2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion

[Cheynem]

I don't know if this means anything, but the bonuses on modern TV (NCIS/FBI/La Brea) and the aforementioned Astros bonus are questions I would literally expect to see in an IS set in NAQT. That may speak more to how hard NAQT questions can be in pop culture than if they were actually too easy or not.

[yeah viv talk nah]

I missed the first half of the first round so didn't hear it played, but reading over the packets now I feel that The Cloud-Capped Star in the Scorsese world cinema bonus is too difficult a hard part. This seems to be backed up to a degree by the conversion data from the Northwestern site, where no teams got it.
Ritwik Ghatak is not very well-known in the Western world in general and he has only ever been mentioned in quizbowl twice (once as in a film set tossup on parallel cinema), so I think that making the bonus part on Ghatak himself, even mentioning he was a Bengali-language parallel cinema director and mentioning the film's name, would have been easier on players while still being something that only ~10% of teams could convert.

I really liked the other academic questions in this tournament. My favorites were the ones on the ring finger, can openers, Wil-E Coyote, and baseball analogies.

[Auroni]

I missed the first half of the first round so didn't hear it played, but reading over the packets now I feel that The Cloud-Capped Star in the Scorsese world cinema bonus is too difficult a hard part. This seems to be backed up to a degree by the conversion data from the Northwestern site, where no teams got it.

Not intended as a rebuttal of your point, but this was converted by SA at the online mirror (and possibly by others, I haven't seen the data yet.) I reasoned that it would be a good hard part for an open difficulty audience because of its recent restoration, its status as one of the most highly regarded films of one of the world's major film traditions, and the overlap between quizbowl playing and cinephile audiences.

[rhn26]

Could I see the "klezmer" tossup in Packet 7? Judging from the older version posted in this thread (and my memory of what I heard during the online mirror), it said that Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes was published as the "overture no. 34," but I can't seem to find any sources of that online (it seems to be opus 34 from what I can tell).

[yeah viv talk nah]

I missed the first half of the first round so didn't hear it played, but reading over the packets now I feel that The Cloud-Capped Star in the Scorsese world cinema bonus is too difficult a hard part. This seems to be backed up to a degree by the conversion data from the Northwestern site, where no teams got it.

Not intended as a rebuttal of your point, but this was converted by SA at the online mirror (and possibly by others, I haven't seen the data yet.) I reasoned that it would be a good hard part for an open difficulty audience because of its recent restoration, its status as one of the most highly regarded films of one of the world's major film traditions, and the overlap between quizbowl playing and cinephile audiences.

That's totally fair, and good to know that it was converted. I was unaware that it was restored recently. It was quite cool to see a part on parallel cinema, so thank you for that!

[The King's Flight to the Scots]

Could I see the "klezmer" tossup in Packet 7? Judging from the older version posted in this thread (and my memory of what I heard during the online mirror), it said that Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes was published as the "overture no. 34," but I can't seem to find any sources of that online (it seems to be opus 34 from what I can tell).

It looks like it was first performed under the title "Overture Op. 34" rather than "Overture No. 34," I must have gotten some wires crossed while typing that clue. We will edit the packets to reflect that, thanks!

[elyne road]

I missed the first half of the first round so didn't hear it played, but reading over the packets now I feel that The Cloud-Capped Star in the Scorsese world cinema bonus is too difficult a hard part. This seems to be backed up to a degree by the conversion data from the Northwestern site, where no teams got it.

Not intended as a rebuttal of your point, but this was converted by SA at the online mirror (and possibly by others, I haven't seen the data yet.) I reasoned that it would be a good hard part for an open difficulty audience because of its recent restoration, its status as one of the most highly regarded films of one of the world's major film traditions, and the overlap between quizbowl playing and cinephile audiences.

planning on posting more once i finish doing my taxes, but i really appreciated this! it's a great film about why one shouldn't ignore their health, a lesson that personally found me at the exact right moment last year. ghatak's filmography was also listed in several sight and sound ballots (see also: a river called titas, the life of the adivasi, e flat, the golden thread) so if not for the occurrence within the corpus of quizbowl questions, it's most certainly notable among directors and critics. i'm ecstatic that scorsese's world cinema is making this and many other films accessible to new audiences.

[yeah viv talk nah]

I missed the first half of the first round so didn't hear it played, but reading over the packets now I feel that The Cloud-Capped Star in the Scorsese world cinema bonus is too difficult a hard part. This seems to be backed up to a degree by the conversion data from the Northwestern site, where no teams got it.

Not intended as a rebuttal of your point, but this was converted by SA at the online mirror (and possibly by others, I haven't seen the data yet.) I reasoned that it would be a good hard part for an open difficulty audience because of its recent restoration, its status as one of the most highly regarded films of one of the world's major film traditions, and the overlap between quizbowl playing and cinephile audiences.

planning on posting more once i finish doing my taxes, but i really appreciated this! it's a great film about why one shouldn't ignore their health, a lesson that personally found me at the exact right moment last year. ghatak's filmography was also listed in several sight and sound ballots (see also: a river called titas, the life of the adivasi, e flat, the golden thread) so if not for the occurrence within the corpus of quizbowl questions, it's most certainly notable among directors and critics. i'm ecstatic that scorsese's world cinema is making this and many other films accessible to new audiences.

I definitely agree that Ghatak is a very influential figure in Indian film history, and he and The Cloud-Capped Star are worthy of being included in film distros at harder tournaments. I just felt it may have been a bit easier on players to name him directly rather than the film.

[rhn26]

Looking back through the packets, I thought the Gretchen tossup was excellently executed. I'm by no means a literature player, but I read David Luke's translation of Faust, Part I for a music class I'm taking based on adaptations of Faust, and I was ecstatic when I heard the "Juniper Tree" clue and was able to buzz on it. In general, the clues in this tossup drew from very salient scenes involving Gretchen (her "mad scene" in prison, the cathedral scene) that were super memorable to someone who's read the play. (Also, I like that it never clued Faust, Part II because I haven't read it.) Thanks to the writer of this tossup for my one satisfying literature buzz of the year!

[Cheynem]

Don't worry, nobody has read Faust Part II.