The list thread is now active.

May's coming up fast, so it's time, once again, to take a look at your dusty, unopened box sets, your unwatched stacks of Blu-rays, DVDs, HD-DVDs, LDs, VHS or Beta tapes, your DVR, your Netflix queue, whatever, and decide what you should spend 31 days watching. Now's your chance to finally watch all the stuff that didn't fit, or that you just didn't get around to, during the other Challenges.

Everyone's "need to watch" list is different, so you get to choose your Challenge theme and you get to make your own rules. (e.g. It's up to you how, or even if, you count the items in your list(s). If you want wildcards - go for it. You want to include concerts, plays, radio shows, or books - knock yourself out.)

With that in mind, there are a few guidelines which everyone should follow.

Challenge Guidelines:

The Challenge runs from May 1 through May 31.

Sure, you can run your May MYOC in September if you want, but the list thread will only be stickied during May, so if you want anyone else to see what you're up to, please try to keep it within those dates.

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.

This guideline is mainly here so we don't subtract from participation in any of the other Challenges, and to encourage participants to focus on genres not already covered by a Challenge, but since everyone's "need to watch" list is different, and you're able to watch stuff that qualifies for one or more of the other Challenges during every other Challenge, you're free to narrow the focus of one of the broader "Official" Challenges.

For example; Say you only collect horror, then you could make your Challenge to watch just horror films, or just horror TV shows, or just zombie films, etc. Or if you have lots of unwatched Sci-Fi, then your MYOC could be just watch Sci-Fi movies, or watch Star Trek shows, or watch TOS, etc.

Here's Trevor's handy-dandy list of Challenges from his "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium thread:

DVDTalk Challenge Schedule

Check out the previous threads for ideas:
2010 discussion thread.
2010 list thread.
2011 discussion thread.
2011 list thread.



On June 1st, three winners will be randomly chosen from the Challenge participants (using Random.org). 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.

For the purpose of this drawing, a participant is anyone not called Dimension X who has claimed a spot in the list thread, has chosen a Challenge theme, and has listed at least one item in his/her list.

If for some reason you do not wish to participate in the random drawing (e.g. Your mother told you to never accept free stuff from strangers; the warden doesn't allow you to receive packages; your spouse, or your roommate, or the voices in your head told you that you already have enough DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, and/or books and will not allow you to acquire any more), please opt out by letting me know, either by PM, or in this thread, or in your list post.

Winners will be given one week to pick their prizes. Any unclaimed prize opportunities will be re-gifted on June 8.

I will announce the prizes chosen so we can all be envious and/or amused by the selections.

I'll be doing a commentary track challenge this year.

I'm thinking a month of John Ford.

i think i may be going cheap on the challenge and do a "Eliminate my unwatched pile and Nwi que"

by going along with more challenges this past year iv blind bought so many titles i never got around to seeing and adding so much to my que on netflix

My favorite Challenge! I'm waiting a week or two and then stealing one or more of all your ideas.

This would definitely be the perfect opportunity to pry open that big, beautiful Dark Shadows coffin and see what's lurking inside.

I'd like to do that sometime too. The problem would be deciding what to watch, since he made so many movies. It wouldn't be as easy as my Hitchcock challenge was.

Looking at his credits on IMDb, I only have a few of his early films, so it probably wouldn't be too hard after all. I need to try to get his TV stuff and the later films I'm missing so I can do this next year (or the year after).
I figured you'd (have to) go with a "Watching What My Wife Tells Me I Can Watch" Challenge.

I'm doing a combo of working on a Noir list, of which I have 93 movies left, and working on things I failed to finish for other challenges. These include The Addams Family TV show and the 2 TV ewok movies.

In keeping with my goal of watching the entire Star Trek franchise in 2012, I'll probably try to get through DS9 for this challenge. On the other hand, I might just take a break from Trek but then I'd have to think of another challenge. Decisions, decisions.

I can give you a list of must-sees if you want.

Are they unwatched DVDs/BDs? DVDs/BDs you got for your birthday? C'mon, at least try to come up with a theme of some sort.
Sure, go ahead. I've probably seen (and own) most of the must-sees, it's some of the other stuff that I'd want to watch along with them (like his Screen Directors Playhouse episode that I failed to record when TCM showed it a few months back) that I want to get before I devote a month to his films.

Mad Men & Wife's 'To Watch' pile.

And a non-fancy list this time around.

You won't be alone!

I toyed with a "Bob Hope" challenge last year but went with "serials". I'm leaning towards doing that Bob Hope one this time *or* a "He's dead, Jim" challenge where the top billed star must have died during the 20th Century (Jan. 1, 1901-Dec. 31st 2000). But then I *did* purchase quite a few serials that I just didn't get worked in last year. Hmmm... do a repeat or something new...

I'm going for an Unwatched/Unopened Challenge. It's shameful how many movies I have unwatched. Since it coincides with some business trips and TV season finales, I'll shoot for an over/under of 20 films.

Probably do another foreign-language film challenge.

Thinking of doing a 1990s challenge, only watching material from that decade...

...Or to commemorate the death of the movie rental industry perhaps only watching material purchased at store closing sales...

...Or maybe a remake challenge...

Toying with the idea of a Westerns challenge but I'll probably leave that for historical month. I watched Buffy season 1 for the TV challenge and will probably take on season 2.

I think I'll do my Latin American films although maybe I should do Asian as I have a huge backlog of that. hmmmm. what do you all think?

If it were me, I'd probably do Asian. Or split the month in two and do Asian to start and then switch halfway through to avoid burnout.

Discussed it with a friend who is going to watch a lot of the shows with me, and we decided on a mixture of documentaries and an 80s challenge.

I think it may be possible to be addicted to these challenges. Even though I'm not participating in this month's exploitation-a-thon, I had been reading the discussion, and I'm itching to get back into the obsessive list-making!

Thinking of watching films adapted from literature. Hoping it will also motivate me to read more books. However, I was also thinking about choosing a random staring year from which to pick a film and then each subsequent film must be from the year before or after the last.

You get a virtual high five from Jen for that one.

I do want to try to get her and maybe our daughter involved in this one, so perhaps I'll work with them to come up with a family-friendly viewing plan.

Perhaps a Disney or Goosebumps marathon.

Did they have any DVDs you didn't already own? Maybe you could introduce each other to some favorite (family-friendly) films that the other hasn't seen.

Don't forget--it's only four years till the 50th anniversary of Trek's premiere broadcast. You may want to save some material for then.