Originally Posted by CardiffGiant (Post 10897397)

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Check out the full list of Criterion and Eclipse DVD and BD releases here. Criterion's website allows for sorting by Brand, Format, Director, Country, Decade, and Features. This will allow easy searching for working through needed checklist items.

There are very few titles currently streaming on Netflix. Criterion is in the process of streaming exclusively to Hulu Plus. You still can find newer titles and OOP and LD Criterion titles streaming.

There are many Criterion titles available on Hulu Plus. This year we've decided to count any title available on Criterion's Hulu Plus site. These include titles that Criterion has the rights to, but has yet to release on DVD/BD. Hulu Plus is offering a number of free 1-month trials (one through Facebook and one using a .edu e-mail address are two commonly used ones). They also offer their standard 1-week free trial.

Criterion titles occasionally appear on broadcast television. Keep an eye on this discussion thread for upcoming broadcasts.

Wikipedia list of Criterion Laserdisc releases.

For inspiration on how to format your own list check out the 2009 List Thread and the 2010 List Thread.


This is not your father's Challenge. Think of this as an un-Challenge. The only goal is to watch Criterion content and share your experience with the rest of us. There is no specific number goal, no winners, no losers, no prizes.

This is not about bulk watching. Just watch however much you would normally watch in a month, but concentrate it on Criterion content as much as you can/want. In fact, bulk watching is discouraged, as that will limit your time for discussion and for immersing yourself in a film. Fully exploring a film is highly encouraged. Instead of racing through films and watching three or more in one day, why not fully experience each Criterion disc? Watch the film a second time with the audio commentary. Watch all of the special features on the disc. Read the insert booklet. Go on Criterion's website and read some of the essays for that film.

There will be a separate thread to include your lists as linked above. Be creative and personalize it however you wish - use one post for the whole month, daily posts, weekly posts, give reviews, provide IMDB links, add YouTube videos, add images, etc. It's recommended that you provide a link to your list(s) in your signature for easy access.

What qualifies? Any film, short, video or DVD supplemental feature that has been released by Criterion qualifies. The film does not have to watched on an actual Criterion disc. You may watch the film on any format imaginable, provided that it is the same film that Criterion has released. For example, the film Silence of the Lambs was released by Criterion on DVD/BD. But you don't have to watch the movie on that particular DVD/BD. You can watch it on VHS, on broadcast TV, on the internet, UMD, iTunes, or any of the various DVD/BD releases SOTL has had. Additionally, any title released by Criterion exclusively on streaming is eligible for this challenge.

Discussion and debate on how to change the Challenge is encouraged. We may not make changes in this current year, but there's always next year.

A daily journal sort of entry is recommended for your list. Since counting is not required or "scored" in any way, you are free to be as creative as you wish in how you list items. Bolding of your item titles is encouraged, if only to make them stand out to allow others to quickly see if they have seen the same items and wish to comment. Give reviews. Even if it's just a mini-review, a simple :up:/:down:, or a one word description.

In the inaugural challenge, Fist of Doom suggested a daily summary. Many did this; some did not. Now that we have examples from the previous years, it may be best to look at what has been done during 2009 for inspiration.

[spoiler]Watch one film from every decade covered by Criterion.
--- 1920 - (insert film title here)
--- 1930 - (insert film title here)
--- 1940 - (insert film title here)
--- 1950 - (insert film title here)
--- 1960 - (insert film title here)
--- 1970 - (insert film title here)
--- 1980 - (insert film title here)
--- 1990 - (insert film title here)
--- 2000 -(insert film title here)
--- 2010 - (optional), (insert film title here)

Watch films in at least five languages.
--- First language, (insert language), (insert title).
--- Second language, (insert language), (insert title).
--- Third language, (insert language), (insert title).
--- Fourth language, (insert language), (insert title).
--- Fifth language, (insert language), (insert title).

Watch films from five different directors in Criterion’s top 10 (Kurosawa, Bergman, Ozu, Malle, Fellini, Renoir, Powell, Godard, Truffaut, Rossellini)
--- First director, (insert director), (insert title)
--- Second director, (insert director),(insert title)
--- Third director, (insert director),(insert title)
--- Fourth director, (insert director),(insert title)
--- Fifth director, (insert director),(insert title)

Watch a film from five different “themes” on Criterion’s website

--- First theme name, (insert theme), (insert title)
--- Second theme name, (insert theme), (insert title)
--- Third theme name, (insert theme), (insert title)
--- Fourth theme name, (insert theme), (insert title)
--- Fifth theme name, (insert theme), (insert title)

Watch something from spine number range:
--- 001-050 -
--- 051-100 -
--- 101-150 -
--- 151-200 -
--- 201-250 -
--- 251-300 -
--- 301-350 -
--- 351-400 -
--- 401-450 -
--- 451-500 -
--- 500-550 –
--- 551-600 -
--- an Eclipse title -
--- Watch a title not released on DVD by Criterion (laserdisc or hulu offering, any format acceptable) -

--- Watch a film which won an Academy Award -
--- Watch a film with commentary –
--- Read an essay -
--- Watch a short -
--- Watch a Criterion disc completely. Every part of it (photo stills, essays, commentary, booklets, etc). -
--- Watch an entire Criterion Collector's Set/Eclipse Box Set -

(One item can fill multiple items. Example: Fanny & Alexander could qualify for a decade, language, spine number range, theme (Blue Christmases), director, Academy Award, commentary, essay, entire set, and possibly short.)

(Change "---" to "-X-" or some similar mark when you have completed that line item.)

The challenge officially begins September 1, 2011 at midnight of whatever time zone you are in at the time, and ends on October 1, 2011 at dawn in whatever time zone you're in at the time the sun rises. Also, feel free to time your final Criterion film to coincide with the start of the Horror Challenge.

Linkifications

Criterion.com
Twitter - @Criterion
Flickchart - The Best Criterion Collection Films
Flickchart: The Blog - Criterion Commentaries
ICheckMovies.com - The Criterion Collection

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10890608)

The blu-ray comment was a joke

Originally Posted by Sondheim (Post 10890909)

I've been looking forward to this challenge. I have about 15 unwatched Criterions from the recent sales, and I'm going to try to get them all watched next month.

I'm also making it a goal this year to participate more in the discussion thread this time around.

Originally Posted by shadokitty (Post 10891578)

I didn't plan to take part in the Criterion challenge at first, because I didn't think I'd find any movies that interested me, but after browsing Hulu's choices, I saw some pretty interesting movies, so I think I am in after all.

Originally Posted by Mister Peepers (Post 10891283)

Hulu snagged Criterions out from the grasp of Netflix and so you're able to watch them, as well as supplements here http://www.hulu.com/criterion

There's currently 562 films but some are expiring at the end of this month. Not sure how soon, if at all, they'd come back.

It looks like most of them require a Hulu Plus account, so there's always a free trial one could do.

Originally Posted by Gobear (Post 10891624)

So, films under the Criterion tab at Hulu are kosher, even if they are not official Criterion releases, i.e., no spine number? That's awesome because Criterion on Hulu has a ton of films that aren't yet commercially available in the US.

Originally Posted by Mister Peepers (Post 10891990)

Like what? I'm not up on spine numbers and such but they all look like films I've seen from a Criterion list I was checking out.

Originally Posted by Criterion

Criterion on Facebook wrote:
There will definitely be titles on Hulu that don't ultimately find their way to disc — including some real rarities that even the most seasoned cinephiles will be discovering for the first time, many of which have never even been translated into English before — but many more will be coming out in Criterion and Eclipse editions over time.

Originally Posted by Trevor (Post 10892222)

Thanks for taking the ball and starting things MinL. I had planned to do it this year but I may be otherwise engaged.

My OCD is disappointed to hear that Hulu Plus will have some Criterions exclusively online. I'll have to join up now.

Originally Posted by Sondheim (Post 10892130)

There are quite a few that haven't been released on DVD, actually.

Originally Posted by Mister Peepers (Post 10892423)

Maybe not by Criterion but I have some of those on DVD already.

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10892770)

I suppose I've sort of become de facto host this year? That's cool. First order of business is to congratulate Trevor for getting engaged and the second order of business is to chastise him for his awful pun! :P

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10892770)

I suppose I've sort of become de facto host this year? That's cool.

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10892770)

The HuluPlus Criterion selection is unquestionably "in," and as with the LaserDisc library, format doesn't matter. So if you can see something from the HuluPlus selection on another format, go for it. In fact, I'll go ahead and suggest adding "Watch a movie that's part of the HuluPlus assortment" to the checklist.

I personally am unlikely to try HuluPlus, because it's a hassle to connect my laptop to our TV for the purpose of streaming. It's just not nearly as clean as streaming from Netflix via the Wii. I could watch on my laptop, of course. I dunno. Maybe I'll check out the trial. Regardless of what I do, though, I would encourage others to explore the streaming Criterion selections.

Originally Posted by CardiffGiant (Post 10892882)

I'm not opposed to hosting again this year (in fact, I was planning for it), I've just been away for the past few weeks. If you would like to take it over, that's fine with me, too.

Originally Posted by CardiffGiant (Post 10892882)

As far as changes go, I was thinking that we should scrap ALL of the categories from the checklist. Last year, there was some discussion about the difficulties within the collection and I think it is more of a distraction from what Criterion is all about.

Originally Posted by Trevor (Post 10892998)

Awesome, we have three people who want to lead it!

As others have said, I think this Challenge in particular runs itself and doesn't need much work. We probably should seek a sponsor or three for some prizes.

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10893007)

I have laid down my host powers. TV on DVD* and Historical Appreciation were enough for me this year, thank you! :)

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10893007)

Besides, CardiffGiant did a fine job last year.

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10893007)

I agree, with two caveats. Firstly, I think recognizing the HuluPlus digital collection is reasonable. I view it as just as much a part of the Criterion Collection as the LaserDisc era, or the Eclipse titles. Secondly, as the collection grows, we'll need to periodically expand the spine number ranges to reflect the current count.

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10893007)

Also, I'll have you know I've already had quite a lot of Internet ugliness over this elsewhere. It involved a guy insisting that only the titles shown on Criterion.com are legitimate parts of the collection and quickly devolved into all kinds of unpleasantness. Not how I had wished to prepare myself for this challenge, I can tell you that much!

Originally Posted by Trevor (Post 10893023)

You've become the de-facto back-up lead. If Chad, Mister Peepers, or The Monkees ever have a power outage, I hope you're ready to step in there too. ;)

Originally Posted by Trevor (Post 10893023)

You've become the de-facto back-up lead. If Chad, Mister Peepers, or The Monkees ever have a power outage, I hope you're ready to step in there too. ;)

Originally Posted by Dimension X (Post 10893810)

I take it you left me off that list because you wanted to keep the plum position as MYOC Second-in-Command for yourself. :p

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10892887)

It's all you, hoss!

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10892887)

I think so far the idea has been to simply expand to include titles streaming as part of the Criterion Collection on HuluPlus, which is different from future releases.

Originally Posted by Gobear (Post 10892897)

As Sondheim indicated, my question wasn't about speculative titles, but Hulu Plus Criterion titles that aren't actual Criterion releases, like To Be or Not to Be, which is an OOP Warner disc, or Mikio Naruse's Wife, which AFAIK has never been commercially released in North America.

Originally Posted by Gobear (Post 10892897)

Scrapping categories? Which ones?

Originally Posted by Gobear (Post 10892897)

I would suggest adding a couple of new checklist items "---watch a film that is new to you" and "---watch a selection from Roger Ebert's Great Film series."

Originally Posted by Trevor (Post 10892998)

As others have said, I think this Challenge in particular runs itself and doesn't need much work. We probably should seek a sponsor or three for some prizes.

Originally Posted by Trevor (Post 10892998)

On the checklist, I selfishly think it's pretty perfect and shouldn't be tweaked much, if at all. The other Challenges have some very subjective categories, like directors and actors and subgenres. While nice for them, I wanted this one to be more clear-cut and stable. I consider the decades, genres, languages, and spine number categories to be the critical meat of the checklist, and the scant other items to be optional/changeable. Just my opinion of course, but if I had any Challenge creator powers they would include not making the checklist complex or variable like the other Challenges.

Originally Posted by Trevor (Post 10893023)

Agreed! I hope I don't sound too domineering or anything in my comments. I'm not trying to have my cake and eat it too (get my way but not have to run the Challenge), but just giving my opinions.

Originally Posted by CardiffGiant (Post 10894106)

If anyone wants to take the reins on the sponsor part, please do.

Originally Posted by Fist of Doom (Post 10894206)

You might want to PM one of the other challenge hosts, like Chad or Mister Peepers. They can guide you on how to ask for sponsors. This is a pretty limited challenge, but it's worth making a try.

Originally Posted by CardiffGiant (Post 10894106)

Last year there was some talk of scrapping the Genres. The reason for this is that there are some fairly massive underrepresented genres within the collection and many are difficult to define. If we want to keep the Genres I would at least propose that we refine them a bit for representation.

Originally Posted by CardiffGiant (Post 10894106)

I completely agree with your perspective here. Part of my reason for wanting to switch it a bit was because I feel that genres are subjective. Is Life Aquatic Action/Adventure, Drama, or Comedy? I realize that the answer is all three would be acceptable, but the real problem for me is the underrepresented Genres like "Science Fiction" and "Horror." I realize that there are a couple dozen titles out there, but there are literally hundreds of "drama" titles.

Originally Posted by CardiffGiant (Post 10894106)

I thought that if we shifted that to people like Bergman, Godard, Kurosawa, (Ozu...for GoBear...:)), then it might be easier to define those things.

Originally Posted by CardiffGiant (Post 10894106)

Would merging some of the categories make more sense for everyone? I feel like this should be more democratic than dictatorial. This isn't my checklist, it's our checklist. Also, I like leaning towards Trevor on these because he set up the challenge in the first place.

Originally Posted by CardiffGiant (Post 10894121)

Not at all. I started participating in challenges, in part, because you were always inclusive to people and I hope that same sentiment is communicated here. I didn't complete the checklist last year, but I don't feel bad about it. I think of the checklist as something to push me to explore new content, not as something that I have to complete to be a "real" participant.

Originally Posted by CardiffGiant (Post 10894121)

To anyone reading this thread thinking of joining the challenge, please do, we're not a bunch of snobs only talking about films you've never heard of. There are plenty of mainstream films released by Criterion on laserdisc, DVD, BD, etc. There's something for everyone.

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10894179)

Regarding genres, maybe the solution would be to simply open it up to "Watch movies from five different genres" with the clause that you can only use one movie for one genre. So if you wanted to count Life Aquatic for Comedy, that's fine but you couldn't also count it for Adventure.

Originally Posted by Trevor (Post 10894341)

Great idea!

But I think I still prefer mandating a range of genres, just to force people out of their box. The main point of the checklists is to broaden people's ranges, the next is to add some challenge to participation.

Originally Posted by Trevor (Post 10894448)

^ True, but people who hate horror and sci-fi can still easily steer clear of those, and pick 5 very similar films. It seems like lots of films have multiple genres listed, and the same type of film could be listed for Action, Adventure, Crime, and Drama; with Comedy and even Western being combo'd with other genres easily.

I like forcing people to choose genres that are dissimilar, and out of the dramedy or action mainstream. ;)

Maybe make comedy, horror, and sci-fi mandatory; but leave the other two up to the individual?

Originally Posted by MinLShaw (Post 10894370)

Animation isn't a genre; it's a medium, and in any event, there's not a lot of it in the Criterion Collection. (Is there any?)