 films are chosen? We could leave the suggestion thread open for 2 weeks or something, with only lists in the thread, and then tally the titles. As for the logistics of the tallying, I'll leave that to more creative folks.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

If there's interest, and Chad doesn't get mad, I can run another horror challenge during October following the sci-fi rules to get tv and movies.

Numes

As much as I love the other challenges (and their format), I'm going to have to preemptively agree with caligulathegod (gasp!) that I think the Horror Movie Challenge should just stay movies. It would feel awkward to have a "companion challenge," if you will.

Giles

I agree doing two similiar challenges seems a tad redundant.

caligulathegod

I've been considering a compromise on one of my positions. Considering some movies will be rented, some participants might want to explore as much of the DVD as possible while it is on borrowed time. How about if it is required to watch the movie properly (that is, with the actual soundtrack), then if the participant wants he can watch the film again with commentary for half credit? This encourages watching the film the way it is supposed to be watched and allows folks to watch their commentaries without wasting valuable time. It shouldn't be too much to ask people in a movie-watching challenge to actually watch the movies. Watching the film as the filmmakers intended should not be considered "a burden". It is an intrinsic part of the challenge. However, if someone wants to then "experience more about the movie", he can do so without it costing him numbers in the challenge (we really can't dismiss the whole idea that we are trying to accumulate numbers, even if that shouldn't be the focus).

Trevor

It would only have to be 30 suggestions, as the 31st is a given of course.

I like the idea of a separate thread I guess, although it is probably not totally necessary. I can't imagine more than 15 or so of us taking the time to actually list 30 films, although I could be wrong. And I'd rather have some discussion first, and not just lists of votes. We could probably hash out at least a dozen for the list pretty quickly.

NoirFan

I would assume Night of the Living Dead and Psycho would be easy to agree upon as titles.

Trevor

Frankenstein and Dracula for sure. Might as well do the other Universal standards of Wolfman, Mummy, Invisible Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon?


Friday the 13th? The Thing?

NoirFan

Nightmare on Elm St, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, The Shining, Evil Dead and Rosemary's Baby would probably be popular choices. Also, there should definitely be at least one silent film, though more than that could be a tough sell for some. How about Nosferatu?

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

The obvious choice of Halloween

NoirFan

chris_sc77

I know I'm going to try to get through the recent as yet untouched box sets I bought from DD. The Dario Argento Collection and The Two Mario Bava sets.

NoirFan

I've got an untouched 21 film Hammer collection that will comprise a serious chunk of my October viewing.