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Thursday, November 1, 2012

Month 34 Status Report

October turned out to be a pretty big month. My standing goal every month is 25 off the list, and last month I hit 28, which sounds like a rousing success to me. Most of those 28 were films I had never seen before, making it even more successful.

Actually, quite a bit happened in October. The 9th edition of The List came out, adding 14 films to the total, which now clocks in at 1103 total films. I stand right now with 820 watched and reviewed (including nine from the latest additions). More critically, I have gained access to a great number of the rarities--most, in fact. This access comes thanks to Chip Lary over at Tips From Chip, a site you should spend more time reading. Yes, you (unless you happen to be Chip. Then you probably read it enough).

So what's next? Rarities. Don't expect that November will be all obscurities all the time, but do expect to see some oddities popping up once or twice a week as we move forward. Short term goals for the next two months include finishing off the first 200 films on the list (11 to go), knocking out the remaining new additions (5 left), and completing everything of three-hour plus length (4 remaining). My goal of getting down to 225 films left by the end of the year is probably just out of reach, but 230 is probable and 235 is almost a certainty.

As a point of interest, I was at 516 films watched at the end of last October. That means I've put up 304 reviews of films off the list in the last 366 days--not a bad average. At the current pace, I should finish the current list just in time for the 2013 edition's release.

11 comments:

  1. But what will you do then, Steve? Preparing to die on us? Surely you cannot cannot keep it down to 10-12 entries per year? You will be out of work every year by mid-October.

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  2. Look to the sidebar, my friend. It's Oscar films and horror movie lists next. I figure I've got lists enough to last me a good 10 years.

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  3. Thanks for the big mention. I laughed out loud at your aside to me on reading the site.

    I just checked. I've got 59 unwatched among the first 200 (25 among the first 100). I guess you and I are concentrating on opposite ends of the list, since my goal had been to knock off every single addition to the original list (which I achieved in October).

    I have no idea how many 3 hour plus entries I have to see, but my guess would be quite a few. I've never tracked the length of the entries. I know I've got The Decalogue, Satantango, and Shoah (not to mention your 1900 DVD) still to watch among the very long entries.

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  4. I just saw your latest post and realize now that your October makes mine look sad and paltry in comparison.

    I have been focusing more on the early part of the list, but I'm not bad at the end. I still need five of the latest additions, and I've done all the new adds from the previous couple of books.

    When I started this, I mapped out a spreadsheet that included the lengths of the various films. I've made it a point to knock out the long ones as a way to "get ahead" even when I'm still just keeping on pace. Even now, in general, I'll pick a longer film when I can for the same reason.

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    1. "I just saw your latest post and realize now that your October makes mine look sad and paltry in comparison."

      I have a big advantage over you there in that I don't have to stop and take the time to write a review for every one I see. And those numbers were way outside normal even for me. I know I had some days where I watched 6 or 7 movies back to back to back (etc.)

      "When I started this, I mapped out a spreadsheet that included the lengths of the various films."

      By coincidence, I saw the 4.5 hour La Roue (1923) today. Now that I've knocked off all the additions, maybe my next goal should be the longest entries. Do you still have this spreadsheet? Could you email it to me?

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  5. Wow man, such fantastic dedication here. Really solid work. Pumped for your Oscar reviews.

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  6. I'll finish the list by the time I'm 80. 421 is my current total, so I still have almost 700 to go! Can that even be right? Looks like Steve and several others who posted here are proceeding at a much faster pace. Good luck to you all.

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  7. @Alex--the sidebar at the top takes you to pages that list the films.

    @Chris--Yeah, I know.

    @Chip--I need to remake it (it's in pieces), but you'll have it in a day or so.

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    1. @Steve - If you haven't started yet, don't redo it again just for me. I can just as easily look up the runtimes of all the movies as you can.

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    2. I didn't have to look anything up--I just had to put everything back together.

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