Experiment for determining "Favourite BO.com films of YEAR"

[BK007]

Hi all.

 

edit: For TL:DR purposes I will spoiler my long passages.

 

Introduction

OK, so, I have been really interested in the Copyright Law 1976 after first reading about it. Basically no work from 1923 onwards has entered the public domain since that time and the first scheduled movie to re-enter the PD, if the term is not again extended, is 2019.

 

Now, I have only really scratched the surface of it all though I am interested in what terms like "free culture" and etc mean. Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to pay for anything after a certain length of time? I think everything released in 1955 would have entered the public domain this year. We can argue or discuss about the politics, societal repercussions and etc in the thread in the Speakeasy, but

I wanted to try an experiment here.

 

I'm sure everyone is familiar with an archaic message board "game" where the OP gives a list of anythings to be determined which ends up as favourite and you do so by adding and deducting a set number of points, something like this:

 

Favourite Pixar Flick?

The Incredibles 11 (+1)

Monsters Inc 10

Cars 2 9 (-1)

Brave 10

 

in which the next poster would be able to add and minus from the same films until only one film remains with the maximum 40 point total or maybe once there are two competitors left, they are only allowed to deduct. Whatever it is, this is what I want to try.

 

I want to test out a theory of something along the lines of how valuable a movie is. So, my test year will be 2009. In this case, anything released in the US in 2009 is eligible to be used. What I will give you, is an allocation of 5 (or 7) points per week, in which you are able to give to any film released in this year. So an example:

 

Week 1

[1] Avatar

[1] Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

[1] Crazy Heart

[1] Up in the Air

[1] Watchmen

 

Week 2- You get another 5 points, for example's sake, I am the only one posting here, so

[2] Avatar

[2] Up in the Air

[1] Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

[1] Crazy Heart

[1] Watchmen

[1] Inglorious Bastards

[1] 2012

[1] Zombieland

 

You are only allowed to add 1 point to 1 film each week, but you may add it to the same films week in, week out if you so choose. This will continue for a perhaps a three month period as a test run.

 

Motivation

To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm looking for, or what the results will tell me. I'm trying to maybe run a small test on the side of rewatchability, "classic" films, what is remembered vs what is forgotten, the effect of time on movies, whether BO gross means much...of course the results will be skewed because this is of course a select group of people on a forum and obviously not representative of the GA much like all other movie sites, however I would still like to run the test to see what comes of it after the initial run.

 

My eventual idea, would be to run it for the 2010s decade, or any decade, for a perpetual sort of experiment in which we would be able to see the "value" or "worth" of the film in aggregate. Tastes change and of course movies don't hold up. Now this is just my idea, I don't think you or I will be here perpetually and it would take too much work unless I could develop an easy sort of polling software where everything is automatic- but if I did, I'd try to run experiments over a much larger group of people...somehow! lol.

 

Anyway any suggestions? Is 2009 too far removed from our current landscape?

 

I wanted to leave the 2010 decade untouched so I could go through them chronologically but if people want, I could start with 2012 which is enough time to have seen most of what you would have wanted and for time to start setting in and demisting views.

 

Any suggestions are welcome to improve this experiment. The reason why I drew it out with such limits was to create the impression that there needs to be some effort to keep movies "in the public sphere/attention/consciousness" and to also test the passion and strength or the fanbase. By doing so, I think it will differentiate itself from the typical "Favourite/best movies of the year" lists because it is evolutionary and not static, you are allowed to help films you like and boost films you think need to be acknowledged as they are not on the list yet.

 

I think this might also mirror life where they are passionate fanbases of smaller films to counter the general amiable liking of more general films. If you noticed, small horror flicks or things like the Rocky Horror Picture Show are more notable and remembered today than higher grossing flicks of their respective years even if the film itself wasn't great, but it appealed to a certain section of people more and that's how it survives the onslaught of releases year after year whilst others fall to the wayside.

 

What this experiment lacks of course is any stakes for people to keep posting or to differentiate between constantly posting the same movies up unlike say, the most anticipated weekly list that delists films each week. Anyway, of course I won't do it if there is no one to participate, but if it's something that could potentially serve up some interesting results maybe it might work.

 

Perhaps we can all view this as BO.forum's best of 2009/year list except the voting period is longer, you get to vote more and you get to react to real time voting as opposed to posting once and accepting the list as it is. This also will be different as it enables at least some form of, as already mentioned, passion, effort and time. You will also be able to actually watch films you see that are rising that you have not seen and contribute or add your own.

 

To recap, you'd get either 5 or 7 points per week for three months to allocate to any movie you choose with the maximum of one point per movie per week.

 

The only obligation is to post once a week for three months.

 

Discussion open.

[BK007]

List of People Who Want to Participate.

[AniNate]

I think you should go even farther back, actually. Say, 2003. I think 10 years is a good dividing line between "new" and "classic", where the movie's legacy is much less likely to be shaped by future installments (like say, Avatar).

Edited July 17, 2014 by tribefan695