Saturday 3 July 2010

Today's Viewing & Reviews: Shrek Forever After + The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

2010 Challenge – Month 6 Stats

(things are looking up)

To recap, I’m aiming to watch 450 films by the end of the year but a minimum of 80% of that total has to be stuff which I have never seen before.

June started fairly slowly with a struggle to make a film a day and numerous where I didn’t watch any. As predicted, the saving grace this month (and challenge entire?) was Edinburgh International Film Festival. I took the 10 day duration off work and, one day ‘off’ to see Paul McCartney aside, was doing an average of 4 or 5 films a day through a combination of press screenings, public screenings and watching in a basement film-watching battery farm.

So, here's where I stand at month 6's end:

June:

Total films watched: 57
First-time viewings: 51
Percentage of first-time viewings: 89.5%
Cumulative monthly total: 225
Cumulative monthly first-time viewings: 205
Cumulative monthly percentage of first-time viewings: 91.1%

Best Films: Toy Story 3, Donkeys, Outcast, The Secret In Their Eyes, Hallam Foe, Orphans, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, Get Him To The Greek, Chase The Slut, Boy, Nothing Personal, Heartbreaker, Winter’s Bone, Girl With Black Balloons, C'est Déjà L'été, The Robber, The House Of The Devil, The Big Sleep
Worst Films: Superhero Me, Ollie Kepler's Expanding Purple World, The Dry Land


June 2009 Comparison:

Total films watched: 44
First-time viewings: 43
Percentage of first-time viewings: 97.7%
Cumulative monthly total: 204
Cumulative monthly first-time viewings: 172
Cumulative monthly percentage of first-time viewings: 84.3%

So, 225! A symbolic figure! At the midpoint of the year I reached exactly the midpoint of my 450 target. This shows me that the challenge is very much still ‘on’.

Still, it’s equally as troubling as it is elating. This month’s figures were obviously artificially inflated as a result of EIFF. This makes me wonder whether reaching the same again for the second half of the year will be remotely possible. I’m banking on the fact that the colder climes of the later months will fuel much staring at screens – but then again, the second half contains the Edinburgh Fringe, which is notoriously (for me) a time when little watching gets done.

Hopes are high that I can pull this off. All it means is a couple of films most days and a few blowouts. We’ll see.

The 80% target of first-time viewings is looking pretty good too, also helped by EIFF. It should allow me a bit of lee-way as the year progresses. I’m impressed as it stands with only 20/225 being stuff I’ve seen before (one of those being Toy Story 3 for the second time in a day).

A reinvigoration has occurred and I’m now thinking it may just be possible to do this.