I suppose this could be something of a game. Eh...whatever.

Here's the deal: I want to conduct a sort of experiment that has to do with the enjoyment of a film concerning the amount of exposure we get/subject ourselves to (as a disclaimer, this is not a school project or any such thing; just for my personal purposes). I could conceivably do this on my own, but that might squash a level of objectivity and wring me out in the process. So, if I might be so bold, I was hoping to recruit at least four Imps for the purpose of this experiment. The idea is that each of you will choose a film that has yet to be released in theatres and place yourself into one of the five exposure slots. Choose your film and slot wisely, as one level may confine you to extreme degrees of informative separation, and another may require you to dig up as much information as can be humanly unearthed.

Following the release of your chosen film, you'll need to write and post a brief review of the film detailing your degree of enjoyment based upon your level of pre-release exposure, including any relevant observations (whether learning something about the movie beforehand made it better or worse). The experiment needn't be limited to just five reviewers or five different films.

If you're interested, post your choice of film and degree of separation, as detailed below:



bq. *1st Degree--The Movie Monk*: Absolutely no information. Nothing beyond knowledge of the existence of the chosen film, title, primary cast and crew, and launch date. No trailers, interviews, set videos, TV spots, articles, or reviews. Keep yourself in the dark as entirely as possible.

bq. *2nd Degree--Ration Picture*: Basic video supplementation and cast knowledge. You may watch one teaser trailer and one theatrical trailer (and as frequently as you like), but nothing apart from that. You may also look into the cast and crew info to see who's starring, directing, composing, editing, handling FX, etc.

bq. *3rd Degree--Textus Tonus*: Restricted to text-based information and excludes any and all video material (trailers, teasers, inside looks, interviews). This also excludes scripts, should you come across any. Maximum five reviews may be read prior to viewing.

bq. *4th Degree--Show Me the TV*: All knowledge is restricted to what you see on the telly (Youtube, internet channels are prohibited). This can encompass as many forms of media coverage as can be witnessed. All other knowledge is restricted to basic cast/crew information that can be found on IMDB. Essentially, all info is restricted to a television set or any sort of physical newspaper (addendum: advertisements seen while viewing unrelated videos on Youtube or other sites are acceptable). Maximum three aired reviews may be viewed prior to viewing.

bq. *5th Degree--Cinema Glutton*: This encompasses everything released, if possible. Every trailer, interview, TV spot, behind-the-scenes documentary; every article, set visit, preview; every still, collage, slideshow, and set pics; as many reviews as possible. Go for the gold, here.

Yeah, feel free to pick whichever film you want to see, but pick one based on whether or not you'd like to know everything about it (I may do a second degree for _The Dark Knight Rises_ ). It's entirely possible to have five of us do this for the same movie, but it's not necessary.

You also don't need to necessarily know nothing about a film to join the experiment. If you know quite a bit about something you're already interested in, you could very well saddle up in the fifth degree slot if you feel so inclined.

I suppose I should pose some questions, provided we have a few interested. Would you rather select individual films, or shall we cast a vote for a single film?

Fair enough.

Okay, so what about reading something like the IMDb or Wikipedia page for a movie? Which categories would that be allowed/disallowed under? Would it be OK to read those pages if you ONLY read things like the cast/director/premise? (I’m assuming you’re at least letting us learn about the premise, even for the first degree!)

I’m thinking about doing a second degree for Cowboys & Aliens. I recently found out it was based on a comic book (although I’ve never read the source material) and io9 seems to be positive about it (although I haven’t read any articles on it, this is just the impression I got from reading the article titles), so I think I might enjoy it.

I might do step 3 for The Fighter if I end up seeing it. I haven’t seen a trailer, but I’ve read a few reviews.