Poll

Which year should the next Retrospots cover?

1943
4 (21.1%)
1945
9 (47.4%)
Surprise me!
6 (31.6%)

Total Members Voted: 19

Author Topic: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection  (Read 11734 times)

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36128
  • Marathon Man
Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #80 on: January 18, 2017, 09:30:31 PM »
1) Agree on categories
2) Submit preliminary nominations ballot
3) Create FYC threads based on preliminary ballots
4) Begin the discovery process and accept new FYCs

Since you've opened a Discovery Thread, when do you want preliminary nominations ballots?

mañana

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 20862
  • Check your public library
Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #81 on: January 20, 2017, 09:02:17 PM »
But now you have me doubting that.

pixote
It would just a thought. Your approach makes sense.
There's no deceit in the cauliflower.

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36128
  • Marathon Man
Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #82 on: February 02, 2017, 02:47:14 PM »
Any preference between a somewhat intentionally murky "Best Surprise" category and something like a "Best Underseen Film" category, which would be limited to films with less than 5,000 votes on IMDb, thus only excluding the following:

I just noticed only 20 films are eliminated with a 5000 vote ceiling. Wonder if you might want to lower this. Even cutting the limit in half to 2500 votes only eliminates 32 titles.

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #83 on: February 02, 2017, 02:55:17 PM »
Why are you trying to eliminate more films from contention? I bet most people here haven't seen the majority of those 20 films.

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #84 on: February 02, 2017, 03:02:29 PM »
Here are the vote counts for the films I'm tracking for my watchlist with less than 5000 votes:

Blithe Spirit (3,830)
Objective, Burma! (3,576)
Isle of the Dead (3,006)
Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (2,987)
State Fair (2,831)
Back to Bataan (2,796)
A Walk in the Sun (2,733)
Road to Utopia (2,668)
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (2,437)
The Story of G.I. Joe (2,320)
The Clock (2,306)
Conflict (2,195)
The Enchanted Cottage (2,159)
The Southerner (1,900)
Caesar and Cleopatra (1,884)
The Corn Is Green (1,840)
Hangover Square (1,640)
Wonder Man (1,479)
The Naughty Nineties (1,458)
Murder, He Says (1,397)
The Valley of Decision (1,351)
Sanshiro Sugata Pt 2 (1,338)
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1,242)
My Name Is Julia Ross (1,200)
The Battle of San Pietro (1,133)
Love Letters (1,111)
The Seventh Veil (1,017)
The Way to the Stars (980)
The Wicked Lady (808)
Vacation from Marriage (715)
Yolanda and the Thief (669)
Kitty (528)
A Diary for Timothy (500)
A Bell for Adano (477)
The Cheaters (353)
The True Glory (274)

The Woman in Green seems to be the only film of the year with total votes in the 4,000 range. So we could lower the threshold to 4,000 or even 3,000 and only barely change the total number of ineligible films ... but it might make for a better precedent for future Retrospot years.

pixote
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36128
  • Marathon Man
Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #85 on: February 02, 2017, 03:16:14 PM »
Why are you trying to eliminate more films from contention? I bet most people here haven't seen the majority of those 20 films.
We're eliminating 20 from over 600 films. Hardly a Hidden Gem for that year, whereas like you;re implying, the entire list will be a hidden gem to many.

Seems there isn't a mark that can be set for all Filmspot years, present and future. I would be more for eliminating the top 10%, however many that turns out to be, or the Top 50, which sets the bar at under 1,425 votes.

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #86 on: February 02, 2017, 03:29:08 PM »
Seems there isn't a mark that can be set for all Filmspot years, present and future. I would be more for eliminating the top 10%, however many that turns out to be, or the Top 50, which sets the bar at under 1,425 votes.

If everyone were comfortable downloading films or lived next to an amazing video store, I'd love to set a really low threshold. But, as is, I don't want there to be any barriers to participation. I think 5,000 is a good place to start in the debut year of the category, and we'll see what the results look like. The nominees might turn out to be self-filtering regardless, when the more widely seen films become ilneligible by virtue of being nominated in other key categories.

edit: Fun Fact: IMDb lists 277 features with a rating of at least 6.7 (the rating for Cornered), but 100 of those have less than 28 votes.

pixote
« Last Edit: February 02, 2017, 03:36:02 PM by pixote »
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #87 on: February 02, 2017, 03:33:23 PM »
I think under 5000 IMDb votes is a pretty good "hidden gem" benchmark for any year. Especially when even some of the ones over that threshold are somewhat obscure. Christmas in Connecticut isn't really part of the common conversation.

A lot of it is just personal perception though. For instance, I wouldn't think of Road to Utopia or State Fair as "hidden gems"... and I haven't even seen them myself!

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #88 on: February 02, 2017, 07:37:04 PM »
I think under 5000 IMDb votes is a pretty good "hidden gem" benchmark for any year.

Just for fun ... If we'd applied this standard to 1999 (where a film like eXistenZ has three times more votes than any 1945 film), there would have been around 186 possible nominees, including:

After the Rain (3,053)
Time Regained (1,863)
Wonderland (3,615)
Luna Papa (2,814)
Peut-être (1,378)
Sicily! (459)
Humanité (2,945)
Wisconsin Death Trip (1,206)
On the Ropes (337)
The Mission (3,852)
Running Out of Time (4,464)
Shower (3,491)
Postmen in the Mountains (1,024)
It All Starts Today (2,068)
A Room for Romeo Brass (1999)

But not including:

Ratcatcher (6,191)
Limbo (5,215)
Girl on the Bridge (11,198)
The Color of Paradise (11,752)
Topsy-Turvy (10,223)
Peppermint Candy (5,446)
Titus (17,598)

That's a wider range of titles than I would have guessed, though pretty much every US feature film seems to be ineligible, save for Twin Falls Idaho and a handful of others.

The fairer threshold might have been as high 25,000, which separates The Limey (25,099) from Mystery, Alaska (22,579) ... though 15,000 is much more likely.

pixote
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad