I am very annoyed by wasting an hour trying to decide which movie to watch. I loathe it when said movie turns out to be complete flop.
This is a great system to quickly give you a movie to watch and also plunge you into a world of filmmaking that demands attention and observation. I can’t guarantee I always end up with a great film but I always feel as though I have used the time well.
Step 1: Download a list from The Academy Awards site.
For my list I added every nominee for:
Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Writing (Original), Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress
I used the years 1979-2015 (this is because I had already seen the majority of the great films before 1979 through watching the Top 100 AFI List)
Step 2: Print off the List
Step 3: Highlight (in all categories) the movies you have seen
As I was doing this with my wife, I highlighted in blue and she in yellow so if we both had seen the movie it was green.
Step 4: When it is time to watch a movie, produce a random year.
We use the RNG (Random Number Generator) app but Siri will work just fine, “Give me a number between 1979-2015.”
Step 5: With the year chosen, go to the first category (Best Picture) and chose the winner of the category. If you have already seen it then you proceed to the next film starting in alphabetical order. If all movies have been seen or vetoed (see below) proceed to the next category (in our list we would continue to Best Directing)
Step 6: Don’t watch a movie you have already seen.
Everyone watching gets one veto per movie watching time.
i.e. My wife and I generate the number 1991. We go to Best Picture, Silence of the Lambs. I have seen it so I use my veto. We then go to Beauty and the Best which we have both seen. We then proceed to Bugsy and she uses her veto. Out of vetoes, we watch JFK.
Step 7: Enjoy the movie and look for reasons you think it may have been nominated.
Step 8: Highlight (in all categories) the movie you just watched.
Note: If you know there is a movie that you want to watch, watch it. Don’t worry about only watching movies from the list. I still watch every Marvel movie.