I never got to do these before, so count me in! :)
I also want to add of course the people who submitted the particular films used, or even other participants will be strongly encouraged to write film introduction threads for discussion or even threads for discussion of certain country film industries.
And yet another thing to add. I’ll be restricting films that were used in any past Directors Cup or World Cup to be used in this new World Cup. So consider that if you start compiling a list.
Could you support with a list of the films from the past cups? (Or at least link me up with where they’re listed?) I wasn’t really around when they were taking place, so not sure of what to or not to pick.
I can’t stop adding things….
In the list you will need to clearly define which film a country is from. If it’s questionable I will ultimately make the final decision. So to avoid too much conflict and confusion try to only pick films that are fairly clearly from a particular country of origin.
Sorry to complain – I really like the idea of doing the cup by director, rather than country. I think it’s pretty difficult to represent the US, France, Japan, or any other country with only one film, considering that EVERY country has a wide range of films!
Is it still too late to consider doing it by director? I would be willing to run the cup… I would just need some help from people who’ve participated in previous ones – telling me what happened in the past, what works and what doesn’t, etc.
I’d really prefer going by director, too.
Suggested format for choosing films for the World Cup: Does this not run the risk of certain countries only being represented by their most popular films?
Popular films, Lily, is not what Mubi is about, and the more popular a film, the less likely it will win a match up
Douglas, here is a list of films used in the last world cup:
http://mubi.com/lists/the-auteurs-world-cup-films
If you go to the links for my personal Directors Cup stats you can see a list of all of the matches including the films used in them:
http://mubi.com/lists/risseladas-2010-directors-cup-statistics
http://mubi.com/lists/risseladas-2011-directors-cup-statistics
I’ll compile a more clear full list for the official post.
Come to think of it – I would actually be pretty excited to run the cup! I think you’ve posted before that you would rather somebody else do it, Risseleada – do you still feel that way?
Does this not run the risk of certain countries only being represented by their most popular films?
It does run the risk. But, I’m going to hope and trust many of the people submitting lists will be looking to introduce us to something new though. In fact, I’ll encourage people not to put any films on their list that they think most people here are most likely to have already seen or heard a lot about.
Sorry to complain – I really like the idea of doing the cup by director, rather than country. I think it’s pretty difficult to represent the US, France, Japan, or any other country with only one film, considering that EVERY country has a wide range of films!
If you really want to do another director cup, and you tell me you are going to set it up, then I won’t compete with you. But from all of the other threads it seemed like after two years people in general were burned out from doing it by director and were more interested in doing another world cup. I’ve followed all of the threads and that was my perception.
We also had people interested in doing mini cups or genre cups, but it’s not as interesting to me right now to set up something like that. If someone else wants to arrange it, they can go for it, but thus far no one has so I’m just trying to step up here.
Let me know soon though if you sincerely intend to start your own cup instead so I don’t put too much work into getting this one off the ground for nothing.
in the 4 years i’ve been on the auteurs/mubi, i also have no participated in any cups, so i guess this would be a great place to start!
I definitely don’t want to try take it away from you if you want to do it, and especially not if most forum users want to do it by country rather than director – you’ve already done a fair amount of work for it, and I’ve done nothing so far. I haven’t really followed previous cups, so you would have a much better idea than I would about what people would rather do.
Should we maybe put it to a quick vote?
OK, let’s let this thread hang for a couple of days and see what other users would like more. I’d like to do whatever will get the most participation and enjoyment.
These are some interesting ideas, Riss, but I would prefer two 50-film mini Cups this year, one in the spring, one in the fall. It’s not just the total number of films that wears me down, but also how long the event takes to finish.
Thanks for getting the conversation going again.
I would definitely be far more interested in a World Cup than a Directors Cup or Mini Cup. I would hope to participate in a WC, and would be unlikely to participate much in a DC or MC.
Ok – I’m gonna start a new topic for voting to see which version people would prefer so they don’t have to read through most of page 1 to realize that they need to vote!
EDIT: Vote here!
I vote for big ol’ World Cup.
In fact, I’ll encourage people not to put any films on their list that they think most people here are most likely to have already seen or heard a lot about.
May I suggest you set a number of fans a film has on its Mubi page as a guideline. For example, “Don’t submit a film if it has over 100 fans.” or something like that.
how many fans does Pulp Fiction have?
The whole point of using # of Mubi fans as a barometer for familiarity is that you can go look it up yourself.
I’m worried there may be burn out for long events like Directors and World Cups, and as it’s 3 years since the last WC, i was thinking maybe better next year, with only a mini event this year. Whatever- if more countries involved with few films, or a smaller competition with more depth to each team-, i think we should avoid a cup that’s too drawn out, while still making sure people have proper viewing time.
that was a joke. Pulp Fiction should not (and never would) be included in the Mubi WC
I’m worried there may be burn out for long events like Directors and World Cups, and as it’s 3 years since the last WC, i was thinking maybe better next year, with only a mini event this year. Whatever- if more countries involved with few films, or a smaller competition with more depth to each team-, i think we should avoid a cup that’s too drawn out, while still making sure people have proper viewing time.
One thing I was trying to do to combat that was to have less films you’d have to watch less often but more variety. I’m thinking it will take about two thirds of the time with about half of the films as other cups.
May I suggest you set a number of fans a film has on its Mubi page as a guideline. For example, “Don’t submit a film if it has over 100 fans.” or something like that.
I like that and would probably implement that. Maybe not 100 exactly, but some number. I’d have to look into it to decide the exact number.
I’m all for no Cup whatsoever this year
Not having a single manager is definitely something I like, since they aren’t teams of one director where a manager could have seen everything that could possibly be used. What exactly would be the process of choosing the films from these submission lists? Is it some sort of first post first serve thing, or based on if a certain film gets several votes in high spots on the list, or is it some process of first determining which countries will be teams based on patterns of voting? Say, if there are twenty lists that have a French film as the first pick, how would the 2 or 3 be chosen?
While I like more variety in who is contributing the films to be used, I also like the structure of individual tastes getting to make the different teams. I wonder how viable it would be to have teams of managers for each country, 2-3 people for the 2-3 films. Then, each person can pick just one film and do a write up about it. It could still be easier for a lot of reviews to pop up, for every single film, it wouldn’t be a strain on the people contributing, and it would be simple to know which person is expected to make this contribution (if several people voted for a film on their lists, which would end up doing a write up?)
i’d like a World Cup just because i’ve never participated in a cup in the 4 years i’ve been active on these forums, and World Cup seems like a grand place to start. I would even help manage a country.
Risselada
So it seems like there is some interest in doing another Cup here on MUBI, but no one so far stepping up to organize it. I get excited about doing this kind of thing, so I’m starting this thread as an announcement of my intentions to do so and get the ball rolling.
I have an idea that I want to implement. I won’t lay too many specifics of the mechanics of it out right now. I will just reveal a few specifics about my proposed plan that could be adjustable and see what people think:
51 countries
2 – 3 films per country
104 – 127 films used
No more than 4 films to watch per week on average (might even be less)
Each match lasts at least 72 hours (might even be more)
I’m open to discussing if any of those stats above seem unreasonable or not what people would want in a world cup.
However if no one else steps up, I will be implementing my idea. I’ll reveal the rules and structure at each step as needed. If you don’t end up liking the ideas, you can give feedback, but no bitching because no one else is stepping up.
I will need help though, so anyone who can volunteer to maybe open or close some matches during the year or do other this and that type of things. We will also need people to help upload films of course too. And I will be implementing a system to make sure that the person who suggests a film is responsible for getting it available to watch on a streaming link or else their film suggestion will be replaced.
The system will be different from past cups in which each country or director had a single manager. Instead I will be soliciting film suggestions from anyone who wants to give them, but there will be a certain format that you will have to submit them to me:
I will be asking each person who wants to solicit suggestions to send me a list of films they would like used in the world cup. However the list of films must contain only one film from each country. You may list as many films as you want. But the films on the list should be ranked with the films you’d most like to see in the cup listed at the top. The higher up a film is on the list the more likely it will appear in the cup, but it is far from guaranteed. The reason is that each country will only have two to three films in the cup. So if a lot of your films at the top of your list are from prolific countries with a lot of popular films then it is less likely that your film will be chosen. Also the higher a film from a particular country is on your list, the more likely it will be that that country will be one of the 51 countries competing in the cup.
I’ll be waiting to see what kind of responses this post elicits. In the meantime, if you are interested in contributing for film submissions you can start compiling your list. I’ll post a new official thread when I’m ready for people to submit their lists to me and the format they should be in.