GEEK FIELD REPORT: Inside the IFC 'Ultimate Film Fanatic Challenge'


From today's Oregonian:




1. "Esquire said this actor/director had made Shakespeare 'hip for the masses.'"

2. "What do the initials in Dreamworks SKG stand for?"

3. "What film spent 4 million dollars to redo scenes because the star thought his character needed a Scottish accent?"
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Can you answer any of those questions? Quickly?

Do you live in or around Portland, Oregon?

Then your hour is at hand.

A touring version of the Independent Film Channel's "Ultimate Film Fanatic" -- a game show devoted to movie trivia -- is open to all comers tonight (Jan. 13) through Saturday, Jan. 15 at Ringler's Pub. After that, the contest moves to the Blue Moon Tavern Tuesday-Thursday for the rest of the month.

"The setup's sort of like 'Jeopardy!,' only it's film trivia," explained emcee Julie Macalister, 24, a freelance videographer known to local cable-access nuts as a hostess on "The Sandy Times Show." Ultimately, the live contest is little more than a promotion for the broadcast version, hosted on Friday nights by Film Threat editor Chris Gore.

But to a certain breed of film geek, it's gladiator combat.

The UFF Challenge goes something like this: Macalister calls up four contestants per round from a pile of submitted names. Once they take to the podium and hover over color-coded buttons, things get pretty brutal. This is, after all, a rare occasion when this obsession leads to public honor (and, if you win the drawing for a $150 AmEx gift certificate at the end of each night, cold hard cash).



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4. "What Amy Heckerling movie was an updated version of Jane Austen's 'Emma'?"

5. "Which actor did David Lynch call 'the jazz musician of American acting?'"
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Is the Challenge fun? Well, it's a game for casual, laughing contestants, yes -- but it also gets the adrenaline flowing in a certain kind of obsessive who hunches over the button, eyes glazing as he or she accesses an inner DVD drive of cinema footnotes.

For example, meet Rand Raynor, 43 -- a teacher in training who's written for local production company Funland Pictures. He was there with his fiancé, therapist Beverly Schwartz -- a woman he says "knows better than to try and best me at film trivia."

"I'm not gonna speak for Beverly, but I'm a film nut," he said. He found out about the Challenge while surfing for local film jobs on Craigslist.

"I just kind of follow along," Schwartz confirms. But movies run in her blood -- her father was a production manager on films including "Midnight Run," "Footloose" and "Pennies from Heaven"; he even gave her one of the extras' monkey masks from the original "Planet of the Apes," which she still owns.

Raynor was a fierce combatant that evening -- visibly caught up in, as he put it, "the thrill of knowing the answer and the agony of having an answer at the tip of my tongue that I couldn't get out." He laughed: "I have all this useless and ridiculous information that's always in my head that I bore my friends and fiancé with. It's fun to finally have an outlet." When no one onstage knew an answer and he did, he said, "I keep hitting the table as if the button's right here."

Macalister's questions run the gamut from standard movie trivia (director names, titles, stars, release dates) to more arcane stuff that might stump anyone who doesn't pay close attention to movie advertising campaigns or remember seven-year old magazine articles.
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6. "In 1994, he was picked by the National Association of Theater Owners as the 'Star of the Century.'"
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Attendees at the Jan. 6 Challenge tended to fall into one of two categories: cinema athletes and the friends and loved ones who came to support them in battle.

Several patrons -- many of them volunteers at the William Temple House -- pointed out their pal and fellow volunteer John Elster. "He's the smartest man I know," said Tommy Gaffney, 30, one of a gaggle of fans who came to watch Ester in action.

An extremely fit 65, Elster's a retired flight attendant who said he learned French by studying subtitled American movies in Paris. He's also something of a movie data-miner: Despite professing to have "a mini-refrigerator and no driver's license," he maintains thousands of research files on actors and directors -- invaluable pre-Internet material he's shared with film pundit Jeffrey Lyons for the past 27 years. He says his only payment for this service has been signed movie memorabilia. "I'm Germanic, so I have it in 44 filing cabinets" in his condo on Northwest Flanders, he said. He watches one movie a day.

A Kurosawa and Bergman fanatic, Elster had a bit of trouble that evening, despite his obvious knowledge. He blamed his button-pushing speed and the relentless pop-culturism of many questions.

"It's a very hip contest," he said. "I'm more pedantic and I can span the whole history of cinema.... I'm not denigrating it. It was just very hip."

He will, of course, be returning for future bouts.
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7. "Believe it or not, the mom from 'The Partridge Family' got nominated [for an Oscar] for playing a hooker in 1960. What was the movie?"
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Host Macalister says that portions of the Portland contests may be videotaped and photographed -- meaning strong PDX performers could reach the eyeballs of the producers of the broadcast version.

"Those clips and pictures could, possibly, be shown on the national show," she says before running off to test the laptop that runs the contest (using a program called, believe it or not, GameShow Pro 3). Could the producers at IFC take a even greater interest in a particularly strong, photogenic local contestant? Like, giving them a shot at the big prizes in the New York studio?

"There's a chance," she said. Hesitantly.



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Answers: 1. Kenneth Branagh; 2. Spielberg, Katzenberg, Geffen; 3. "Shrek"; 4. "Clueless"; 5. Nicolas Cage; 6. Harrison Ford; 7. "Elmer Gantry."
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WHAT: "The Ultimate Film Fanatic Challenge," a traveling movie trivia game based on the IFC game show.

WHEN and WHERE: Jan. 13-15 from 6 to 10 p.m. at Ringler's Pub (1332 W. Burnside, Portland; 503-225-0627); Jan. 18-20 and 25-27 at the Blue Moon Tavern (432 NW 21st, Portland; 503-223-3184)

PRIZES: A $150 American Express gift check goes to a winner selected by drawing at the end of each evening. On Jan. 27, participants will enter to win an IFC Home Theater System; winners of this prize from around the country are then entered to win a trip for two to the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

OPEN TO: Anyone 21 and older

MORE INFO: www.ifctv.com
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Channeling trivia
Sidebar: Ready for a 'Challenge'?
(Oregonian, Jan. 13, 2005)


Posted: Thu - January 13, 2005 at 09:57 AM        

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