Another forum member contacted me today and expressed an interest in starting a movie group here.

The idea would be that someone picks or suggests a movie, we all watch it, and then talk about it.

There already is a movie recommendation thread, and the idea is to make this more like the RVF Book Club. If there is enough interest, I think this would be a good idea.

Thoughts?

Count me in

Im up for it.

I'm in.

All right, sounds good. I think this would work out. If we just start doing it, I think others will gravitate here naturally to join in the dialogue.

The big challenge is going to be how to decide which ones to watch. Everyone is going to have his own suggestions and preferences.

My proposal is this: have one person be the monthly "guide." This person would pick 2 movies per month. That is, one every 2 weeks.

One would be picked at the beginning of the month, and the other movie at the midway point (the 15th or so).

October is coming up now, so we can use that as the first month.

Is that idea good with everyone? If you've got a better idea, let us know.

I'm totally on board, however I would suggest each guide actually select anywhere from 3-4 movies for the month, since they go a lot faster than books, especially for those that don't watch much TV.

If they posted all of them on the first day, this would help forum members allocate their time accordingly if they wanted to "binge" on a certain weekend.

Then members watch however many they want, since some may lean in one direction or another. They would just have to make sure to wait to check back on the thread to avoid any spoilers until they are finished with the ones they choose. This way discussion can happen whenever someone finishes.

I would also suggest putting up the relevant Rotten Tomatoes score/link for each one, this is something I check before watching most movies. Not saying that those scores are the be all and end all, but if a member posts 4 movies and one of them has a 14% score, that might be the sign that you will skip that one.

P.S. - Good job QC on the Sleepless Night recommendation, definitely lived up to your review.

Quote: (09-30-2015 11:00 PM)Quintus Curtius Wrote:  

All right, sounds good. I think this would work out. If we just start doing it, I think others will gravitate here naturally to join in the dialogue.

The big challenge is going to be how to decide which ones to watch. Everyone is going to have his own suggestions and preferences.

My proposal is this: have one person be the monthly "guide." This person would pick 2 movies per month. That is, one every 2 weeks.

One would be picked at the beginning of the month, and the other movie at the midway point (the 15th or so).

October is coming up now, so we can use that as the first month.

Is that idea good with everyone? If you've got a better idea, let us know.

2 per month sounds good to me. Perhaps those willing to volunteer to be a "monthly guide" could let you (as most senior member) know here or via PM?

Quote: (09-30-2015 11:31 PM)LeBeau Wrote:  

I'm totally on board, however I would suggest each guide actually select anywhere from 3-4 movies for the month, since they go a lot faster than books, especially for those that don't watch much TV.


If they posted all of them on the first day, this would help forum members allocate their time accordingly if they wanted to "binge" on a certain weekend.

Then members watch however many they want, since some may lean in one direction or another. They would just have to make sure to wait to check back on the thread to avoid any spoilers until they are finished with the ones they choose. This way discussion can happen whenever someone finishes.

I would also suggest putting up the relevant Rotten Tomatoes score/link for each one, this is something I check before watching most movies. Not saying that those scores are the be all and end all, but if a member posts 4 movies and one of them has a 14% score, that might be the sign that you will skip that one.

P.S. - Good job QC on the Sleepless Night recommendation, definitely lived up to your review.

I think that would work as long as each film had it's own thread else the discussions will get unwieldly, right?

All right, so be it. Some good suggestions here.

For the month of October, I will appoint myself as the guide. The three movies I'm suggesting are:

Special Forces (2011). A French film.
The Drop (2014). Just saw this tonight. Great.
Colosio: El Asesinato (2012).

All of these can be found on Netflix.

I would also suggest that, to avoid confusion, we should refer to movies by their title and year (if necessary). Some titles apply to more than one movie.

Does this sound good?

Yeah that works out well, especially since I realized some guys might have already seen certain films too.

Example, I've seen The Drop, so it works out to 2 new Oct. movies for me anyway.

I'd be happy to do Nov.

QC - may I suggest some kind of standards for the movies that are picked?

e.g. Educational, highly thought-provoking, extremely well done, amazing acting/casting/cinematography/score

And perhaps we could rate movies on these fundamentals.

For instance:

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Casting - 4/5
Acting - 5/5
Score - 3/5
Cinematography - 5/5 (considering the era and technology)
Thought provoking index - 5/5

And so forth.

This way the book club could be more than just "watching movies and chatting about them", but also a vehicle for bettering our understanding of the craft of film making, delving deeper into significant topics, and an exercise in analysis as a whole.

What do you think?

Quote: (10-01-2015 01:49 AM)VincentVinturi Wrote:  

QC - may I suggest some kind of standards for the movies that are picked?

e.g. Educational, highly thought-provoking, extremely well done, amazing acting/casting/cinematography/score

And perhaps we could rate movies on these fundamentals.

For instance:

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Casting - 4/5
Acting - 5/5
Score - 3/5
Cinematography - 5/5 (considering the era and technology)
Thought provoking index - 5/5

And so forth.

This way the book club could be more than just "watching movies and chatting about them", but also a vehicle for bettering our understanding of the craft of film making, delving deeper into significant topics, and an exercise in analysis as a whole.

What do you think?

I think that's a great idea. I'd like to suggest adding "Editing" as a category. This underrated but critical element is essential to the art of good story telling through the medium of film

Thanks for this QC. I'm on board also.

Great idea, count me in.
As VincentVinturi suggested, what criteria should be used to select the movies?
And wouldn´t 4 movies a month be better, one per week sounds ok.

How are we going to avoid spoilers? If all the movies are posted in this thread, we will inevitably come across spoilers for movies we haven't watched while browsing movies we've already watched. Is it overkill to have a separate thread for each movie? Four new threads a month doesn't seem too much.

Perhaps we can keep it all her for a while until more people get on board, and then create separate threads.

@Vincent Vinturi:

Totally agree that we need to have some standards here. Problem is, I'm not really sure how to do it, other than to ask guys not to suggest shit movies. There should be some feeling for quality. The movie should have something to talk about. For me there's nothing wrong with any genre of film, but it should be something that passes basic quality standards.

I also think it's overkill to have a separate thread for each movie. Personally I don't see why we can't just talk about them here in this thread, but others may disagree. We'll have to play it by ear.

@Horus:

We're all gentlemen here and it should be understood that spoilers are not cool. This is where some finesse has to come into the picture. You should be able to discuss a movie and not reveal all of its secrets. Film critics do it all the time, and so can we. I have confidence in you.

If someone's a dickhead, or wants to get cute and ruin it for others, we'll just hammer him.

As a movie lover I'm definitely in!

Some suggestion on how we could select the movies:

four movies per month are always from a different era.
E.g. first two are classics, the other two contemporary

An overall topic for every month: Movies about war, etc.... So we can discuss the different approaches various filmmakers take on the subject and if they are from different times how the storytelling, cinematography, acting, etc has changed


The guide can either suggest a topic for one month and members can submit films or he picks out the topic and movies.

All right. Sounds like we're all on board.

This Friday, I'm going to start talking about "The Drop." Very good noir film from 2014. So, get it in your queues and start watching it.

QC - Watched it tonight during dinner.

Looks like we have plenty to talk about.

How exactly do film makers achieve that funky dark tinge?

I know it has something to do with filters in post production (or maybe even on the camera itself?) but would love to be educated on this topic a bit more.

I propose all movies are at least ten years old. While I loved The Drop I don't know if I can put it in my list of top 50 movies...yet.

Special Forces has 15 percent on rotten tomatoes and I couldn't find any reviews for El Colosio, so I can't really agree with those two recommendations.

I want to watch great fucking movies and time is a strong indicator.

But if the majority of you disagree with me, I'll keep my mouth shut.

Quote: (10-01-2015 12:19 PM)VincentVinturi Wrote:  

QC - Watched it tonight during dinner.

Looks like we have plenty to talk about.

How exactly do film makers achieve that funky dark tinge?

I know it has something to do with filters in post production (or maybe even on the camera itself?) but would love to be educated on this topic a bit more.

There are many but one of the most common techniques cinematographers use to achieve a specific hue is called "color crushing"

An extreme example of this was the movie 300 which was considered groundbreaking at the time. Basically they used heavy sepia tones and then "crushed" the blacks to achieve a sort of watercolor a live action look that matched the graphic novel that inspired it:

Film



Graphic novel




Additionally here's a good short primer by David Rosen on a few other basic cinematography techniques

Quote: (10-01-2015 12:31 PM)renotime Wrote:  

I propose all movies are at least ten years old. While I loved The Drop I don't know if I can put it in my list of top 50 movies...yet.

Special Forces has 15 percent on rotten tomatoes and I couldn't find any reviews for El Colosio, so I can't really agree with those two recommendations.

I want to watch great fucking movies and time is a strong indicator.

But if the majority of you disagree with me, I'll keep my mouth shut.

And this is where I can see problems coming up. We're never going to have ground rules that satisfy everyone. I think limiting our choices to movies over ten years old is not a good idea, because you're leaving out a lot of good, timely films.

I also don't think we should limit ourselves to only our top 20 lists. There are a lot of unknown gems out there. We need to give them a chance.

Not everyone is going to agree with a monthly guide's selection. That's natural. If you don't want to see something, pass on it, and feel free to say "Hey, that movie is shit." You won't hurt anyone's feelings.

Or at least not mine.

I tried deliberately to pick movies that are not as well known, but still good. I think that's the best way to get the most out of this group.

Tastes are going to vary widely. Let's just be patient with each other and take some steps forward.

All right.

Friday I kick off the discussion here about "The Drop." Tom Hardy does his usual great job.

So, we can all propose movies? Or just you Quintus?

Do we vote on which ones we're going to see or we just see the ones that peak our interest from other member's suggestions.

Quote: (10-01-2015 01:35 PM)Quintus Curtius Wrote:  

Quote: (10-01-2015 12:31 PM)renotime Wrote:  

I propose all movies are at least ten years old. While I loved The Drop I don't know if I can put it in my list of top 50 movies...yet.

Special Forces has 15 percent on rotten tomatoes and I couldn't find any reviews for El Colosio, so I can't really agree with those two recommendations.

I want to watch great fucking movies and time is a strong indicator.

But if the majority of you disagree with me, I'll keep my mouth shut.

And this is where I can see problems coming up. We're never going to have ground rules that satisfy everyone. I think limiting our choices to movies over ten years old is not a good idea, because you're leaving out a lot of good, timely films.

I also don't think we should limit ourselves to only our top 20 lists. There are a lot of unknown gems out there. We need to give them a chance.

Not everyone is going to agree with a monthly guide's selection. That's natural. If you don't want to see something, pass on it, and feel free to say "Hey, that movie is shit." You won't hurt anyone's feelings.

Or at least not mine.

I tried deliberately to pick movies that are not as well known, but still good. I think that's the best way to get the most out of this group.

Tastes are going to vary widely. Let's just be patient with each other and take some steps forward.

All right.

Friday I kick off the discussion here about "The Drop." Tom Hardy does his usual great job.

Perhaps the guide can give a brief explanation of why they chose a particular film. What resonated with them, they found interesting, unique, redemptive, etc? Doesn't have to be long...just enough to demonstrate the guide has given it some thought plus perhaps help "guide" the viewer in what to watch for

But QC is right...there are a ton of relatively unknown but great films out there.

What will likely happen and I see as a major benefit of this whole thing is that in many cases viewing the film again after the discussion will provide a different perspective and change some original opinions of it

Quote: (10-01-2015 01:59 PM)EL CHAPO Wrote:  

So, we can all propose movies? Or just you Quintus?

Do we vote on which ones we're going to see or we just see the ones that peak our interest from other member's suggestions.

Well, my suggestion was that a new person take the helm every month. That person would chose the movies. Otherwise, it just becomes squabbling and chaos.

I know the movie choices are not going to satisfy everyone, but that's the whole idea here. You need to expose yourself to things you haven't seen before.

Guys need to get outside their comfort zone. You will broaden your perspective. I only feel bad for people who only like one kind of movie.

I offered myself as the helmsman for the first month (October). I picked 3 movies.

Next month, someone else can be the boss. Sound good?