Looking Forward

I made this a new post because I lost my long comment and didn't want to suffer that sadness again. ADVICE: Don't press "Preview" as you're incredibly insightful and thought-provoking commentary will disappear. Shit.

Highlights of former long-winded post: @Patrick's genre idea is great and the work involved in finding that week's pick would necessarily limit the number of people tweeting. I'm against limiting the number by other means (secret personal invitations, ie).

Should the accessibility of the choice be completely up to that week's chooser? Should the day and time?

@Andrew's comments speaks to this as well. There are some who will argue strongly that the more well-known and beloved film, the more participants and the larger the social aspect of the event. The other camp wants more insight and argument about merits, which is also valid.

This might also be a chance for the "chooser" to champion something they've loved but hasn't been widely seen. Or something the "chooser" needs an excuse to queue up and revisit.

The number of participants will reflect the choice and the day and time chosen. Obscurity will lower the numbers, but those who participate may have a more satisfying experience.

There is something to be said for shared experience on TCM #strangelove as well as the effort needed to secure an individual DVD/download #jaws.

MichaelVox <--who has only been using blogger for 14 years and should know how it works by now
Posted on 7/13/2009 11:04:00 AM by MichaelVox and filed under | 3 Comments »

3 comments:

Patrick said... @ July 13, 2009 at 11:47 AM

I also lost my comments. It's why I left Blogger years ago! But I did copy and paste, even if some of this shit is now redundant to Michael's post above.

I agree with Andrew about not going off the top 100 of all-time list. Discussion would be much livelier, a better read. But I think there's room for many types of films.

Couple thoughts spring to mind:

1. We need films participants have seen, preferably multiple times. The live-tweet requires much time not watching the screen. How many films that you hate but have seen multiple times?

2. Have people seen a lot of Denis and Rohmer? Also, in this instance, isn't a smaller panel sufficient? I would think so. On one hand, you'll get more audience with a JACKIE BROWN, SUNSET BLVD, LIFE AQUATIC or THE SHINING. On the other hand, I personally would love to see someone live-tweet ANTICHRIST, but that's just me.

3. We should do some sort of headcount at the outset to determine individuals who have strong opinions, for or against, as well as those along for the ride. Just nice to know who's playing for which team, you know?

4. There is a case to be made for some planned, infrequent livetweets. Time for promotion, if desired, especially with more popular films. Also time to not irritate with overdoing it. Twitter is unlike a chat room, and if we overdo it, could be seen as just noise/spam. That said, the spontaneity of watching and chatting is half the fun. I think there's a balance to be struck.

5. I'd love to be convinced a la Nathan Rabin at the AV Club about beautiful flops, or a reviled movie that a viewer thinks is magical. Discovering or re-discovering can be fun.

6. Maybe for the planned ones, we let the chooser (i.e. keymaster/gatekeeper) give a choice of three movies. And then we vote. And then a miracle happens. Or maybe I just shut up for a bit, and stop being so schticky.

Tassoula said... @ July 13, 2009 at 12:15 PM

I agree with both of you - and I lean toward watching things that more folks have seen for the reasons mentioned above.

I also would like to (when possible) stick to stuff on TCM, HBO, IFC, Sundance or Showtime so it's easier to synchronize everything. I felt like I was "off" a bit during JAWS, which is why I didn't Tweet as much as I'd have liked to.

Alejandro Adams said... @ July 13, 2009 at 3:48 PM

I'm all for this to-each-his-own-post structure, but the debate continues in the comments of the original post. Come on over.

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