Filmspotters' Top 100 Directors 2010 : Discussion & Suggestions

[Verite]

This is difficult, how do you guys go about making the actual list?  Do you just brainstorm?  Use some kind of point system for good/great/masterpiece films?

I don't consider the number of great films a director has.  I'm mostly ranking them by how much I love the overall personality/tone of their filmography.

[MartinTeller]

My problem is deciding sequence, how do you decide who is #35 and who is #34?

I don't worry about that too much.

[dallegre]

This is difficult, how do you guys go about making the actual list?  Do you just brainstorm?  Use some kind of point system for good/great/masterpiece films? 

What I did was I just came up with a giant list of directors, then I went through that big list one by one and picked 10 or 12 that I thought were definite inclusions. Those made up my top 10, then I went through and did the same thing four more times, each time trying to list the subgroup of 10 or so directors by how I rank them. So I picked 1-10, ranked them, picked 11-20, ranked them, picked 21-30, ranked them, etc. I didn't really do any sort of point system, or great-to-bad ratio. I just picked directors whose films I personally love. For instance, I had Spike Jonze at #16 and Akira Kurosawa at #27. That doesn't necessarily mean that Kurosawa is less skilled than Spike Jonze, but I just enjoy Jonze's films more.

[Sam the Cinema Snob]

I go with my gut instinct.

[Senor Javi]

This is difficult, how do you guys go about making the actual list?

I'm probably going to win for the most convoluted and roundabout way of doing things, but the results I have are pretty close to my "gut" feelings and are definitely the most quantifiable. First, I started with the parameter that I had to have seen five films from each director (yes, this immediately disqualifies Terrence Malick and the like, but none of them were close anyway). Second, I rated all of their films that I had seen 1 - 5 stars including half star increments. Third, I ranked them using this fancy formula (no, I'm not a math person):

2*x + y/2

where x is the average of their five best films and y is the average of all subsequent films. If I had only seen five films then y is the average of films four and five. The highest possible score is 12.5. Currently my number one director has a score of 11.43 and my number fifty director has a score of 8.45, though three new directors will probably make their ways on before the deadline. If two or more directors had the same score, I compared their best films.

[verbALs]

Hmmm reminds me of Dead Poets Society

[smirnoff]

I just went through my dvd's and jotted down names, then looked them up on imdb and put together a list of every film I'd seen from every director's name I'd jotted down. Then just shuffled the names around until it felt right.

[Beavermoose]

My problem is deciding sequence, how do you decide who is #35 and who is #34?

Flip a coin.

[zarodinu]

I decided to go with a point system.  I already have IMDB remember all the films I really liked as 8/10 9/10 or 10/10.  I wrote down the names of every director with 3 or more films, and gave points based on how many very good/great/masterpiece films he made. 

8/ 10  = 2 points 
9/ 10  = 3 points
10/10 = 5 points

After that I line them up based on score, and proceed to shuffle around based on preference.

[Dave the Necrobumper]

My problem is deciding sequence, how do you decide who is #35 and who is #34?

Flip a coin.

Accept that the one you pick for #35 you may put at #34 next week.