Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

There will be. If LJG can't run it, I'll do it this year.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Hi, sorry, just saw this (thanks shadokitty), I was out of town this weekend without 'net access. (actually, I'm out of town all month, but have internet access, just not last weekend...went to a tiny little town where we went on a glacier cruise...ended up being a small glacier at a distance but saw an amazing humpback whale who put on a show for us! :) ) I just put up the discussion thread for the sci-fi challenge. I usually try to do it about two weeks before the start. I just don't want it to go up too early and feel like I'm stepping on the current challenge's toes!

I also plan on doing August's animation challenge in case anyone was wondering!

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Just posted the August Animation Discussion Thread here.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

So this is almost certainly just yet another quirk in my OCDs, but I figured I'd share it here in case another Challenger wanted to use a form of it.

Part of my collecting/hoarding involves the continual desire to at least partly justify it. I've long used our Challenges to do so, but don't think I've ever put it into a list-like form. So starting this month, I'll try to watch at least one item that is either a paid subscription or one of my ~10 obsessive collections. I figure that at least one monthly watch will make me feel easier about the money I spent/spend on these things, and also ensure that I constantly watch some of my favorite things.

Trevor's Personal Challenge Checklist
(a monthly checklist to help justify collections and subscriptions)

Amazon Prime -
Animation -
Comic Book -
Criterion -
Disney -
Godzilla -
Holiday -
Horror -
MST3K -
Netflix -
Roku -
Star Trek -
3D -
Vudu -

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I've been thinking of doing the same thing. I subscribe to a bunch of streaming services (often through an annual membership). And some months they go unused. I need to start using a checklist to force myself to watch a couple movies and get my money's worth.

My checklist would look something like this:

Netflix -
Amazon Prime -
Hulu -
Crunchyroll -
FUNimation -
WWE Network -
HBO Go -
Showtime Anytime -
Shudder -
Fandor -
Acorn TV -
Feeln -

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I don't see UltraViolet, Trevor....

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Doh! I've seriously added that (I might call it Vudu to use that app) in my mind several times. I've edited my checklist at least four times in my challenge posts and just keep forgetting to add that.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

The pre-challenge thread is up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. That also goes for those not participating in the optional stuff.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Someone make sure to poke me when CardiffGiant starts the Criterion Challenge discussion thread. I spent most of my viewing time the last two months slogging through Star Trek: Voyager and my brain needs a cleansin'.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I've gone ahead and created a Criterion Challenge Discussion Thread and List Thread.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I have an idea for a new full month challenge for February. Drama/Romance. I'm willing to host.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I know we've discussed that before, but decided against it.

Pros:

1. Drama is the only major genre not fully covered by Challenge.
2. There is a ton of content available that qualifies.

Cons:

1. Academy Award is one of our first Challenges, and basically covers February.
2. We already have 12+ Challenges a year; and people hated me for suggesting/pushing that many.
3. Pretty much every Drama or Romance can be made to fit another Challenge.

What say everyone?

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I don't care if it goes on or not, but I don't plan to participate, simply because I don't particularly care for those genres.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I'd love to do a mini-challenge for Romance movies that ran from Feb 1st to Valentines Day. I wouldn't want to limit it to Drama, since a lot of the best Romance movies are RomComs. And I wouldn't want a full month. Much like Christmas, after the holiday ends, I'm kinda burnt out.

There's so many made-for-TV movies on Hallmark, Lifetime, etc in early Feb. And streaming services always add more Romance titles during that time.

I think it would be fun.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

My views as a participant.

I don't care about Romance and wouldn't seek out those titles.

Drama is a good fit with Academy Awards.

Horror can be made to fit every other challenge 100% of the time.

I think it fits in well between TV and Action challenges.

Con: the romance part makes it a challenge for the wives/girlfriends and you'll be the one watching the Freddie Prinze Jr marathon

https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/drama/

These are the top 50 rated drama's at imdb. You don't care for a lot of these or maybe you didn't know they had the drama tag attached to it? I'm the latter.

If a dozen people say they're interested, then I'll give it a shot. Otherwise I'll drop it.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I'm sure we'd get at least a dozen participants, if only because the thread would be there.

I'd just advise slow caution and a few months of potential discussion before we create a new one. I know they'll never be the perfect amount of Challenges for everyone, and that many genres/topics are left with neglected fans. I'm obviously biased, and have some OCD, but think that we have a pretty good mix and line-up right now.

Adding one that month sort of short-shifts the Academy Award Challenge a bit. It was what, our second or third Challenge created? Having 12 Challenges (not counting Leap Day) and 12 months seems like a nice fit, even with Academy Award rotating in dates a bit due to its nature. Having a different set one for each month then puts Academy Award on like a back burner, and would definitely diminish participation I'd guess.

Just throwing out arguments, I'm not really sure of my personal opinion yet.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

My take:

-I love that people are thinking about ways to improve the challenge experience
-I've never been a fan of a drama-themed challenge. It's too broad, and I rarely say "I feel like watching a drama tonight."
-I do like the romance angle, but would be more inclined to watch comedies.
-I consider Oscars the February challenge, even though the dates shift. Adding another seems really crowded.
-I would participate to some degree if this happened.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

For myself, I do about 5-7 challenges per year. Probably the one were I see the most surprisingly enjoyable (to me) movies is the Academy Awards Challenge. I think adding another challenge that month would definitely diminish participation in the Academy Awards Challenge but I can handle that. I wouldn't participate in a Drama/Romance challenge myself but if there is enough interest I wouldn't object. Are there other challenges that people think should be combined (so to speak) with other challenges?

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I didn't know they had the drama tag attached to them. In that case I would be interested.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

If Historical Appreciation is any indication, Drama participants would just marathon TV shows like Mad Men anyway. I'd like to see a streamlined Drama challenge, where anything eligible for any other genre-based challenges is ineligible. I don't care that IMDb classifies Se7en as a drama. It belongs in the Crime and Horror challenges. I'd like a Drama challenge that was restricted instead to films like Eyes Wide Shut, which doesn't really have a true challenge home. Yes, it takes place at Christmastime so it's technically Holiday-eligible, and one can argue it's a Mystery, but it feels like it qualifies for those two challenges on technicalities and not because it's in the spirit of either.

I'd also reintroduce my proposal for Musicals to get a spotlight, which would pair nicely with Romance.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I like that idea. I'd be more interested in Musicals/Romance than Drama/Romance.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I think I like the Musical/Romance idea better too, and it fits in February well.

I wonder how many films that really aren't covered by any of the other Challenges? Obviously, they could all fit into somebody's May MYOC, but I bet most would fit elsewhere as well.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I don't see any obvious challenge homes for these from my personal library:

Black Snake Moan
The End of the Tour
Love & Other Drugs
My Blueberry Nights
Pay It Forward
Pure Country
Room in Rome

There are also a few where they qualify for the Oscars, but otherwise would be hard to match with an existing challenge, like Dangerous Liaisons or The Sessions.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

This one although not a straight up comedy falls under comedy. According to imdb, allmovie, flickchart and wikipedia.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Remind me to use my editing privileges to revoke the comedy tag on Flickchart. ;)

Seriously, though, I'll concede that one though when I think about it, I just think of it as a drama with a sense of humor more than as a comedy. Also, I never look at allmovie and whenever I do check IMDb or Wikipedia, I skip right past things like genre tags there.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

A minor reach on Pay it Forward perhaps, but since it spawned a movement I'd think you'd have to allow it to count. Under zeitgeist perhaps? ;) Thanks. Yes, there obviously are many films that don't fit any Challenge outside of May, but I bet there aren't as many as we think.

And interestingly, all three of your unrepresented films above would be covered by a Musical/Romance Challenge.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Yeah, I dropped the ball on The End of the Tour. I should have had that properly tagged in my DVD Profiler. I still haven't seen it, so just glancing at it didn't prompt me to remember it was based on reality.

But I am waiting to hear just how the hell Pure Country is historical. George Strait has been among my top three favorite artists for a long time now, and I feel like my rationalization skills are pretty sharp, but even I can't find a way to make that argument!

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

^ It's tagged as a western.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

That's awfully lazy. I suppose anything that takes place in Texas is a Western, then? I could see counting it for Historical Appreciation under the sporting events clause since the love interest is a rodeo rider, but I always got the sense I was pretty much the only one who even remembered that clause existed.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Anything west of the Mississippi counts! ;)

I still think of it as the War and Western Challenge to be honest, although I mostly watch the other categories under the fully realized implementation of the Challenge.

I agree that films such as Pure Country are kind of a stretch to count; but like the broad inclusivity we have overall.

I guess a Drama/Music/Romance Challenge would mean we then cover pretty much every possible film?

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

To me, adding Drama makes it less interesting. Drama is such a generic genre. You can apply it to almost anything.

I mean, look at the Drama listings at IMDB. It's on Horror movies like The Shallows and Stephen King's It, Action movies like The Huntman and Ben-Hur, and Family movies like Jungle Book.

http://www.imdb.com/genre/drama

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Funnily enough, that's also my argument in favor of a Drama challenge; one that would be far more rigid and exclude content that has a clear, other genre-based challenge home.

Take My Own Private Idaho, which I happen to have just finished watching. It's eligible for the Criterion challenge (which is why I just watched it), but when else would it be an appropriate viewing selection? IMDb doesn't even have a second genre tag assigned to it. It's just drama. There are lots of films out there like this that haven't been selected for inclusion in The Criterion Collection (or haven't been nominated for an Oscar).

Those are the dramas that I believe deserve a challenge of their own.

I'll go along with not amalgamating it with Romantic/Musical, because I do agree that would be too diluted for a single challenge, particularly given my position that for a Drama challenge to really be worthwhile, it should be so strict. (I try to limit my public acts of hypocrisy!)

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I can see both these arguments.

I think part of the beauty of the individual Challenges is that they appeal to a somewhat small subset of content. That speciality is a core value of Challenges.

It's true that we have expanded and now have 13 sub-genres, and that a very high percentage of all film/TV content is eligible somewhere (over 99%?).

Drama, in its broad classification, is way too broad for a Challenge in my opinion. So if we did one, I'd vote that it be strict and be for "pure" dramas, and not stuff that also qualifies elsewhere. But is there enough that really fits that definition? I doubt anyone could list 50 mainstream-ish films that would fit Drama only.

And, assuming anyone else agrees with my preferred stipulation there, does it warrant a full yearly month-long Challenge over a month of Musical or Musical/Romance? In my opinion, there'd be more support for Musical/Romance and that Challenge would be more in step with our historical choices for months.

One option might be to have Drama one year and Musical/Romance the next.

Overall, I still think we should leave February empty except for Academy Award, all these other options are best left for individuals to do in May, or fit into the other Challenges, but if we were to add another, Musical/Romance would be my vote.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Maybe a separate thread with poll options would be in order? And then perhaps it should be a two-stage process; an initial poll to see if people want to add a 14th Challenge, and if that passes, a poll to pick the genre(s)?

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I know I'm in the minority on this one too but instead of the normal Criterion challenge, I'd like to see it changed to a different distributor each year (Criterion, Kino, Twilight Time, Arrow, Olive Films, etc).

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Sounds good to me. I'd like to see if there's enough interest, and which genre people prefer.

Out of curiosity, which of the current challenges is the least popular? Maybe instead of adding a 14th challenge, it's time to give one of the current challenges a year off and try something new. Perhaps the "14th challenge" could be a rotating challenge, and each year one of the lesser challenges takes a break.

Actually, you could take it one step further. Each year we could vote on the genre for the "14th challenge". One year it could be "Musicals/Romance", the next maybe "Pure Drama", then "Foreign Films", and "80's Movies", etc. And then we vote on which current challenge gets the year off.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

No clue on popularity, outside of Horror being far and away the most. What is popularity exactly though? Number of participants doesn't really say it all, as I imagine most of us at least have a list post pretty much every Challenge. Number of total viewings in those list threads? Number of posts in the discussion threads? Number of thread views?

It would take a bit of research to fully answer the question I think.

I like the continuity of having the same Challenges occur year in and year out, but am intrigued by your idea.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I think a better version of this might be to leave it up to the individual every September. The majority might stay with Criterion, but those more interested in other distributors/studios could join in. Make it a sort of Choose Your Own Distributer Challenge.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I hate to throw out too many new possibilities all at once, but this sort of reminds me of what we implemented in the Comic Challenges here. One month per year is a rotating publisher, and another month is the TBD Challenge, a to-be-determined subject voted on each year leaving us open for industry events and new ideas, and leaving us less locked in.

We could do that here making February a TBD Challenge, rotating years with our unused genres you list above or other ideas.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I would bet that Criterion gets the fewest number of viewings. That said, I don't think other niche distributors would be able to carry a month on their own. I have a number of Twilight Times I'd like to watch, but only a handful of Kino, and I don't really know how many Olives or Arrows I have. I could perhaps see keeping Criterion and adding a rotating studio slot to that month.