In the spirit of professional and collegiate sports, I have devised a tournament-style competition, using a 16-team, single elimination bracket, to determine the best film out of a group of selected ones.
How were the movies selected?
I found it necessary to choose the movies from a wide variety of genres, as well as several movies that are adaptations of novels (A Clockwork Orange, Fight Club, The Shining, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy). Sin City is based on a graphic novel, which is essentially a comic book for adults.
Featured genres include: Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Horror, Musical, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller, War.
Furthermore, I wanted the movies selected to feature a variety of different directors and actors. Only two directors have more than one film on the list: Stanley Kubrick for Dr. Strangelove, The Shining and A Clockwork Orange, Quentin Tarantino for Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. The same was done for lead actors, with only Gene Wilder, in Willy Wonka and Young Frankenstein, and Bruce Willis, in Pulp Fiction and Sin City, appearing multiple times. Other actors appear in several other movies listed, but only in minor roles: Michael Madsen in Reservoir Dogs and Sin City, Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, and Tim Roth in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Coincidentally enough, all three of these movies are directed by Tarantino (he collaborated with fellow directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller on Sin City). Once the final list of movies was compiled, I then had to determine how to fill out the bracket.
In creating a bracket-style tournament, one of the problems I encountered was seeding. For those of you who do not know, each “team” (or movie in this case) is given a seed based on their record and performance. I did not want to seed the movies based on critic’s ratings (RottenTomatoes score or “star rating”), but rather something more appropriate and unbiased. I decided that the most logical statistic to use would be All-time, Worldwide Box-Office Gross Earnings. Numbers ranged from $1.12 billion for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King to $1.2 million for Donnie Darko.
How are winners determined?
As always, constructive criticism is welcome. Post in the comments section or email me any questions or suggestions for current and/or future tournaments.
So now I’m sure you’re wondering exactly how a winner will be determined. Each movie match-up will be featured in a posting which will critique the movies on a number of different aspects, such as: the cast (including actors, directors and writers), the storyline (plot of the movie), visuals (editing, lighting, animation, directing techniques, etc.), the ending of the movie, and what, if any, are the lasting effects of this movie (has the movie stood the test of time, does it remain popular and relevant today, etc.).
WARNING:
Posts will contain SPOILERS. Read at your own caution.
If necessary, any posts that contain subject matter that is not suitable for children under the age of 18 will contain appropriate warnings.
Links to a survey will be displayed at the conclusion of each post, as well as in this post, so that readers can vote for their favorite movies (only one vote per person). I will also distribute the surveys via email, social media (instant messaging, Facebook, etc.) and in person (printed copies). Each round of voting will last approximately one week, after which the results will be posted and the next round will begin. The schedule is as follows:
Round 1: 16 teams – (4/13 – 4/23)
Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZFYHYS7
Round 2: 8 Teams – (4/23 – 4/30)
Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NTKDMQ8 (ENDED)
Round 3: 4 Teams – (5/1 – 5/7)
Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NJXTG8J (ENDED)
Round 4: 2 Teams – (5/8 – 5/14)
Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GVP2MWF (ENDED)
Final Winner & Analysis Posted on 5/15
As always, constructive criticism is welcome. Post in the comments section or email me any questions or suggestions for current and/or future tournaments.
Bracket provided by http://www.blankplayoffbracket.com/
Box Office Statistics provided by http://www.boxofficemojo.com
Movie Genres and Sub-Genres: http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html
Survey provided by http://www.surveymonkey.com/
A Little Bit About the Author
My name is Corey Greene and I’m a 3rd year Professional and Technical Communications major at the Rochester Institute of Technology. This blog was created for Public Relations Writing, taught by Professor Mike Johansson. I wanted to create an interactive blog with a topic that would interest not only myself but others as well, and thus, Movie Tournament 2k11 was born.
I like this idea, goodluck!
ReplyDeleteYou should do one for TV shows - South Park, Tosh.0, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, etc. It would be real interesting to see how that turns out. Keep up the good work.
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