FOFC Movie Club!

[thesloppy]

I think enough interest has been established, and a member list is unnecessary, so I'll just prop cthomer's charter up here.

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

LETS GO

With thesloppy's blessing, I'm going to go ahead and push this ship into the water. Below is the charter design for the club, which will obviously be subject to change if we find something isn't working (the pace, participation, etc).



SCHEDULE

In general we'll run it monthly, or on a 4 week schedule. We can play that by ear. Here's the outline:

Week 1: Guest Host solicits suggestions from the rest of the club. I would say do it publicly in a thread, since those can always server as a pool of ideas we can dip back into later if needed.

Week 2: Guest Host announces his selection for that month. Club participants now have 2 weeks to get their hands on the movie, watch it, and think on it.

Week 3: nothing. this is the "get the movie in your hands time"

Week 4: Discussion. I'd hope the Guest Host will take the lead here and maybe even have a few prepared questions or something.

Week 5: Begin the whole process again.


TECHNICAL DETAILS

Membership

• Anyone is free to join at anytime! Simply participate in the threads! Come one, come all!

Guest Host Selection

• I will serve as the first guest host. thesloppy will serve as the second. This is simply to get this thing off to a strong start.
• Starting in month 3, a random group member will be selected to be the guest host for that month. We'll use a random number generator to pick the person. There will be two criteria to be eligible 1)The person must not have been guest host in the 2 prior months 2) The person must have participated in the last discussion (this is just to avoid the whole thing from collapsing if someone disappears)

Movie Selection

• The Guest Host will take suggestions from the entire club for roughly a week before making a decision. While they are free to choose a film of their own, I would advise against it. The more genuine involvement we're getting, the more fun it will be for all involved.
• Guest Host should ensure that the movie is widely available before selecting it.

Viewing Suggestion

• I assume we're all watching on DVD. I would strongly encourage everyone to watch a Widescreen version when possible, and subtitled (rather than dubbed) when watching a foreign film. If you don't do this already, you should. It's really for your own cinematic good.

Suggestions

Please make them, this is your group.


What to do now:

Post your movie suggestions (or PM them to me if you'd like). I will choose our first movie on Monday, January 2nd.

We'll then discuss it the week of 1/16.

[WVUFAN]

I'd be up for it.

[Groundhog]

Count me in.

[Draft Dodger]

up as long as the movies aren't all lame french subtitled ones. unless there's lots of nudity, of course

[ntndeacon]

Yea sure.

[RendeR]

I could be talked into it, we are able bodied abusers of the netflix system =)

[tanglewood]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

up as long as the movies aren't all lame french subtitled ones. unless there's lots of nudity, of course

What!? Some of the best movies are lame French subtitled ones.

Interested.

[MrBug708]

I'd be interested

[korme]

I'm down

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

up as long as the movies aren't all lame french subtitled ones. unless there's lots of nudity, of course

Some of the best movies have lots of nudity.

[thesloppy]

Obviously I'm in!

I thought I'd throw some of the logisitical questions out there, just because I'm bored, and avoiding going to sleep.

Assigning Movies - I'd just take the member list and start at the top of the list, that person chooses a movie, and ten move on down the line. If you had a lot of people, it would kinda suck to have to wait a long time until your pick. I suppose everybody could toss a movie into a pool, with a short summary or something, and then everybody could vote after each movie for the one to follow.

Timetable - This is an interesting question...obviously the longer the time period the more of a guarantee that everyone will watch, and discuss the movie, but do you want to wait a month between movies? I mean, what If I choose Chinese Super Ninjas as my movie (as I am wont to do), and discussion consists of a 'WTF?' and 'that suuucked.', and then there's another month until the next movie? No fun.........for you. I 'm stoked! WOOO NINJAZ! Then again, not everybody has the time to watch a movie every week. Especially a movie someone else picked. On the other hand, if we did one a week you could just keep it relatively informal, and if the movie didn't sound like your cup of tea you don't watch that one, there'll be another one next week. I guess this also depends on the number of people interested.

Restrictions - Well, I guess personally I'd say none, but I'd be understanding and acceptive to just about any....I wouldn't nominate Ass-To-Mouth Quarterly or anything, but I do like some films that are very violent, and I understand that's just not everybody's thing. At the very least, people should be very upfront about the content of any prospective movies (no spoilers of course!), leaving the decision up to the viewer.

[Groundhog]

Assigning movies: Randomly choose a member each month until everyone's had their pick, and then random it again, so you don't know when you'll be up.

Timetable: Gotta be monthly IMO, as anything less will probably be too little time.

Restrictions: Just keep it sensible.

[timmynausea]

I'm in.

My only suggestion is that we have the next few movies announced in advance so that we can queue them ahead of time. I just think it'd make the process quicker and easier.

[korme]

Monthly? I'd say bi-weeky.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by timmynausea

I'm in.

My only suggestion is that we have the next few movies announced in advance so that we can queue them ahead of time. I just think it'd make the process quicker and easier.

I concur.

[DeToxRox]

I'd be in

[Honolulu_Blue]

I'm in. Good idea, fellas.

[mauchow]

I could prolly do this.

[WrongWay]

Damn, I was hoping this was going to be some type of movie exchange program.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Assigning Movies - How should we choose movies?
Timetable - How long between movies?
Restrictions - Any?

First off, clearly i'm interested. My thoughts on the above:

assigining movies: Each month, someone is defacto head of the club. Rather than picking one single movie, I suggest they nominate a few (maybe 3?) and the club picks one to go with. It might help weed out the "we've all seen this except you" type selections. Of course there are many movies i would personally love ot watch again and discuss.

timetable: one per month? or once every X weeks? Frankly i could go with a much brisker pace, but i think you want to give people some room watch their own movies inbetween those for the FOFC movie club.

restrictions: None from where i'm standing, except the movie has to be widely available. I think if people have any major movie hangups they should post them now. For example, i know some people simply will not watch sub-titled movies (those people are missing out big time, by the way).

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

Monthly? I'd say bi-weeky.

I'd be aware that most people don't have the endless free time that a college student does.

[oliegirl]

I'm in...and by default, radii is too We have pretty different taste in movies so it could make for some interesting discussions...

I agree that monthly is good, trying to get movies rented from Netflix/Blockbuster online and watched in 2 weeks is sometimes difficult

[gottimd]

I'm in, as long as the timeframe is longer than 2 weeks to watch a movie.

Was there any mention on the limit of the movie? Does it have to be new? Can it be a classic that someone in the club loves from a long time ago?

[cthomer5000]

alright, so why dont we get rockin? thesloppy, you want to lead off? if not i'll gladly take the reigns!

[Flasch186]

ill try it.

[SFL Cat]

I might be interested in this...but only if everyone agrees to watch my movie when I finish it.

[Anthony]

American Pie - Band Camp

what the hell did they do to that franchise??? WOW. lol.

i want to see it nonetheless.

[Cuckoo]

Count me in - I watch most of them anyway, might as well soil the board with my opinions.

[Bearcat729]

I think this might be fun. Count me in.

[korme]

BTW, are we going for blockbuster movies? Older (70's) movies? Obscure titles? Any critieria or is it up to the person in charge that time?

[korme]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

I'd be aware that most people don't have the endless free time that a college student does.

Yeah, and that's fine.. I'm just saying 12 movies a year isn't a lot. My brother is a full-time worker and watches tons of movies all the time. My mom rents 2 new movies a week. So from my perspective I thought 2 weeks would be enough, but if not, then that's ok.

[tanglewood]

I'd prefer that we don't just choose blockbusters from the last 3 or 4 years, as that kinda defies the whole point of searching out films to talk about. Anything else I am completley open about. Any time, subtitled or English, colour or black and white, well known or obscure. As long as the person choosing it thinks it will be interesting to talk about, I don't really mind.

Infact that would be the only criteria I'd have, it has to interesting. Note, not neccesarily good, or exciting, or moving, or whatever, just interesting (although if it has one of the other qualities, the better!).

[korme]

Why don't we all PM thesloppy a movie nomination, then in like 5 days he posts a thread, and we vote?

[oliegirl]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

American Pie - Band Camp

what the hell did they do to that franchise??? WOW. lol.

i want to see it nonetheless.

Is this supposed to be a prequel? Or did the main guy's dad go to be an instructor at band camp? I am confused...

[Bearcat729]

Originally Posted by oliegirl

Is this supposed to be a prequel? Or did the main guy's dad go to be an instructor at band camp? I am confused...

It's the younger brother of Stiffler at band camp.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

Why don't we all PM thesloppy a movie nomination, then in like 5 days he posts a thread, and we vote?

What would the point of PMing them to him be then? Seems overly complicated.

I think we should go one of three routes with the selections:

1. That month's guest host chooses the movie.
2. That month's guest host chooses a few nominees, we vote on the movie to go with.
3. Everyone submits a suggestion each month, and the guest host chooses the movie we go with.

[duckman]

I would like to play along.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

BTW, are we going for blockbuster movies? Older (70's) movies? Obscure titles? Any critieria or is it up to the person in charge that time?

Depends on what we go with as the selection process. I would hope we largely avoid blockbusters, as there is usally very little to discuss. (Whoa! Did you see when that guy's head exploded!).

[tanglewood]

I think random selection of a guest host who is given dictatorial control would be best and provide the most interesting movies. No compromise! Didn't like it? Turned it off after 10 minutes it was so bad? Then come and tell everyone else why.

[thesloppy]

Regarding selection method and timetable, it'll obviously be hard to come up with something that's going to work for everybody.

Would it work to, say, assign 3 or 4 hosts per month, and they each choose a movie? You could still keep a single discussion thread for that month, but it would cover all of the movies, adn the only requirement would be that you watch at least one of that month's movies. Those that have the time and desire to watch a movie a week could do so, while others could just stick with one per month. Does that sound feasible, or does it defeat the purpose if you make it somehwat optional to watch all of the movies?

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

defeat the purpose if you make it somehwat optional to watch all of the movies?

Yes.

I think it would kill it before it even got started.

[st.cronin]

I would like to play.

[duckman]

We could have each person submit three movie choices to thesloppy and he can randomly pick one out of a hat each month.

[cthomer5000]

LETS GO

With thesloppy's blessing, I'm going to go ahead and push this ship into the water. Below is the charter design for the club, which will obviously be subject to change if we find something isn't working (the pace, participation, etc).



SCHEDULE

In general we'll run it monthly, or on a 4 week schedule. We can play that by ear. Here's the outline:

Week 1: Guest Host solicits suggestions from the rest of the club. I would say do it publicly in a thread, since those can always server as a pool of ideas we can dip back into later if needed.

Week 2: Guest Host announces his selection for that month. Club participants now have 2 weeks to get their hands on the movie, watch it, and think on it.

Week 3: nothing. this is the "get the movie in your hands time"

Week 4: Discussion. I'd hope the Guest Host will take the lead here and maybe even have a few prepared questions or something.

Week 5: Begin the whole process again.


TECHNICAL DETAILS

Membership

• Anyone is free to join at anytime! Simply participate in the threads! Come one, come all!

Guest Host Selection

• I will serve as the first guest host. thesloppy will serve as the second. This is simply to get this thing off to a strong start.
• Starting in month 3, a random group member will be selected to be the guest host for that month. We'll use a random number generator to pick the person. There will be two criteria to be eligible 1)The person must not have been guest host in the 2 prior months 2) The person must have participated in the last discussion (this is just to avoid the whole thing from collapsing if someone disappears)

Movie Selection

• The Guest Host will take suggestions from the entire club for roughly a week before making a decision. While they are free to choose a film of their own, I would advise against it. The more genuine involvement we're getting, the more fun it will be for all involved.
• Guest Host should ensure that the movie is widely available before selecting it.

Viewing Suggestion

• I assume we're all watching on DVD. I would strongly encourage everyone to watch a Widescreen version when possible, and subtitled (rather than dubbed) when watching a foreign film. If you don't do this already, you should. It's really for your own cinematic good.

Suggestions

Please make them, this is your group.


What to do now:

Post your movie suggestions (or PM them to me if you'd like). I will choose our first movie on Monday, January 2nd.

We'll then discuss it the week of 1/16.

[cthomer5000]

So that's it. I think the selection method is a good balance between participation (everyone can make a suggestion) and giving the host some control (they make the final decision).

[Godzilla Blitz]

Neat idea. I'll give this a go as well. Probably won't be able to see all the movies, but I'll give it a shot.

[thesloppy]

Awesome CT! I'm super glad you did this, as it would've taken me a month just to try to reach some kind of concensus.

Now I just have to think of my suggestion. Would you prefer a summary, or any info besides just a title?

Also, are we going to try and keep everything in a single thread? Obviously we don't want to flood the board, but I think it would be cool to start a poll for each movie to be discussed individually. The poll options could reflect the viewer's 1-5 rating, giving us a simple FOFC rating for each flick.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Now I just have to think of my suggestion. Would you prefer a summary, or any info besides just a title?

It's up to the individual. I think a summary would help everyone though, and there's nothing wrong with trying to "sell" your suggestion a little bit. For example, i make a lot of my movie decisions based off a director. If I see a movie I love, I'll generally seek out another movie by that director. So it might be worth including whatever info might be relevant when suggesting a movie.

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Also, are we going to try and keep everything in a single thread? Obviously we don't want to flood the board, but I think it would be cool to start a poll for each movie to be discussed individually. The poll options could reflect the viewer's 1-5 rating, giving us a simple FOFC rating for each flick.

Neat idea, i hadn't even thought of a poll when thinkg about the discussion. I would say one nomination/annoucement thread, then 1 discussion thread/poll. It's nice that we can edit the titles now, making it easier to draw some attention to a thread once a movie has been picked or whatever.

[tanglewood]

Okay, I'd like to make two suggestions:

8½ (Fellini; 1963)

One of the acknowledged masterpieces of cinema, and I haven't got round to watching it yet. Rated in both top tens of the latest edition of the prestigious Sight & Sound poll (3rd with directors, 9th with critics) and winner of the Best Foriegn Film Oscar whilst obtaining nominations for screenplay and direction (great achievements for a foreign film), it has been praised to the heavens for decades. Legendary director Federico Fellini mixes surreal dream sequences into a substantially autobiographical tale of a frustrated film maker experiencing writer's block whilst simultaneously becoming torn between his wife and his illicit mistress. Yes, it is just over 2 hours long, yes, it is in black and white, yes, it is in Italian. But I have been puting off seeing this film for some time and thought that now would be the best idea to suggest it. Simply put, it is a fantastic piece of art I think everyone would have great fun disecting and discussing.

Chinatown (Polanski; 1974)

Another film I've wanted to see for a while but haven't yet. Call it a post-Watergate take on noir if you will, with questionable morals from questionable characters in a terrific Oscar winning plot (best screenplay winner; 10 other nominations including direction and both lead actors). Nichloson, in allegedly his best performance, is a tough but slightly suspect ex-cop turned P.I. who is called to investigate a seemingly straight forward murder case that just spirals and spirals into the grungy gloom of 1930s Los Angeles. There is some violence and bad language (it is rated an R), but certainly not a great deal compared to modern films in the same vein, as it relies on creating the tension through skillful direction and terrific acting as opposed to gratiuity. A modern classic of American cinema that explores deep into both the time it was made and human nature as a whole.

[thesloppy]

My immediate reaction to seeing both of those film titles is that I want to share my opinions on them both RIGHT NOW. Perhaps all of the nominations should be via PM to avoid a lot of discussion taking place during the nominations?

Chinatown roolz, Fellini droolz. See? Couldn't be helped.