Maths/Stats Question

[Mick Norris]

So Zootropolis has a female lead character? No reason why not, as the cartoon is allegorical.

Yes. She - Judy Hopps - is a rabbit, but she’s clearly a female rabbit.

Is Zootropolis any good?

I have only see Kung Fu Panda 3 and Star Wars this year, so I have nothing statistically significant to add

[Jonathan Bryant]

Is Zootropolis any good?

Yes, it’s really good. One of my favourite films of the year so far and certainly one of the very best from the 'mainstream American' category.

[Kevin Thurlow]

I didn't really make it clear - yes, I know Judy Hopps was female! I was wondering if cartoons counted. It was a good film though not as good as Paddington obviously.

[Jonathan Bryant]

I was wondering if cartoons counted.

Depends on your point of view and what you’re trying to do, I suppose. To me it definitely does.

[Kevin Thurlow]

It's your project - do what you like!

Presumably you have found films where it is not obvious who the "star" is?

[Jonathan Bryant]

Presumably you have found films where it is not obvious who the "star" is?

Oh yes, although 'ensemble cast' films seem less popular in Hollywood than elsewhere.

The Hateful 8 would be an example I suppose. Although with 1 female character to 7 men, it’s quite a different kettle of fish to films like The Ones Below and A Bigger Splash (British and European productions, respectively) which are both about two couples. With females roles just as prominent as males, I would count those a female lead character ("a" if not "the") but not The Hateful 8.

There are also films that have an ensemble-ish cast but actually have more female main characters than male - e.g. The Huntsman: Winter’s War (3 to 1) and The Survivalist (2 to 1) - but the titular character is male. Hard to know exactly how to classify those.

The Danish Girl - a film about a man who becomes a woman - is one that you could classify a variety of ways depending on your point of view (I opted to count it as a film lead character).


On the off chance that anybody’s interested, the films i’ve seen recently are listed here:-

http://www.47films.blogspot.co.uk/?view=flipcard

My plan was to watch 47 films between the start of October and my next (48th) birthday on the 17th September this year. However, things have rather got out of hand and I’m already up to 77.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

http://www.47films.blogspot.co.uk/?view=flipcard

My plan was to watch 47 films between the start of October and my next (48th) birthday on the 17th September this year. However, things have rather got out of hand and I’m already up to 77.

Goodness. I thought I was the only person to ponder keeping some sort of record of the films I've watched. (irony alert) I don't watch many films now, but the thought still occasionally crosses my mind. It makes more sense if you write (blog?) something about each film you watch.

Which of those films did you enjoy most and/or would you recommend?

[Jonathan Bryant]

It makes more sense if you write (blog?) something about each film you watch.

I fairly often put up stuff on my facebook page. The blog is really more intended as a diary to remember what I’ve actually seen. Also, it’s an excuse to work out the cost per film and see how low I can get it. Dipping below £8 on Sunday was a special moment.

Which of those films did you enjoy most and/or would you recommend?

Of films I’ve seen this month

I really liked The Jungle Book - I was a bit worried it might be a dreadful money making exercise, but it’s obviously been made with care. Criminal is appallingly bad. Eye in the Sky is a good thriller - ignore the trailer which makes it look very average.

There’s chess at the start of The Huntsman: Winter’s War but otherwise there’s not a huge amount to recommend it. There’s a chess set on view in The Man Who Knew Infinity and a person called John Littlewood - but not our John Littlewood. Otherwise not much to that film either. Batman vs Superman was dreary (and without chess)

If you’re in to non-English language films Dheepan, Victoria and Our Little Sister are all worth a watch for different reasons.

The Dressmaker is fun. Like Twin Peaks set in small-town 1950s Australia.

I liked the documentary The Last Man on the Moon a lot more than most reviewers seemed to.


Going back a bit, the very very best films i’ve seen would include

Sicario
Brooklyn
Steve Jobs
Carol
Room
Rams
The Survivalist
The Witch
Zootropolis


The very very worst:

Dad’s Army
Zoolander 2
Deadpool
London Has Fallen

[Matt Fletcher]

I’m trying to establish the relative frequency of THING X happening in two groups of unequal size.

Let’s say,
In Group One, THING X happens on 10 of 20 occasions.
In Group Two, THING X happens on 5 of 30 occasions.

Just seen this - as people have said, there's nowhere near enough to say that "THING X" happens 3x more often in group 1 than group 2.

Just to try some numbers based on the ideal "balls in urns" model (ie assuming you've picked 20 balls independently from a jar, and 10 black balls have come out etc)

Your best estimate for the proportion of black balls in group 1 is 50% but it could easily be higher or lower - turning the numbers, there is a 90% chance that the proportion falls between 30% and 70%.

For group 2, your best estimate for the proportion of black balls is 17% (1 in 6) - there is a 90% chance that the proportion falls between 7% (1 in 15) and 32% (1 in 3)

So even with these small numbers of 'balls' picked, because the relative frequencies are so different you can say that it is likely that the actual proportion of black balls is different in the two urns.

If you increase the population sizes by a factor of 10, the 90% confidence intervals move to (44% - 56%) and (13% - 21%) - here the confidence limits are a long way apart and you can start to say sensible things about the relative proportions of black balls in each urn.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Captain America: Civil War has a character called Karpov.

There is a chess set on view in two scenes. It is the wrong way around on both occasions.

[Brian Towers]

Captain America: Civil War has a character called Karpov.

There is a chess set on view in two scenes. It is the wrong way around on both occasions.

Have you accidentally posted in the wrong thread, Jonathan?

[Jonathan Bryant]

No. This thread moved on to films that I'd seen and whatnot so I thought it appropriate to add this comment here.

[Matt Fletcher]

No. This thread moved on to films that I'd seen and whatnot so I thought it appropriate to add this comment here.

But I wrote you such lovely stats, just one post above...

[Jonathan Bryant]

No. This thread moved on to films that I'd seen and whatnot so I thought it appropriate to add this comment here.

But I wrote you such lovely stats, just one post above...

For "moved on to" read, "broadened its scope to include"


And you did write a very helpful post which I see I forgot to thank you for at the time - so thanks

[Jonathan Bryant]

Florence Foster Jenkins: the pianist has a chessboard set up in the starting position. It’s in the background so you can’t tell if the board’s the right way around.

It’s not really obvious what the chess set is doing there but it’s supposed to be a bachelor pad, so perhaps it’s an allusion to the single life.