We should get a poll going.

[freakinmayhew]

I keep seeing people throwing out names, with no idea which ones people here really seem to like.

Here's my suggestion: Do only the characters who will appear in the pilot (from the beginning of the first book to Bran's fall). Pick maybe five actors from the Official Casting Synopsis at a time and whoever gets the most votes will compete against the other winners, tournament style.

For example, one poll for Eddard Stark that is:

Jason Patric
Kevin McKidd
Sean Bean
John Lynch
Thomas Kretschmann

and then another poll for Eddard Stark between:

James Purefoy
Clive Owen
Kyle McGlachlan
Casper Van Dein
Daniel Day-Lewis

The winners of each will compete in a later poll.

Vote however you want, but I'd suggest going with realistic possibilities instead of dream pics.

[Auburn Dragon]

I don't follow your logic on doing the polls in random groups of 5. That introduces a high level of error into a survey unnecessarily if you don't have someone pre-ranking the choices on some other criteria. This method would work if we were only putting one name forth for D&D to look at, but what I think we agreed to do is show them the spectrum of choices in a ranked fashion, and for that this method is useless.

The first problem inherent with this design is that you can only accurately rank as many choices as you have in the final round, because scores from the previous round where everyone votes once in each primary election are non comparable.

Secondly (and the one that really bugs me) is that if someone doesn't spend hours case matching the choices in each group, we end up with a non random assortment in each primary. It is entirely possible that the person who wins one primary is the favorite, but it is equally possible that the person who wins the other primary is only the 6th favorite, because the top 5 choices are in the first primary. This would give off the illusion that the number 6 choice is the second choice when D&D see the poll, and make it likely that fan favorites that would have been higher voted if they had been in the other primary (and more appropriate to the role) are not looked at.

I don't think we need to over-complicate this. There is a thread in the general forums that ranks the favorite characters of all time-- it's essentially the same as having 50+ choices on the same ballot, and it seems to be unbiased and inclusive of everyone's choices. We just have to decide if we want to let people vote more than once in each poll. If yes, we have to work out a point assigning system (2 points for first choice, and 1 point for 2nd for example) and specify how the tallying will be done (one official count poster, or give directions for each person to add in their own post).

[freakinmayhew]

[quote name='Auburn Dragon' post='1626651' date='Dec 20 2008, 13.23']I don't think we need to over-complicate this. There is a thread in the general forums that ranks the favorite characters of all time-- it's essentially the same as having 50+ choices on the same ballot, and it seems to be unbiased and inclusive of everyone's choices. We just have to decide if we want to let people vote more than once in each poll. If yes, we have to work out a point assigning system (2 points for first choice, and 1 point for 2nd for example) and specify how the tallying will be done (one official count poster, or give directions for each person to add in their own post).[/quote]

I know what thread you're talking about. That's a good thread and a good idea. The main thing I was worried about was having a small group of people pick someone they like out of 50 choices even though they don't represent the majority. Adding points for second and third choices helps to eliminate that.

[Smoldering Hound]

Proper way to do that is instant runoff...
Everyone places from one to every actor proposed for the character in the order of their preference. Only their top actor counts in the voting until he gets eliminated. Runoffs are run instantaneously eliminating the single actor with the fewest votes (or all that are tied for fewest) until there is only one actor left. That actor gets placed on top, then eliminated from the list, and the runoff gets run again from the beginning for second place....rinse, repeat, till finished to create the list.

The nice thing is that it is state related (meaning it can be rerun with each new vote), and no vote is discounted, and a new person can rank each actor exactly how they like and be fully represented in the final tally. Better still, nobody has to list actors they don't know, as all actors one doesn't like are ranked equally by that person (i.e. if all the actors you ranked get eliminated, your vote no longer counts, as you clearly don't care what the outcome is among the remaining choices, or you would have ranked them). Yeah, it gets messy when there is 49 choices and thousands of votes. Hand counting votes is a biznatch.

I'll run a sample in another thread.

[Brude]

Poll games like this can be fun but I don't think it's going to be helpful in anyway to the casting process. A few people dedicated to the threads will determine the winners rather than truely who are favorites. Also, just because someone is a fan favorite doesn't necessarily mean they are the best for the role. It's better to just list people that are perhaps right for the role, then let the producers and the casting directors go to work running auditions, pairing up potential actors for readings and then making their decisions. A lot of times you get surprised as to what an actor brings to a certain role.

[Maester Joergensen]

[quote name='Brude' post='1627343' date='Dec 21 2008, 19.12']Poll games like this can be fun but I don't think it's going to be helpful in anyway to the casting process. A few people dedicated to the threads will determine the winners rather than truely who are favorites. Also, just because someone is a fan favorite doesn't necessarily mean they are the best for the role. It's better to just list people that are perhaps right for the role, then let the producers and the casting directors go to work running auditions, pairing up potential actors for readings and then making their decisions. A lot of times you get surprised as to what an actor brings to a certain role.[/quote]

I think that what we are really doing here is giving the casting director a general idea of how people view the characters. Most roles are probably going to be played by English stage or TV actors, most of us have never heard about, anyway. When there partner in England the BBC, put out a casting call it will probably bring in a stampede of hopeful young English talent. Our actor suggestions along with other influences, like input from George, David and Dan, will give the casting director a sense of what to look for when casting a part.

It is off course possible that some useful suggestions are going to come forth from the brilliant people on this board, but mostly I look on this exercise as a sort of a survey for the sort of look and attributes a actor need for a particular part. The casting director will than look for en relatively unknown English guy with the same general features. You could say he would be a low budget look a like to the actor we suggest, but I believe that if he is talented, which will hopefully be determined at the audition, he will bring something fresh and unique to the show, where a well known face would bring flavours of his old characters with him. But it is off course a difficult line to thread, since experience us also important. Hopefully the English talent pool is big enough to provide us with people that has both the right looks, talent and experience. I believe it is. Without having anything to base my opinion on at all:)

Just to make things clear. I am all for this poll. I think it will be both great fun, and useful to the producers and the casting director. We already have Adelle Tullys great Synopsis of the suggestions from the official casting thread. But that is completely uncritical. What we need is a way to find, not one winner for each character, but something like a top five.

I believe the best way is to pick someone whose opinion is generally respected on the board, and give him the power to slice the field down to something like ten-to-twenty actors for each of the main characters. everyone will then be able to distribute 3,2 and 1 points respectively to there favorites, which will narrow it down to the desired top five.

[Smoldering Hound]

See, now with instant runoff, everyone can be as detailed or scatterbrained as they want. If you don't really care who's 27th in a field of 59, you can just list your top 6 in order of preference. Those who take the time to make their humongoid list of preferences will also have their entire set of preferences honored, with each runoff still only valuing a single person's top available pick (as names get knocked off first because of too few votes for the current vote, and second because the name has already won a place in order), which still values one person one vote in any particular vote.

If you don't want to wade through a list of 59 to pick your choices, wait to vote to see who percolates to the top...

[Adelle Tully]

[quote name='Space_Bandito' post='1628961' date='Dec 24 2008, 04.22']*chips away at the ice on his inbox* :smash:[/quote]

Have I told you lately that I love you?

FYI: I will not have time on my hands very often in the up coming months as my life has gotten rather complicated. I'll still pop in, but if anyone could pop in and help with the ongoing lists, it'd be much appreciated.