SCFZ

Letterboxd showdown, special cinematographer edition: John Alton/Gregg Toland/James Wong Howe

How does it work?
I'll read data from the letterboxd accounts of SCFZ champs. I'll then use this data to answer a number of questions: Which Alton/Toland/Howe movie was rated the highest by champs? Which was lowest-rated? Which champ has seen the most from Alton/Toland/Howe? What are the movie that generated wildly different ratings? ETC.

When will I do this?
Friday May 31

What do you need to do?
Go to your letterboxd account. Rate/log Alton/Toland/Howe movies you've seen.

New to SCFZ? Have a letterboxd account? Wanna play?
Let me know

In the ultimate showdown, each champ gets one vote: Your vote goes to the cinematographer whose movies you gave a higher average rating to. If you gave both cinematographers the same average rating or you're one of those people who don't believe in ratings, your vote goes to no one.

Place your bets! Here are the questions - answer as many as you want:

1. Rank the three cinematographers! Who gets the most votes?
2. What is the vote difference between the first and second? E.g. Alton + 5
3. What Alton movie did champs rate the highest?
4. What Toland movie did champs rate the highest?
5. What Howe movie did champs rate the highest?
6. Which champ has the seen the most Alton movies? How many did said champ see?
7. Which champ has the seen the most Toland movies? How many did said champ see?
8. Which champ has the seen the most Howe movies? How many did said champ see?

The winner gets to pick the next showdown.

1 towland
2 towland +2 (over howe)
3 silver lode
4 ball of fire
5 shanghai express
6 rischka
7 greg x
8 greg x

wow good bets brian

nobody else wants to guess? so i'll win just like that?

Participation and interest in these showdowns has been dwindling for a while now. Maybe this should be the last one? Or maybe I should start a new rule: ‘if you don’t bet, you don’t get to play’

to the first five questions:

howe/toland/alton
howe + 3
raw deal
the little foxes
shanghai express

Toland/Alton/Howe
Toland + 3
Tennessee's Partner
Notorious
Sweet Smell of Success

No idea who's seen what from each since they all have a number of movies that likely aren't gonna rank well, but my own preference would be Howe/Toland/Alton just based on their demonstrated ability at their craft.

I'm concerned that lb listings aren't going to be complete and definitive about cinematographers. I'd expect the lesser films in each person's CV to be spottily represented, just because amateurs who enter unrepresented movies aren't likely to be scrupulous about importing all possible information.

Alton has 81 credits on LB as DP, 102 at imdb. Toland: 57/66. Wong Howe: 101/142.

1. Toland, Howe, then Alton
2. Toland + 4
3. Raw Deal
4. Citizen Kane
5. Sweet Smell of Success

1. Toland, Howe, Alton
2. Toland +7
3. Tennessee's Partner
4. Notorious
5. Seconds
6. greg x
7. greg x
8. greg x

People, please feel free to rate your movies if you are so inclined!

Lencho_of_the_Apes wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2019 2:01 am I'm concerned that lb listings aren't going to be complete and definitive about cinematographers. I'd expect the lesser films in each person's CV to be spottily represented, just because amateurs who enter unrepresented movies aren't likely to be scrupulous about importing all possible information.

Alton has 81 credits on LB as DP, 102 at imdb. Toland: 57/66. Wong Howe: 101/142.

The 'right' fix is for someone to edit the TMDB pages and add the missing info, but I do not see that happening before Friday. I could fix it for a select handful if you have particular titles in mind though.

kanafani wrote: ↑Sat May 25, 2019 6:16 pm Participation and interest in these showdowns has been dwindling for a while now. Maybe this should be the last one? Or maybe I should start a new rule: ‘if you don’t bet, you don’t get to play’

Interest in the results and participation in the betting are two very different things. I'm always thrilled to see the stats, but I wouldn't know where to begin with my guesses. Besides, having won a round before I wouldn't be eligible if I won this time

Umbugbene wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2019 1:10 pm Besides, having won a round before I wouldn't be eligible if I won this time

Sure you would!! Everyone is eligible

Oh, well then Here we go:

1. Howe > Toland > Alton
2. Howe + 11
3. Raw Deal
4. Citizen Kane
5. Seconds
6. Lencho
7. Rischka
8. John Ryan

Toland and Howe tie for first

A: Raw Deal, rischka
T: Citizen Kane, greg
H: Fantasia, greg

Flabrezu has these blokes rated btw, not sure if he's on your list

1,2) Alton, +1
6,7,8) Greg X

Ugh what a day. Alright uploading results soon.

John Alton

• Average Rating: 3.502404
• Total Champ Views: 286
• Total Champ Ratings: 215
• Highest Rated Movie: tea-and-sympathy (3.8 stars, 5 ratings)
• Lowest Rated Movie: bury-me-dead (2.25 stars, 2 ratings)

Breakdown of Alton movies, sorted by highest average SCFZ rating:

Breakdown of Alton movies, sorted by number of logs:

Divisive Alton movies:

Here are the Alton movies that received a rating of 2.5 stars or less:

Alton ratings spread:

Champs sorted by number of Alton movies logged:

Champs sorted by average rating of Alton movies. I added a new column that shows the difference between you average Alton rating and your overall average rating.

Highest rated Alton movie for each champ (in case of a tie, I only list one):

Lowest rated Alton movie for each champ (in case of a tie, I only list one):