** Some news and changes to the MOTM/MOTM Champions this month. Read on for the skinny. **
Well, it’s been an up-and-down week or so for the MOTM Champions angle. Your Shepherd, Joel Burman, was the only one to throw his hat into the ring for July, so I was all set to kill Champions and go back to just having me select five random films and having you vote on them.
But then a funny thing happened. I was editing last month’s MOTM LAMBcast on Dead Alive, and in a break from the live recording, pretty much everyone on the show was talking about how they wanted to/like to Champion films but didn’t for whatever reasons (didn’t think they’d win, neglecting the deadlines, confusion on the deadlines, etc.). And then I called it dead and heard from more people who didn’t want tot see it go.
So…it will live on next month (at the least), and I will attempt to do much better myself at notifying everyone of the deadlines for Champions submissions, as well as link submissions for the MOTM in general. For the record, Champions recommendations can be submitted to me at any time, provided that you ahve checked the LAMBcast schedule and would be interested and available for the spot on the show in the chance that you win. You can find the LAMBcast upcoming shows schedule here.
This month, as stated, Joel was the only one, so I just let him have free reign to choose whatever. After more ups-and-downs with he and I attempting to find something that was available on Netflix instant streaming, he finally settled on…Larry Clark’s Bully.
Here’s what goes down from here:
* The first thing you need to know is that July 14th is the big day. You have just under three weeks to watch the flick, write up something, then send the link to me (dylan at manilovefilms.com; you may also post to the LAMBcast’s Twitter account) to either what you write or something previously written. Links can be sent at any time prior to 6:00am Pacific on the 14th. If you’re planning on doing the former, please hold the post in draft until the 16th (you can send a link prior if you have the capability to do so).
* On July 7th, we’ll be recording our MOTM-themed episode of the LAMBcast, where we’ll dissect and discuss Bully. If you’d like to get in on it…sorry, that show is full, well, you have a chance, as we’re introducing a new aspect to the MOTM LAMBcast, and that is the Wild Card spot. Taking a suggestion from some fellow LAMBs, what we’ll be doing is keeping an additional spot on the show open for one person who is passionate about the film selected (could love it or hate it) and really wants to be on the show. For simplicity’s sake, I think this will be done just first-come, first-served, so if you are keen on talking about Bully, chime in (comment here, tweet/DM @LAMBcast or email dylan@manilovefilms.com) and the spot will be yours. Again, please check the LAMBcast schedule linked above to make sure you are available.
* On the 14th, the LAMBcast will be posted, as well as all of the links to anything written. In addition, I’ll include a poll to decide what the next MOTM flick will be (the call for new Champions will be coming at some point before then). That poll will run for a week, and then there’ll be 3-4 weeks until the next event, and so on.
* Deny Everything will be ineligible to become a Champion for the next three months. French Toast Sunday has two more months of ineligibility remaining, and The Vern’s Video Vortex has one. The Cinematic Katzenjammer becomes eligible again with the next poll
Another possible suggestion to bring in more movies is to have guests pick a movie to champion when they claim their spot on the MOTM episode. I get the impression that it’s not hard to fill the podcast spots, it’s just harder to get champions for the movies. That way you’d at least have 2-3 movies pre-picked and a couple spots for someone to jump in with.
That’s a good idea, but how would that work with a vote?
Well, you’d still have the vote as usual, but instead of the last-minute calling for 5 movies, you’ve already got 2-3 movies based on who is already on the MOTM episode, which they chose when they signed up on the forums. You could even include the backups and then have the last spot or two be the final call on Twitter/Facebook/etc, and have the poll on the main site as usual to see which one wins.
Gotcha. Book it.
The poster you have is for the 2011 documentary Bully. Is that the MOTM or is it the indie movie from 2001?
D’oh! My bad. I got sucked in by the striking visual and forget there were two flicks with that name.
It’s the 2001 indie. Fixed.
I never really knew you could submit a movie yourself before reading this ;). When you post the call for Champions I think I’ll definitely submit one. And of course I’ll be seeing Bully and writing a post.
Great to hear, on all counts!