Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I don't think there is any problem with multiple Challenges in a month. By multiple, I mean two of course. I don't think Challenges will ever get popular/diverse enough to have more than 24 of them, and I'm not planning on any more than 12 actually.

Why do you see a problem with Challenges in November and January? Less than .1% of DVDTalk's membership gives two hoots about any particular Challenge, but they may care about a War Challenge. And if as few as two, or as many as two hundred people participate in a November War or Comedy Challenge, how does that hurt the Holiday Challenge?

If fans of foreign films decide to start a Foreign Film Challenge and decide that they want it to be in October, who cares?

Yes, I personally think that we should spread them out to one per month, and I'm sure it will go down that way, but people can do whatever they want here.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I confess to being disheartened to read the remarks about not having a War Challenge, but hey; this ain't my website. If the challenge is welcome, I'm all about hostin' it. If not, no big deal. I will say that one thing I was looking into, in the case of conflicting scheduling, finding War movies that were set during the holiday season and could therefore qualify for both. I think there's at least one movie about the Christmas truce of World War I, for instance. Y'all let me know if we're doin' this or not.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

But the thing is, no one here has any more say than you, or somebody who joins the forum tomorrow. Sure, some of us here are more seasoned, and more aggressive, and do more 'work' for the forum, but we're not 'in charge' of Challenges or anything else. Respect is paid to the people who started them years ago, and continuity is expected. And again, I plan on doing my part to try to keep us to no more than 13 Challenges.

But to say that a five month period should be blocked off for just two Challenges seems very wrong imho. I see no problem with overlap.

I easily see at least three more Challenges being welcome here, even if only a few people participate in each.

How about War in November, Comedy in March, and Foreign in January? Those are the only genres I've heard others mention outside of the already set 10 Challenges. There may be more or better options though.

That would leave all 12 months with one Challenge, with Holiday slightly bleeding over into two others, and Academy being floating and overlapping into two of the three months January thru March, depending on the date of the Oscars.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Like it or not, you've become the "guy in charge" for Challenge scheduling.

I don't see any problem with a few days overlap. The Drive-In Challenge is scheduled through May 1st, and Make-Your-Own starts that day (I didn't object because there are only 30 days in April, and I thought caligulathegod deserved 31 days for his challenge).

I plan to mention in the Make-Your-Own-Challenge rules that people can watch stuff that counts for both lists on that day. I don't see why that can't apply to other overlapping challenges too.

I do like having a few "challengeless" weeks in the year to wind down, but if we're going to fill them up, I think you should either put it to a vote to decide the last few or let whoever wants to run them claim the dates and decide the themes.

Looking at the current schedule, there's no reason at all why January shouldn't have its own challenge (there's just one day overlap with the Holiday Challenge). The other two may be more questionable.

Well, I just went back and read this post again:
So it looks like maybe January is questionable too. :shrug:

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I don't think we should focus too much on there not being any breaks, or there being overlap. I mean, how many of us are really going to do every Challenge?

I think I might be the only one crazy enough to do that. But even with that, just because I'm in a Challenge it doesn't mean that I'm going to watch anything more or anything different from what I would watch that month even if there was no DVDTalk. I'm just going to list the stuff that qualifies in those Challenge threads and participate in the discussion most likely. A Challenge doesn't need to change anyone's amount of content for a month, just the focus of it. And again, the main focus is building community.

Most people will choose to just do a couple Challenges a year I imagine. But since some people care nothing about Horror, Holiday, Sci-Fi, or Academy Award films, it seems silly to 'lock out' months or limit the number of Challenges to keep those 'pure' or some other silly notion.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

:wave:
That's the way I handled the last Criterion and Academy Awards Challenges. I didn't watch much, but listed what I watched that qualified.

The only two Challenges that actually include a challenge to watch a large number of movies in a month are the Horror and Drive-In Challenges, so there's no reason to go overboard every month (unless you want to).

Even for people who go all out for the Holiday Challenge, do they get heavily into it before December?
As I said, I don't see any problem with a few days overlap.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

The Academy Award Challenge fluctuates depending on when the Oscars are. Usually it starts towards the end of January, this year it started in the beginning of February because they pushed the Oscars back to the beginning of March as opposed to the end of February.

I wasn't trying to ban people from putting challenges up during my own challenges, I don't care. I just think that say the Horror Movie Challenge is taking place during October and then IF somebody did a challenge like a Comedy challenge or something that I wanted to partake in it would be hard to do both at the same time. I know the Holiday & Academy Award challenges aren't super popular, but if someone wanted to do both it would be difficult. Looking at the schedule though I do realize now that both of those usually start at the END of their respective months and only last a week and a half of that month at most, so I guess I spoke out of line.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Personally, I think some genres are more ripe than others for challenges. Horror, Sci-fi, Exploitation, seem to have a more fetishistic bent to them. They tend to be more obsessively collected by their aficionados than others. Holiday challenge and Oscar challenge have a nice obsessional "hook" that welcomes a challenge. I wonder if War and perhaps Western would lend themselves more to 2 week "Mini-challenges". Or, something like an omnibus type challenge where week one is Western, week two is War, week three is Thrillers, week four is Action movies, or something like that. They could be in sequence or interspersed throughout the off months.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

No, not at all! We're just talking here, trying to figure out what would be best. Maybe I'm wrong and 13 Challenges is a bad idea.
Very good points on how the existing genres are ripe for Challenges.

And perhaps you're right about the mini-challenges. I always thought that a month is just easier, and that we probably don't have need for more than the 13. Drama, Thriller, and Action appear to be the only major choices missing. But Thriller is pretty much included in Horror, people seem to count them at least. Much of drama and action are partially covered by the other Challenges I guess.

I don't know. All it really takes is for someone to step-up and just start one. I'm leaning towards that the current monthly format is easiest, and was really looking forward to a month of War, a month of Western, a month of Foreign, and a month of Comedy at some point.

But then, I really don't want to personally lead any Challenge, and would welcome someone else championing the Criterion and Western Challenges.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

13? :scratch2:
Keep in mind that one of the reasons for the Make-Your-Own-Challenge is so people can devote a month to genres that don't already have their own challenges, so we don't really need to fill in every month if no one steps up to claim the last two open.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I just got the feeling you thought I was trying to keep people away from the Challenges I run. People can do what they want I was just suggesting that it might be difficult for people who want to do both. It's all cool though ;)

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

If we add Foreign, War, and Comedy to the existing line-up we'd have one for each month, with Academy as a floater.
True. I guess I'm thinking and hoping that people will be much more creative for this than just picking a genre. There are so many possibilities with this one. I'm hoping it becomes our most popular Challenge.
No, I knew you didn't feel that way. I was just curious as to your reasoning for thinking there shouldn't be overlap. I guess I've already explained my thinking of why overlap is a non-issue a couple times now.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Well, one thing I thought about when sketching a War Challenge checklist were things like Band of Brothers, which could easily occupy the free time of more casual viewers for the duration of about a week. If we restricted the challenge to two weeks, then participants might be compelled to choose between several movies or that mini-series. I'd hate for someone to feel like they didn't have enough time to participate, so they passed entirely.

I would think that Western and War include enough Action for most; especially with Sci-Fi already having a challenge. Thrillers seem to be likewise represented by the B-Movie and Horror challenges. I wouldn't necessarily endorse Omnibus Challenge, per se, but I'd be very interested in, say, a History Challenge. Each year it could rotate themes. This year, War. Next year, Western.

I'd be very interested in hosting something like that, as it would not only give me an excuse to make myself finally watch the classics of those respective genres, but on a personal note, it would make me feel like I'm doing something with my history degree.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

There's the hook. A History challenge. That would allow War, Western, period films, biographical films, documentaries, TV shows like MASH and Black Adder. Food for thought.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I think I really like this.

It can complement/replace the Western Challenge in <s>May</s>June. And it would be criminal of me to not let our history major MinLShaw run it, so shucks, I guess I'm off the hook for running that one.

Now who wants Criterion.....? ;)

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

- fixed

So...are we talking about replacing June's Western challenge with a catch-all History Challenge? I'm game if that's the direction we wanna go.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Yeah, I know a couple of alternatives were mentioned, but I think I favor June being History Challenge each year, with the diverse but related categories caligula mentioned; War, Western, period films, biographical films, documentaries.

Individuals could choose to concentrate on just one of those genres, or mix them all in. For example, I think I'll do all Western this June, since I've been itching for it and accumulating a pile of DVDs in anticipation, and then do all War next year maybe.

Of course, this is just what, three or four of us talking? Maybe let's let this play out for a week or two and see what others may say. And then if it looks viable MinL can start a interest or discussion thread for it.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I'll chime in to say I like the idea of a history challenge--I have very few things that would qualify under just a War/Western theme. History opens it up to include much more which is a good thing for me, and I would think others.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

:up: I like the idea of the more expansive "history" theme.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

My plan for the make your own was to have a different week long challenges, with checklists of course.

Week 1: Martial Arts(which I've also toyed with doing a month long challenge but wasn't sure if we already had too many. If Trevor thinks we can fit it in somewhere I'd be ok with doing it but wouldn't complain if he didn't. A week might be long enough for that one.)

Week 2: All random and only random picks. No picking and going, "that sucks, I'm picking again", which honestly, is really easy to do.

I'm only going to watch unwatched stuff and will have my wife, kids, and the random button in Movie Collectorz pick stuff for me.

Week 3: TV shows and made for TV movies.

Week 4: Documentaries and Westerns. As good as some docs are, there's a lot of crappy ones and I'd like to be able to break from them when I get tired.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

One of the creative "Make Your Own Challenge" ideas floating around my head has been picking an actor, choosing a film he/she appeared in. Once finished, the next film would have to include someone else who appeared in the film just finished.

Don't know if I'll stick with that or not, but it opens itself up to lots of variety, even going from film to tv and back.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I think I have at least 40 ideas for the Make-Your-Own-Challenge, hope I live long enough to use them all; and all the ideas here are great too. It really has monstrous creative potential.

I think I'm going to stick with my every possible bit of LOTR for this year. My second choice is to watch one film from every year of surviving film history. So I'd start with the first (?) film from 1888, then proceed chronologically through 2010.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I plan on starting the discussion thread Tuesday (March 30).

I'm not sure how I feel about a different theme for each week though. I like the idea of month-long themed marathons. I'll have to think that one over.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

For those of us who can only watch a movie or two a day (and I hate that I'm now in that category, but oh well) a week just isn't long enough. Hell, a month doesn't seem long enough, I was already thinking that I wish the "Make Your Own Challenge" challenge lasted two months, although that would conflict with Westerns or War, or whatever genre is scheduled for June, I just know it's one I have no interest in. Anyway, I definitely prefer the month-long schedule, but then again, since it's a "Make Your Own Challenge", I guess there's no reason why someone couldn't just come up with a different challenge for themselves each week during that month.

Rob

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Exactly. One of the beauties of the Make-Your-Own-Challenge is that it will be so easy to run. No rules! DX just has to build the threads and try to get people into the spirit of it. Maybe some PR work too.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I can't sleep right now, so I turned on ESPN to catch up on baseball. I got to thinking, sports would be an interesting challenge topic--far more, I would think, than "action" or "drama" by themselves. "But, we already have too many challenges on the docket," you say. I have a solution!

We don't call it the History Challenge; we call it the Social Studies challenge. Every social studies teacher I ever heard of doubled as a sports coach. Sports-related movies would count for that challenge as well. In the checklist, there would be a specific item or two related to sports. I'm thinking "High School Athletics" (think Varsity Blues or Friday Night Lights) and "Sports History" (think Knute Rockne, All-American or The Jackie Robinson Story).

As for folks using this just as a sports challenge, I thought about that, too. Coming from Kentucky, I can guarantee you it's actually more in the spirit of a social studies challenge to focus entirely on sports and not actual history-related subjects. Plus, we're talking about a challenge in the month of June. Basketball has just ended its post-season, baseball is in full swing, football pre-season is around the corner. I know it seems to add too much to the challenge we'd been discussing (first, war, then war & westerns, with some room for period pieces and now this), but I think as long as we're clear that movies like BASEketball are excluded, it could work.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

A good idea for me anyway for the Make Your Own Challenge is as follows:

Week One: Favorite Actor
Week Two: Favorite Actress
Week Three: Favorite Director
Week Four: Something I can't figure out, I thought Favorite Writer but my favorite writers either have only written a handful of movies or is the same as my favorite director

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Whatever it's called, my thinking for the June Challenge is that as long as the film/show is based primarily on 'real life', it will count.

I was definitely thinking about some of the sports biopics I have, like Rudy. But I don't think stuff like Varsity Blues should count, although I've never seen it so maybe it is based on a true story.

And as for War stuff, it would have to be at least vaguely 'true'. So stuff like Rambo wouldn't count.

Of course, this thinking throws out a lot of the Westerns I planned to watch.

So I don't know. I was thinking that everyone was thinking the same thing, that it was for stuff that was largely 'real', but maybe not.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Nah; it's pure fiction. I suggested a "High School Sports" item simply in the spirit of the Social Studies nature of the challenge, since high school was such a unique time in most of our lives (for better or worse). But, yeah, I suppose we're better off at least trying to focus on depictions of actual events.

I hadn't even thought that far ahead. I was just prepared to eliminate movies like Space Cowboys, where the military involvement is not really the focus of the movie at all.

And here is where the "must be based on actual events" clause gets tricky. Myself, I'm inclined to give Westerns a pass. Westerns are the great mythology of America, and societies need their myths as much as they need their truths. Or, to paraphrase from one of the greatest Westerns I've ever seen: "When the legend becomes fact, watch the legend."

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Most war movies end up being like computer movies. Based on something real but oh god do they have shit wrong. Not saying it's a war movie but as an example, all the missile stuff they talk about in Air Force One makes me want to shoot myself in the head.

I'm going to watch any type of war movie. Possibly even about wars in the future.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

^I tend to ignore signatures, so I just noticed - do you really own 10,000 DVDs, Mister Peepers? Holy cow! :eek:

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Movies, not just discs. So I have blu-rays, DVDs, and a hundred or so things on VHS that aren't out on DVD. When they are, they I upgrade but I love collecting rare stuff and a lot of it isn't ever going to see the light of day on DVD.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

How would a Foreign Film Challenge work for those that are native Japanese?

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Something to be ironed out once someone commits to running it and we start the discussion or planning thread I guess.

Personally, I was born and have lived my whole life in the USA, so for me it would be any film from outside of the USA.

If one was born and lived in Japan, it would be any non-Japanese film.

For people born one place and live another, or consider a certain country their home, or travel a lot, or whatever other variance we come up with; I imagine it would be up to them to choose their 'home' country, the country/language that they prefer to watch films in; and watch everything else that month.

Just my personal opinion, I doubt I'll run it, so whoever ends up 'in charge' of it may feel differently.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I was thinking about posting a similar question. I know we have people posting from all over the globe, but I couldn't remember if the ones not in the US participate in the Challenges. It could make for some amusing lists.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

[Cheech]"Mexican-Americans love education so they go night school and take Spanish and get a Beeeeeeeeee."[/Cheech]

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

A year or two ago, I brought up the idea of a "Make Your Own Challenge" thread that just runs concurrent with all the other Challenges. Back then, there didn't seem to be much interest. But then again, there were only like 2 challenges. Now that we have challenges coming out of our ears (and I mean that in a good way), I thought I'd toss my idea back into the ring.

This way, if someone has little or no interest in the current challenge, they could have one of their own and post their little list in the "Make You Own Challenge" thread, which could also double as the discussion thread since, if it's ongoing (and successful), it would probably extend into more anyway (Part 2, 3...).

For example, I don't see myself participating much in the "Exploitation/Drive-In Challenge." But I've always wanted to do a little "Baseball Movie Challenge" right around the start of the the baseball season. With a "Make Your Own Challenge" thread, I could do both... and so can you!* :D

* Feel free to substitute "Baseball Movie Challenge" with challenges of your choice.

Good idea?
Ask us again in a few years?
Go to hell, Darth Maher?
¿qué?

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

I like it, and it makes me wonder if the whole concept of the Make-Your-Own Challange can be slightly altered to make it not a set month, but a continual sort of thing. So not a concurrent to any other Challenge thing, or not a set month, but just an open-ended always ongoing thread.

No rush to change things Dimension :), but maybe we can think about this for a bit? Chew on it for a couple weeks?

Of course, anyone is always welcome to do their own Challenges at any point. I've done several personal Challenges over the years. You could always use the monthly unwatched threads to document your progress, but I like the idea of keeping them in one place, so that we can inspire each other.

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Let me just say, I love this idea. :up: I was already thinking that we should do this more than once a year. I was thinking more like a couple of times throughout the year, but every month suits me just fine. That way, we can participate when we want to, and just skip it when we don't. I already have several ideas for challenges, and this way, I could use a couple during June and September, instead of waiting until next year. :) I may even try to come up with challenges that go with existing ones, like a "horror TV" challenge in October, for instance.

If we do decide to do this, I'll put my "LGBT challenge" on hold until June, so it'll coincide with Gay Pride month, and just use one of my other ideas for May.

Rob

Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
 

Personally, I'm not interested in a History Challenge at all - whatever happened to the purely Western Challenge? There's certainly more than enough film and TV choices available to watch in that genre. A sports/war/western/whatever hybrid is just silly. Count me out.