May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

This thread is for discussion only. The list thread will be put up soon.

List thread is now active.

Here we go again. It's time to start talking about May's Make-Your-Own Challenge. It's like the other DVD Talk Challenges, but you choose your own theme.

Maybe you have a favorite genre, or a genre you'd like to explore, that didn't get its own "Official" Challenge. Or you have a director, actor, writer, producer, composer, costume designer, key grip, etc. whose work you want to revisit or explore for the first time. Or maybe you're just tired of looking at those unwatched box sets on your shelves. Here's your chance to make yourself watch those movies (and/or TV shows) you've been putting off.

You're in charge of your own Challenge, so you make the rules. There are a few guidelines however.

Challenge Guidelines:

The Challenge runs from May 1 through May 31.

Since the Drive-In Challenge runs until dawn on May 1st, if you're still watching B-Movies and they qualify for your personal challenge, go ahead and include them on both lists.

Please state your challenge theme and your challenge goal and rules (if any) at the top of your list(s) in the list thread so others can tell what you're up to.

Please don't duplicate an existing "Official" DVD Talk Challenge.

The "Official" Challenges as of now are: Horror, Holiday, Academy Award, Sci-Fi, Criterion, Drive-In/Exploitation/B-Movie, Animation, Historical, and TV on DVD* (see Trevor's "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium thread for details and links to individual challenges).

The main purpose of this guideline is to encourage participants to focus on genres not already covered by a Challenge, and to not subtract from participation in any other Challenges. However, as with other challenges, you may watch stuff that qualifies for one or more of the other challenges. With this in mind, if you want to narrow the focus of one of the broader existing challenges to a specific sub-genre, you can.

The "no duplication" guideline only applies to "Official" challenges. More than one participant may do the same (or similar) challenge(s). If you see a theme you like, feel free to "borrow" it, or contact the creator and see if he/she wants to collaborate on Challenge rules and "compete" toward a goal.

As is traditional with these Challenges, this discussion thread and the list thread will be here in the DVD Forum. This does not mean you have to watch DVDs only.


At the end of the month, three winners will be randomly chosen from the Challenge participants. In keeping with the spirit of the Make-Your-Own Challenge, those three winners will pick-their-own prizes from HamiltonBook.com.

Prize selection will be limited to items priced $20 or less.

Last year's discussion thread.
Last year's list thread.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Here's the participant list from last year to give you some ideas for Challenge themes. Note: TV on DVD is no longer a valid theme since we now have a TV on DVD Challenge.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I'm lazy and uncreative, so I'll work on completing some movie lists. I'm also going to maintain my currently completed Top IMDB lists(26 of them), as best I can.

Right now I'm looking at:
IMDB Top 50 Westerns - 12 remaining
BAFTA - Best Films - 17 remaining
100 Best Films Of World Cinema - 19 remaining
100 Silent Era Films - 23 remaining
IMDB Top 50 Musicals - 18 remaining

This should give me more than enough movies to go through. I'll be happy if I manage to finish the first 3.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Are those icheckmovies lists, or are you getting them from somewhere else?

I'm not being creative either. I'm just going to watch stuff out of my unwatched stacks that doesn't fit in any of the other Challenges (pretty much why I picked Hitchcock last year). I'll start with James Bond movies, then move on to something else if I get to it.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Put me on the lazy list. I'll be watching stuff from my unwatched stack and try to complete son icheckmovies lists. I know that I will be watching the Dirty Harry blu-ray set.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Since the TV on DVD challenge includes all types of shows, would a challenge consisting of just sitcoms be out of the question?

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Sounds like you're narrowing the focus of a broader existing challenge to a specific sub-genre, so that would be fine.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I plan on taking part, but haven't decided my theme yet. Right now I am debating a series of mini challenges consisting of Tolkien works/Doctor Who/Star Trek, but it could easilly change by the time the challenge starts.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Sweet!

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I'm certainly lazy... and the "official" challenges encompass the majority of what I typically watch: Sci-Fi, Horror, TVonDVD. Hmmm.... I may have to think on this one a bit...

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

May (and June and July for that matter) is going to be a pretty busy month for me, but I'm going to try and participate in this challenge anyway, albeit modestly. My theme will be: The May "A to Z" Movie Challenge, watching 26 movies in total, one for each letter of the alphabet.

EDIT: I think I might make May a Doctor Who Marathon Month, thanks Dimension X!

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

It's icheckmovies. I'm leading in completed lists right now and I'd like to be the first to hit 50 completed lists as well as put some distance between the guy in 2nd place.

Some of those lists can be grueling to go through. That's why the Musical list is last. I'm not really planning on getting that far :)

I'm also going to add a side challenge of going through my unwatched movies in alphabetical order. I've been neglecting the things I own and still buy, just so I can get checks on that site.

At first I was watching them in the order of the number of top lists they were in but started to get burned out because it eventually turned into pretentious movie after another and another. I'd be joyful when I'd finally get a movie in English.

A few months ago I got tired of that and set a new goal to be first in the lists. That's starting to burn me out as well so I've been thinking about changing my challenge again. I might still do the list for Westerns but then switch to movies I own that are on a list at the site.

I probably won't finalize anything until the end of the month.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Keep in mind you can "narrow the focus" of any of those Challenges. So you could do a month of Dr. Who, or a month of slasher films, or a month of I Love Lucy, etc.

Wow. That had to take some dedication. It's been a few months since I last went there, but I think I was only close to completing one or two lists.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

You know what, I actually have Doctor Who DVDs I need to watch, so I think I might make May a Doctor Who Marathon instead. Thanks!

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I am going to do Comedy A to Z and watch one comedy movie the begins with a different letter. I think I should have most covered except X, any ideas?

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Kicking around a few different ideas. One is to simply repeat last year's unoriginal theme of whittling down the Unwatched Pile. Another is to defer entirely to my wife for the month. I've also given thought to gorging on bonus content, which is generally discouraged from other challenges because the emphasis is on the feature, rather than supplementals.

I've also thought about a theme built around Ronald Reagan, in lieu of this being his centennial year. In theory, any content Reagan-centric would be eligible, be it a documentary about him, a movie starring him or a work of fiction that includes him. In theory, for instance, American Psycho would be eligible because it clearly takes place in the Reagan 80s and there's a clear discussion about his on-air mea culpa re: Iran-Contra. There are just two real problems with this theme. Firstly, I only own a few such titles and would be reliant upon rentals and streaming for the balance of the challenge. Secondly, I could easily wait until June as most of my Reagan-centric content will also qualify for the Historical Challenge.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

You can do a search on imdb by genre and I think you can also pull off a first letter. I checked my collection and came up with nothing, otherwise I'd help more.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I've been threatening to do Twin Peaks for years. I've bought the first season on Laserdisc, the pilot on Japanese laserdisc, The First and Second seasons separately on DVD and the Taiwan DVD of the Pilot, the Golden DVD box set of the complete series, and managed to acquire the series in 720p. Not to mention Laserdisc of Fire Walk With Me along with the DVD and Blu-ray (I have a multi-region player). I also have my MiniDV I've never edited of my visit to the filming locations while I was in Seattle.

Yeah, Twin Peaks.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Leaning towards jumping in with a Sci Fi TV Challenge (maybe even limited to just Star Trek).

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

"BRAIIIIIIIIIIIIIINZ" month of zombie takeovers.

i have well over 100 zombie movies im gonna try and watch as many as i can including the bonus material.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Not sure what I will choose.

- IMDB 250 Films I Have Not Seen
- Nostalgia (I've been meaning to go back and watch some of my favourites)
- Seinfeld and/or Friends
- Disney (focusing but not exclusively the Animated Theatrical Features)

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Ironic to see this thread start up since I've thought a few times about what I was going to do with this recently. If I stick w/films, I might go with a James Bond challenge since I have the Ultimate Editions and have watched only a few of the movies included. For a TV-specific focus, I could go with a challenge dedicated to Lost since I've only watched the first 2 seasons and want to go through the rest. Or I could be real ambitious and do both!

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I leaning toward copying what HotThang did last year with a One Degree of Separation challenge. Obviously, I have to start with a Kevin Bacon movie and if I'm organized enough, I'll end with one also, but I doubt I can ever plan it out well enough for that to happen.

The other option I'm considering is a Clint Eastwood marathon, but many of those will overlap with the Historical challenge in June.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Thinking about catching up on two or three seasons of Chuck

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

You shouldn't have any problems tracking down all those movies, with the exception of this bastard that's been up voted for some sort of Iranian protest thing. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1832382/ A Separation

It's just been playing at festivals so far and hasn't been released yet but has over 8,000 votes.