Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

^You put in *way* too much time with the fake thread... :D

But it sounds like it could be a fun way to watch stuff you've possibly put off too long and can *easily* sync with the other challenges if one desires. I say start the thread and see if anyone jumps in.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

If I went on, the two would discover that they were both related but one poster was kidnapped by the babysitter when she was working as a nurse. She faked the death of the newborn, so the parents never knew what happened.

I'm going to try and get it up today after I dig up 10 films.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Hey, someone let me know when CardiffGiant gets the Criterion Challenge up and running, will ya? I'm still largely detached from the world and life, but I do intend to at least dabble in this challenge next month.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Travis, I'll have a post up about it (and future hosting) later today.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I just want to put out that if Travis is still wanting to take a vacation from running challenges, if he likes, I'll volunteer to run the TV on DVD Challenge next year.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

At present, I'm planning to run it. I spent nearly three months in outpatient treatment with a week of inpatient treatment in the middle of all that, and I'm fairly stable for now. I'm planning to gorge on the '66 Batman show, whose 50th anniversary will occur during our challenge, so I may as well host, too!

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Glad to hear about your well being, Travis! :up:

I just finished an episode of Batman, starting the series for the comedy challenge. I'm only halfway finished with season 1, so I'm sure I'll still be watching it in January.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Thanks. I've been attending biweekly meetings of the local Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance for awhile now, and that's been helpful. I would certainly recommend anyone dealing with those things to look into whether there's a local branch in your area.

I forget which, but one of the big retailers is supposed to have season sets from that show on DVD for $10 on Black Friday, so this would be a great time for someone interested in it to prepare for January!

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Glad to hear you're doing okay Travis. :) I've been worried about you. Doing an unofficial TV Challenge has been helping me deal with my depression, along with outpatient treatment.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Welcome back! I'm glad you're now doing OK - you've been missed!

Batman 66 is a great way to spend the challenge! My two granddaughters (ages 4.5 & 9) *love* the show and ask for it on a regular basis! Makes me proud! :)

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I don't know about the other seasons, but Best Buy's website has their Black Friday ad. It shows the first season will be $4.99 on DVD.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

:clap:

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

If Amazon does a PM on it I'll get at least one copy for my granddaughters to watch at home. Otherwise I'll give the BB site a shot but there's no way I'm going to "The Mall" (where BB is here) to shop... On a "normal" day the traffic in that area is enough to keep one away. BF weekend is nightmare level. That doesn't even take into account mall parking and rude crowds (plus a "crowded when empty" BB to deal with).

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

TV on DVD* Sixth Season Discussion Thread is live, y'all.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

:banana:

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Discussion in the current TV on DVD* Challenge thread has led to the idea of expanding that to a year-long thing. Though I suspect many of you here are already aware of that, I wanted to bring it here, too, since this is more or less the default Challenge Host Lounge or whatever. Copied and pasted from that discussion:

I've considered at times whether maybe we ought to consider expanding this to a full-on parallel series of challenges. The problem I see is that TV content is already allowed in all the existing challenges anyway, so there's no obvious reason to have a secondary discussion thread elsewhere. If the TV challenge for the month was alternate to the existing challenge, then it could have some appeal but then the question becomes, "Why are we doing this, too?"

The only themes I can think of that don't presently have their own challenges are Drama, Foreign, and Musical. Obviously, there are plenty of those kinds of movies and TV shows that qualify for existing challenges, but there's no month dedicated just to those. If we shifted TV on DVD* into a parallel series of challenges, then January could be allotted instead to one of those.

Thoughts?

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Thanks, Trevor....now I know what this thread is for! ;) Moved the discussion here.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I'll take the reigns of The Oscar Challenge if no one else volunteers. I'll get the discussion thread going early next week before the nominees are announced.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I like the pre-challenge, as I was always an advocate for being able to watch things once the nominations come out since that's the start of Oscar season. :shrug:

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I like it too.

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A pre-challenge this year would be 15 days!

That's a long time, but I wouldn't mind it either, as long as we counted only nominees.

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I didn't realize that. In that case, it doesn't matter to me what is decided.

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Length of pre-challenge isn't a big deal to me either, as it's a limited number of qualifying titles, and I don't put up big numbers in this challenge anyway. :shrug:

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I'd be down with just expanding the duration of the Oscar Challenge to span from the day of announcements to the day of presentation. That's the official Oscar "season", so why not just go with it? I get that the original template was the Horror Challenge's "100 movies in 30 days", but aligning more fully with what the Oscars have set forth makes sense to me, especially since I don't think anyone actually targets 100 movies during this challenge anyway - and if they did, the extra time would certainly be helpful given the run time of a lot of the more prolific qualifying films.

I think someone said they'd put up prizes for this challenge, so maybe to help offset the expanded duration, make completion of the checklist a requirement for prize-winning eligibility? That would reinforce the "challenge" aspect.

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That's usually been our argument. I think the pre-challenge concept was a compromise. :)

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If we're gonna watch them and talk about them during that time, it's just silly not to add them to our lists. I'm in favor of tossing out "pre-challenges" entirely. Either we're actively watching and talking, or we're not. Now get off my lawn.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Wait, I thought the Academy Awards Challenge was always held from announcement day to ceremony?

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I thought it was the 30 days before the ceremony, and that the announcement sometimes falls before that window?

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Yeah, it's always been a 30 day challenge.

Starting it early would mean overlapping with another currently running challenge.

Last year, I did the pre-challenge, but didn't count the films I saw...I just listed them. Might be fun to count only those films nominated for 2016 Oscars during those 15 days...

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Yeah, the pre-challenge is the first time (in my memory) that we've started on announcement day.

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I'm curious what our participation statistics would show. Is it just the same 25 or so of us doing every Challenge, with the annual October-only crowd? Or do a lot of people only do a couple a year? If I wasn't a few Challenge related projects behind already, I'd do some research.

Personally, I don't think starting a week or two early would hurt. I think it's best to think of the Challenges independently and not worry about stepping on toes. I guess it would 'hurt the numbers' of anyone who really wanted to put up good numbers on both Challenges, but I would hope they wouldn't care too much about that, and that the benefit to those who want to start when the announcements are made outweigh that.

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Oh yeah, now I remember. I guess the Academy Awards Challenge has always overlapped with another Challenge, at least once we went to 13 of them, and at least for a day.

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The challenge that will overlap with Oscar announcements is TV on DVD*. I see absolutely no reason whatsoever the two of them can't run concurrently. If anything, they're the two challenges that overlap the best, since they're so different in scope. In fact, we moved up the start of TV on DVD* to the day after Christmas in part to accommodate participants who would want to begin the Oscar challenge as soon as possible. I say run:

TV on DVD* - 12/26-1/31
Oscars - announcement - presentation
Action/Crime/etc. - 3/1-3/31
Drive-In/etc. - 4/1-4/30
Make Your Own - 5/1-5/31
Historical Appreciation - 6/1-6/30
Sci-Fi - 7/1-7/31
Animation - 8/1-8/31
Criterion - 9/1-9/30
Horror - 10/1-10/31
Comedy - 11/1-11/30
Holiday - Monday before Thanksgiving - New Year's Day

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I know I'm just being anal-retentive about this, but all the past Oscar Challenges have been 30 days...so, we have nothing to compare it to or beat, if we're trying (lisadoris, I'm talking to you!!) ;)

So, what shall we do?: I still think using the extra 15 days from announcement till the 30th to catch any of this year's nominees (or maybe Best Picture winners from the past, etc.) makes it a real challenge. I will have a ton to get through this year.

Then, starting the challenge on Jan. 30 would give us the 30 days that all the other challenges seem to be.

Even if we have that pre-challenge, I will still only personally count the January 30th to Ceremony period to get my usual 30 features in.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Starting this year's Prize Pack* (Best Picture Winners & Nominees) off with:

Places In The Heart DVD

*These are from my personal collection, so some are opened, some are not...

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Given how many of the prolific movies that qualify for the Oscars, and given that several, if not most, of the current nominees will be in theaters and not available to watch at home, I don't see the additional fifteen days as diluting that challenge.

That said, perhaps to make it more challenging, we could limit using one movie for just one category in the checklist. That makes Titanic no more helpful than Batman in whittling away at a huge swath of the checklist with a single viewing. Think of it as the Senate versus the House of Representatives.

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Oh my decisions, decisions. I think the Challenge itself should last for 30 days though I have no problem with a pre-challenge that only encompasses this year's nominees. Yes I know I'm one of the few if only obsessive folks who actually aims for 100 titles in 30 days and I haven't decided whether to finish the TV challenge or stop it when the Oscar Challenge officially begins (decisions, decisions).

As for for the one film per category for the checklist, that's what I do anyway but I understand that it takes some work. It won't influence eligibility for prizes but it's an extra hoop for those of us who enjoy such things.

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Incidentally, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1/17 & 1/20) and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1/24 & 1/27) will both play as part of the Cinemark Classic Series, during that "pre-challenge" period. Butch is also part of the TCM Big Screen Classics series, and will therefore play in other chains. I'm still strongly in favor of a full announcement-to-presentation challenge, but perhaps a "pre-challenge" might encompass eligible movies playing in theaters as well as current nominees?

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I understand that OCD may inspire some to want to keep the challenge to 30 days, but it's a little silly. We run the holiday challenge during the logical period for it rather than just 30 days, and as Travis said there's little overlap with TV. But I've made this pitch for past Oscar challenges and won't continue to push it here. :)

Looking forward to finally updating my sig this year! :dance:

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

This caused me to go read the 2012 thread. And I found you had posted this back then:

Though it's hard to call the latest gadget a true hoverboard, that was some prediction you made. :up: :eek: