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As done 3 months ago, I'd once again ask the community for their favourite questions and answers from the past quarter. So let's see what great and interesting questions and answers the start of the year and the site graduation had to offer.

Please link to your favorite questions and answers which were created from January 1st 2015 through March 31st 2015.

Since we currently get ~800/1300 questions/answers per quarter, here are some data queries to help with the decision making process:

But those are really just hints, feel free to mention any question or answer you really enjoyed. Also don't hesitate to mention questions and answers you posted yourself but which you think didn't get the apreciation they deserved.

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My personal favorite Q and A becuase narcisism:

  • Why would a movie that appears pornographic via it's rating (X) receive an Academy Award?

    I liked this question a lot because it really let me flex my muscles on cinema history, even requiring me to do a tiny bit of research to make sure my understanding was correct. Lots of people questioned the validity of this one as site worthy, but my answer and disucssion regarding it in chat, plus several edits from others to fine tune the question in general, made it a pretty popular question for the quarter, even making it into the hot network questions queue for a couple days.

    Provides good content for the site, and caused people to really work at what this site is all about: teamwork to ask, answer, and curate interesting questions.

Favorite Questions:

  • Ok, so what the hell happened at the end of Birdman?

    Gotta love a question that generates so many answers, especially on a site where most questions get one answer and it's the right one. I also love that this higlights one of my favorite things in movies: the open ending. Sure they could have told us what happens, but it would be nowhere near as fantastic as what we can come up with ourselves.

  • Why are trailers called "trailers"?

    Working in a projection booth during the final years of major studios distributing movies on 35mm celluloid film, you get to handle a lot of small trailer reels. I also happen to be one of those people who enjoyes seeing trailers at the movies. Can't believe I never wondered this myself, or put together the answer before. Seems so obvious now.

Favorite Answers:

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So I've skimmed over the last quarter of questions to look for the posts I'd deem good and diverse examples, be it by personal interest, quality, informativity or just originality. This is neither an exhaustive list, as there have been many good questions and answers, nor ordered in any way. And of course this is entirely my own opinion.

Questions:

  • Switch in *The Matrix* - Two Actors?

    That is a nice piece of information I was completely unaware of, and a great opener for the corresponding topic challenge. A very interesting possible casting decision that becomes all the more intriguing when considering that back then the Wachowski siblings were still the Wachowski brothers. (Add to this that this question was (or even still is?) on the brink of getting lost to that other movie site. But we can't risk losing such great questions.)

  • Was the "Dr Mann" they meet on the planet a transhuman version of KIPP and Mann?

    I got to list that question here simply because it's premise and deduction is so completely outrageous. But however totally far-fetched this question is, it is nevertheless an ultimately interesting one and enabled some very good and insightful answers, even if the general answer is just obvious.

  • Does Metropolis advocate for Social Democracy?

    Well, a rather classic question about a classic movie. I haven't seen it for quite a long time but given that it's a well-known and -discussed movie and this most probably has been asked before already, a properly researched answer should be achievable quite well.

  • How realistic is the hacking depicted in Blackhat?

    While this movie was generally not received that well (though, I presonally liked it), it nevertheless posed the question in which way such abstract computer-related processes could in the future be expressed in a compelling way in an inherently audivisual medium. And while the movie might not always have chosen the right way in this regard, it makes for a very interesting question in which way the depicted hacking was actually true to reality at all.

  • Why was The Lego Movie not nominated at the Oscars?

    Now that's how you ask an Oscar question. While a question for the missing nomination of your favourite movie doesn't really make much of a good and objective question, concentrating on the technicalities of a somewhat unusual animated movie and asking if those were a hindrance for that makes for quite an interesting question. And it elicited some insightful answers.

Answers:

Honorable Mentions:

  • Is Roy based on Quentin Tarantino and Sofia Coppola?

    While this question doesn't personally interest me so much, primarily because I haven't seen the movie at all, it stands out for generating two answers that, while being based on more or less the same sources, come to totally opposite conclusions for the final answer simply because of a different viewpoint of the problem. Both answers are pretty valid considering their individual approaches and it is up to the asker and the voters to judge it for themselves. And that's what multiple answers are for.

  • Identify this Dirty Dozen-like Italian (?) movie

    Now that's an identification question that is worth mentioning, because, well, it's actually interesting. It's an ID question based on a very weird marketing circumstance, some obscure movie having a totally wrong plot summary on its VHS cover and that even for different versions of the movie/cover. That is a premise that's so much more intriguing than your usual daily "I remember this thing with that guy" question and lifts this beyond a mere ID question.

  • Are there differences in the ways/rationales that movies cast real persons to play “themselves?”

    A very well explained answer to an interesting film-making question, in fact one of multiple good general casting questions/answers. While I initially saw some problems with the answer adressing the actual question, it was fleshed out pretty well and turned into a quite exhaustive answer. And it yet again shows, that it pays to have actual industry experts around.

  • How come the underlying theme of Birdman is being seen as redemptive, rather than sealing the character's fate as a failure?

    This question was originally worded rather unluckily and opinion-based. But it since turned into an interesting, even if still a bit strangely-premised, question and one of many intriguing questions we had about Birdman, as the other meta answers here have already acknowledged. The answers, while pretty obvious and maybe not completely exhaustive, do a good job of adressing the problem.

  • Why would the satellite debris have followed the Tiangong out of orbit?

    While I never felt I could properly answer that question, I was glad when I finally took the courage to do so. It is never easy to answer such questions satisfactorily. And while the asker had many valid concerns the answer tries to be way more than just a "it was an error!" shoutout and goes out of its way to adress the asker's particular viewpoint expressed in the question and the comments (even if that inadvertently seems to have "provoked" him for whatever reason). You don't really expect acceptance for such a question and answer, but I'm at least myself perfectly satisfied that I've given the bext answer possible and that's pretty much enough for me under those circumstances.

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  • Now i know why it took so much time. I also though to submit mine but got confused with equal contenders, none were extra ordinary neither inferior. Anyways you have made them up very good +1.
    – Ankit Sharma Mod
    Apr 13, 2015 at 8:52

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