Marathon brainstorming thread

[Tom]

This is a thread for brainstorming new marathon ideas. Be it ideas for the big monthly marathon or ideas for personal mini-/weekend-marathons.

[Tom]

As a start some quotes from the Christmas marathon discussion thread:

What kind of marathon will we have in January? Anything set yet?

What I was thinking of was a 'THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE' January Marathon

This would be a marathon viewing titles either true, or based on, true stories or events. It is amazing how many in your collections will qualify.
To include documentaries to diversify the watching pattern available.

3 targets for participants;

Half marathon - 13 titles (13 miles)
Full marathon - 26 titles (26 miles)
Iron man  - 42 titles (42 kms) 


Thoughts??

For February I had the idea of a LINKED MARATHON

That would be where the next title you watched in the marathon, had to begin with the last letter of the previous title watched.
ie Back To The Future, followed by Eragon, followed by Night of the Living Dead etc etc

This would make it a pretty flexible marathon for viewing content.

Would everyone prefer this for January?

I had thought about a marathon like that also a while ago, but I was not sure, if it will work. A lot of movies end with the same letters.
I also tried to think of a marathon, where we would link the star of the movie with another. But who would qualify as the star?

I had also thought of the letter linking thingy, but also wasn't sure if that wouldn't make us a very limited range of titles in our collection.

The "star linking" crossed my mind as well.  But, why define what/who a star is? If they link in DVD profiler would be good enough for me. Bonus points for those who can finish with the same person they started with.

As I am not available (for the Marathon) in January I'd like to have one of the above two elected for February

[Tom]

One possibly cruel marathon:
You have to watch a certain amount of movies picked by the MoviePick feature of DVDProfiler with only a limited number of vetos (TV sets are allowed to be skipped without diminishing the veto count).

[Jimmy]

Good idea Tom  . I think that I will try (steal) your idea.

+1 for you for helping me without knowing

[RossRoy]

One possibly cruel marathon:
You have to watch a certain amount of movies picked by the MoviePick feature of DVDProfiler with only a limited number of vetos (TV sets are allowed to be skipped without diminishing the veto count).

Nice idea! But from what I understand of the MoviePick feature, will it not start to give all the same kind of movie once we tell it what we're choosing? Or would you just refuse everything, and just write down the movies it suggests to not affect the selection algorithm?

I just tried it. I left all settings to their default, refused anything that was a TV series or Anime with a Neutral vote. The results were interesting.

[Tom]

The MoviePick feature is learning as you rate the movies (as far as I understand it). When never used, you could do a dry-run before starting to write down the movies. Maybe then the picks are better 

[Najemikon]

I haven't thought this all the way through, but...

THE SIX DEGREES OF PROFILER MARATHON

Similar to the popular game, 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon' where you link two random actors in six moves or less ("he worked with him, who went on to star with her...", etc). The name comes from the strange idea that one of the moves could always use Kevin Bacon. But that's not important right now... 

In this marathon, one of your fellow forum buddies takes a gander at your collection and picks two movies for you to watch. Without pre-planning the route, you choose films from your collection to link the two main ones. And they can't be spurious links either. They must be solid, shared roles or jobs. In theory, if your persecutor is clever, you might cycle through your whole collection, desperately seeking the Lost Link. You may even end up buying something, just to escape the clutches of the vortex! Muha-hahaha-HAAAA! 

Or maybe he was a prat. Tells you to link Goodfellas with Goldeneye and didn't spot you owned Ronin, starring Robert De Niro AND Sean Bean... oh dear, oh dear. Marathon over in one night... 

I'd like the interactive side. It would be funny to watch someone's marathon grow and notice that they turned left at The Fifth Element, when they could have taken a short cut through Aliens, passed Wonder Boys and straight on till Trainspotting!

I have no idea if those titles link. They're just random examples, so stop going on about it. Actually, if you can link them, I'll give you a biscuit...

[Tom]

THE SIX DEGREES OF PROFILER MARATHON

Nice idea! Maybe I will do something like this when I am finished with my december marathon.
If I do it, I probably will apply a simple variation to your idea:
I will start out with the movie I had watched last in the december marathon and my end point will be "Back to the Future III" which I couldn't fit into the december marathon to finish the trilogy.

[Achim]

The MoviePick feature is learning as you rate the movies (as far as I understand it). When never used, you could do a dry-run before starting to write down the movies. Maybe then the picks are better 

I thought the learning would be on a per-session basis and that each new session starts fresh...? That way the "learning" would be towards your mood of that day, not towards your overall preference of movies (if that makes sense; I sure know what I mean ).

So, fire up Movie Pick, and keep clicking on the middle of the rating bar, writing down the titles that come up (if the unwatched pile is large, it should be allowed to select only to pick items that have never been watched).

THE SIX DEGREES OF PROFILER MARATHON

I like this idea too!

Not participating in the current and also the January marathons, I'd have approx. 4 weeks to finish one of those until February. I think I'll give it a go. So, who is willing to select two films from my collection that I will have to connect? (preferably unwatched items, but I guess a mere request is all the influence I will get...)

[Kathy]

...preferably unwatched items

How do we know which movies someone has not watched? A list of titles will need to be provided since no one can see the unwatched pile!

[DJ Doena]

...preferably unwatched items

How do we know which movies someone has not watched? A list of titles will need to be provided since no one can see the unwatched pile!

I have an unwatched tag.

[richierich]

As long as the 'theme' used can encompass my unwatched titles, I am happy. This has been the biggest bonus of being involved in the marathons for me, has disciplined me to watch those unwatched films/series, as opposed to reaching for a 'friendly' known film in the evenings.

I'd also encourage marathons where there are several participants, it is good to read what others are watching and get inspiration to complete the 'run'.  

Reading through, we have the following ideas so far, perhaps a poll for each month? (don't want it to sound like DVDP)  

Random movie pick marathon
Six degrees of profiler marathon
Based on fact/true stories marathon
Letter linking marathon (new title begins with last letter of previous title)
Star linking marathon (start and finish on same star)

Another idea to throw in the melting pot (I'm still taking the tablets Jon);

1/ Triathlon - as you know this is a swim,cycle,run event.
10 titles each linked to water, land transport & running.
Examples...
Water - hunt for red october, the ring, without a paddle etc etc
Land Transport - Days of thunder, belle-ville rendezvous, biker boyz etc etc
Running - chariots of fire, running man, galipoli etc etc


And I have been working on 'around the world in 80 dvds', but more to come on that at a later time  

[Achim]

...preferably unwatched items

How do we know which movies someone has not watched? A list of titles will need to be provided since no one can see the unwatched pile!

Well, if you select via my online collection that can be reached by clicking on the banner below, then each profile would tell you if the title is watched or not. If you you just want to skim the list on the left or even look at the Invelos online collection, then you obviously pick without considering watched status.

Doena's tag could be selected via the filters on top of the profile list, however I don't have such tag...

[lyonsden5]

They all sound like good ideas to me. 

[Najemikon]

Well done for volunteering, Ya_shin! I'd pick two films, but I am actually rubbish at doing so in the six degrees game. I always pick two end points I think will be just right and they're either impossible or impossibly easy...