How did the director manage to pick the winner?
Of the two hundred or more contestants taking part in the spelling bee the film concentrates on just eight of them.
Was it a coincidence that one of the eight was the eventual winner?
I ALWAYS wondered that and never found it out!
I didn't know if it was just coincidence, or if they filmed a lot more than 8 and cut it down to the 8 most interesting (including the winner). I know there were some who were deleted; Wikipedia mentions a speller called Allyson Lieberman. They also show interviews with some others, I think the boy who came somewhere in the top and won the next year?
Also, a lot of the interviews were done after the bee, so maybe they decided after?
I'm guessing they probably picked a few of the most promising/interesting ones, edited them down, and coincidentally ended up with the winner.
Just found somebody who is apparently April posted on IMDb and said this: "i was friendly with some of the spellers in the documentary during the bee, but i didn't know that any of them were going to be featured in the documentary. i really didn't know who exactly was going to be featured in it since i wasn't one of the original spellers they followed." I remember noticing during the film that her interviews were after the event, so I guess they did some choosing afterwards too.
Ah, found this too: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0334405/board/flat/2136823?p=1
I'm not really sure if all the participants were shot prior to the spelling bee. Few of the interviews really show them right before the Bee, just talking about the build-up to the bee. But there were 2 or 3 favorites to win that you could tell had full coverage early on, like the Indian family. His sister had done well and he was expected to do well.
shareThe director(s) didn't pick the winner :)
Nupur's story was filmed after she won the national spelling bee, during her introductory segment, all the celebration that was going on for her winning her "regional" bee was actually because of her victory in D.C.
Wanna know something else? Ted wasn't even supposed to be in the documentary, the reason that the producers were at the spelling bee that he won at was because they were planning on following another young man (I don't happen to know his name) who went to the 1998 national spelling bee and placed very very well, top 10 I believe, but he went out early at that spelling bee and low and behold Ted won.
It's obviously NOT a coincidence. The film is obviously highlighting the journey of a spelling bee contestant who goes on to eventually win the actual contest. I had assumed that this would be obvious to anybody watching the movie, but obviously not.
shareIt seems you were too stupid to obviously figure out that obviously people would not notice how obvious it all was.
shareI know they did film more, because there is a special feature on the dvd showing some of the kids that got deleted from the movie.
Spellbound - 7/10
Mary and Max - 10/10
OT
Believing that they filmed the stories after the bee had ended really brings the film down in my expectations, I admired that the film makers had done there homework.
On the kids on the special features subject,
Spoilers
Theres one that has a pretty good character story but when he gets to the bee he probably gets the hardest word of the whole tournement on his first round and gets knocked out, sad stuff. His character is very interesting, specially when he explains about getting his first kiss off a girl who wanted to wish him luck in the national bee.
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