Film Junk Bonus Podcast: Movie Organization Manifesto, Part 1
As many of you know, on the Film Junk Podcast we’ve been fielding questions for the better part of a year about the best way to organize a DVD and Blu-ray collection. I don’t remember how it all started, but we’ve enjoyed getting into inane arguments over the minutiae of categorizing and sorting and we thought it was about time we brought it all together in its very own bonus podcast. We’ve decided that we’re going to draft a Movie Organization Manifesto that can be used as a handy reference and passed around among collectors. This podcast is the first part of documenting that process. We’ve already decided that there will probably be a part two, so feel free to send additional questions and concerns to filmjunk@gmail.com and we’ll try to cover them in the next episode. Enjoy!
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Comments (54)
Pinch me, I must be dreaming!
Posted by Colin on August 4th, 2011Incredible! What a treat! Thanks, guys.
Posted by Lior on August 4th, 2011Do any of you guys have photos of your organized collections?
Posted by Glen on August 4th, 2011I’m inspired. Gonna tackle the mess I’ve created when I get home.
Posted by cinekill on August 4th, 2011That is a photo of Frank’s collection. My collection is in storage right now unfortunately.
Posted by Sean on August 4th, 2011WOW! Frank dominaed this debate. Way to go, Frank!
“I’ve exposed myself.” — Jay Cheel. This made me laugh harder than when Greg watched the wrong movie.
I’m considering removing my TV from the collection after this ep. but there’s only 4 TV seasons total and they look like shit when they’re in a separate part of the collection.
And I am with Frank 100% on keeping Criterion with the rest of the films. It’s all about ease of access and finding the title you want to as quickly as possible.
Total agreement with Jay on how the numbers work. My copy of 2001 is in with the T’s. Although, I’m not putting Se7en before Seabiscuit (don’t own Seabiscuit anyway). It’s going where it would be if it was actually titled “Seven”
Posted by theocean85 on August 4th, 2011This is AMAZING.
Posted by Andrew on August 4th, 2011Fuck, yeah! You guys are pure awesomeness! Gonna listen to it tonight.
Posted by Stefan on August 4th, 2011The Day After was released in theaters in Europe so that would go in the “Movie” section.
Posted by swarez on August 4th, 2011Wow, awesome. Can’t wait to listen to this. I was just thinking of writing in to plead for a dedicated show like this.
Posted by KeithTalent on August 4th, 2011Keep this going! What a great idea! Although, I thought I was OCD about my collection before… now, I’m listening to this. Thank god us Americans don’t have to worry about those damn French titles. Although, they do pop up here and there at used DVD stores.
Posted by Dave on August 4th, 2011I built my own shelves because the Billy shelves were pissing me off, lack of space had me starting to stack in layers, which is never good.
Posted by swarez on August 4th, 2011Here’s a picture of it. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/swarez/P1060539.jpg
@swarez
That is absolutely fucking beautiful.
Posted by dirrrtyfrank on August 4th, 2011@swarez
wow! very impressed!
Posted by Curtis Williams on August 4th, 2011I have one straight alphabet, period, and I’m content with it and its easier for me.
I also keep TV and movies together. There’s just too many cases where I don’t want to split them. Like Monty Python’s Flying Circus from the movies, Muppet Show from the movies, etc.
Posted by Goon on August 4th, 2011I think I agree with Jay for the most part.
Criterions shouldn’t mingle with common releases. Also, I keep Ocilloscope releases together. As a member of the Circle Of Trust, I believe I’m obligated to do so.
I also go by Genre and subdivide from there. I even have a section for 80s Brat Pack movies.
Posted by cinekill on August 4th, 2011I’m halfway through, but had to stop and weigh in on the Criterion issue. In my mind, a Criterion BluRay is elevated to the point where it verges on becoming a different format entirely, even from regular BluRay. They are what the other BluRays aspire to. In my perfect world, they are separated and go top shelf, position one, because the question is this — I want to watch a particular movie in my collection. I would choose the Criterion BluRay version over the regular BluRay just as easily as choosing BluRay over DVD.
This posits an ideal reality in which I own everything and have that choice. But, since that’s the goal of collecting in the first place, I feel I have no choice but to act as if.
OK, back to the show….
Posted by sansho1 on August 4th, 2011I download all my films so this might not be for me but…. *slow claps* for the effort guys! As insane as it may seem, it’s still pretty awesome you guys actually went through this haha.
Also, WOW @ Frank’s collection! Would love to see a video tour of all of your dvd/blu-ray collections.
Posted by Napalm on August 4th, 2011This is one of my favorite Filmjunk episodes yet, really funny. Keep up the great work.
Posted by Curtis Williams on August 4th, 2011You are all wrong, and its sad. Here is how you do it, alphabetically by Director, then within Director chronologically. After that you do separate Music, and TV, I also separate box sets, but work docs inline.
Here is why, if you are a movie fanatic or snob like myself, I watch movies by feel. If i am in a Kurosawa mood then i go to him. I don’t want Yojimbo so far from Ikiru. The director is the one true vision and feel for the movie.
Posted by Derek on August 4th, 2011i could listen to you guys talk dvds all day long
Posted by mitch on August 4th, 2011Derek: What happens if you’re in a Rod Amateau mood?
Posted by Jay C. on August 4th, 2011Love the Zodiac comment Frank. Love that film and its a quality blu-ray. The Social Network case is orgasmic as well.
Posted by Jason Cartagena on August 4th, 2011By director only makes sense if you can remember the director of every movie ever. Nobody cares about searching for the collection of films by Stephen Herek just to find Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. You just look under “B” for Bill & Ted and there it frickin’ is.
Posted by theocean85 on August 4th, 2011@theocean85
Nobody says to arrange by director for every movie you have. But if you love Kurosawa and have his entire filmography or a large chunk of it I don’t see any reason to mix it up with the rest. This only works for big volumes and big directors.
I found myself agreeing with all the guys on different points. Yeah, alphabetically is best, UNLESS you have a big chunk of specific editions, such as Criterion or the 20th Century Fox Film Noir series, for example. Any line of quality picks that were programmed by someone to be a part of a self-contained collection. I think the hypothetical situation “people won’t be able to find a specific movie they’re looking for by themselves while I’m in the lavatory” doesn’t justify mixing it up, in my view.
And French on the cover is a big, huge no-no. Hate it.
Posted by Lior on August 4th, 2011The amazing thing about this is not that it’s a Bonus episode, but that it’s part 1! Love it!
Posted by rjdelight on August 4th, 2011Love this conversation. Can’t wait for part 2.
Here’s a mind blowing thought. Why not completely alphabetical and use an app like the one that was suggested a while back to manage the collection? You can slice and dice things virtually – find it by genre, director, etc. and when you go to look for it, it’s all A-Z. Did that just make Frank throw up a bit? Sorry.
Posted by Yogidabear on August 4th, 2011I cannot wait to hear this.
Posted by bard on August 4th, 2011I organize strictly by alphabet….movies, TV shows, everything. When it comes to visual appeal, I’ll display a movie with a corresponding action figure sometimes, just to jazz it up a bit. The only discs I keep separate are music/concerts, but those are alphabetical as well.
When I go to a friend’s or acquaintance’s home and see their dvds all out of order, and it drives me NUTS!
Posted by LUDY on August 4th, 2011I wish there was video of Jay losing it – must have been priceless! Where does Jay put Beauty Day and his other films, together, or, in alphabetical placement? What about collections of festival shorts? personally I just use my DVDs as coasters and stuff them in a bag behind the couch.
(Frank’s stomach turns)
Posted by rus in chicago on August 4th, 2011@Jay
If you’re in a Rod Amateau mood, you go to the A section, pull out The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, have a Coke and a smile, and shut the fuck up. Jello pudding-eating motherfucker.
I don’t recall whether this came up, but here’s a question for Frank: Do you leave shelf space open for films that you plan to buy?
Posted by Nat Almirall on August 4th, 2011oh shit, christmas came twice
Posted by Jonny Ashley on August 4th, 2011Anyone that wants to further this discussion should really hit up the “Show off your Junk” topic in the forum. Let’s get EPIC!
http://www.filmjunk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=486
As you’ll see from my post(s) I’m not nearly as anal about my collection any more and I just organize by genre. I can’t bring myself to separate my Yakuza and Samurai films or my vast horror/exploitation collection. I’ve got weird shelving that ends up breaking the collection into many small parts as well so I can’t afford to be too OCD about it. The downfall of a one bedroom apartment that holds a 2 bedroom’s worth of shit!
Posted by Fatbologna on August 4th, 2011Aaaahh, why not just make it easy on yourself and put everything on alphabetical order? I just separated TV from movies because of space, but I definitely keep my dvd’s and blu-rays together. I mean, a movie’s a movie. If I feel like watching something I don’t care what the format is, so I keep everything together. I wanna watch Ghostbusters, I go to G. I wanna watch Happiness, it’s H.
I am happy that I separated the TV stuff from the movies though. It just feels right.
And, yeah, a really funny episode, thank a lot. The ending is pure gold.
Posted by Bocuma on August 4th, 2011Superman: The Movie, Superman II, Superman III, Superman Returns, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, Superman: Doomsday, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
The above is listed from date of release.
How would you list them/sort them in your collection alphabetically?
Posted by Tum Tum Tyranus on August 4th, 2011Don’t know why my above post got all fucked up with the spaces. Oh well, you guys get the drift.
Posted by Tum Tum Tyranus on August 4th, 2011Once again, shit gets real on Film Junk!
Posted by Aaron on August 4th, 2011Great episode, guys. I look forward to hearing more organization talk soon.
Swarez, that collection/set-up is pretty damn awesome.
Posted by Kurt on August 4th, 2011Here is how I organize my collection. I start with distributer, because most companies have a universal look to their releases, i.e. similar looking spines, and then alphabetical within each company, so all Universal releases are bunched together and so on. Releases from smaller or obscure companies get their own section and are bundled together there in alphabetical order.
Posted by swarez on August 5th, 2011On my shelves I have Anchor Bay releases and over sized box sets on the top. Below that my asian films get a whole length of shelves. Then it’s movies by company, then TV, Documentaries and near the bottom I have miscellaneous releases.
When that photo was taken a few years ago, I didn’t have that many Blu’s so they got an empty spot at the bottom shelve.
Wow you guys are nuts hahaha! Someday when I get my own place I’ll start my collection and dedicate a room to it!
Posted by Napalm on August 5th, 2011Guys!
Best episode ever! Nerds geeking out. No mentions of vaginas, as Greg wasn’t there. One out of two sentences quoteworthy.
A strong contender for the podcast awards, this one.
You made my day – awesome
Posted by Regine on August 5th, 2011Amazing. Just, amazing. This is what happens when you get Frank talking about something that he’s super passionate about. Also why Game Junk is awesome.
Posted by Matt on August 5th, 2011We should have a thread at the forums to post our movie collections. Would like to see Filmjunk’s
Posted by Gustavo on August 6th, 2011Just an amazing episode.
Criterions should always be separated. I have no other rules. My 2000 DVD/Blu-ray collection is almost completely random at the moment. Maybe someday if I get a new shelf system I will organize them better.
Frank, I’m sure that you can get all kinds of cases from Ebay. At least I’ve bought the embossed ones from there.
Questions for the next episode:
1. How about cases that are completely different size and do not fit at all with the normal ones?
2. How about discs from different regions? I have a mixed collection Region 1, 2, 4, A, B discs.
3. Not really connected to sorting but can you live with scratched discs and damaged cases (digipaks, slipcovers etc.) ?
Posted by Vikke_AJ on August 6th, 2011THIS is why Film Junk is my favorite podcast going. I’ve long been considered the obsessive compulsive one when it comes to organizing my media and it drives me nuts when I go over to a friends house and their shit is all out of order. Music is organized by genre, then alphabetical, and then release order. Records are the same, but records with multiple colors of vinyl are ordered by rarity.
But this is about movies, so here’s my method from top to bottom:
A: This is the most controversial: Criterion Collection by spine number, mixed both DVD and Bluray.
B: TV Bluray
C: Movie Bluray: Once in a while I’ll pull out my digibooks and put them separate, but right now they are in normal order. Look at the new Taxi Driver release! Its digibook height, but its not technically a digibook, so it just throws everything off.
D: TV DVD, for a while I mixed these with bluray to keep show seasons together, but I couldn’t stand it so I separated it.
E: Movie DVD
F: Comedy DVD
G: Music DVD
And nothing drives me crazier than when a series changes packaging midway through. The Harry Potter DVDs are a perfect example. The first four had THREE different packaging styles!!! Luckily I’ve upgraded to the collector Bluray versions. And the recent Family Guy and American Dad seasons went to shit on their packaging. Fucking annoying!
Posted by Justice on August 6th, 2011If Film Junk was released on DVD, it would have “Le Film Junk” under the English title on the case cover.
Posted by RC on August 8th, 2011Stunningy brilliant podcast!
I always put my unwatched DVDs at the bottom of my shelf in no specific order. After watching them I put them into the regular alphabeth. Although this method irritates me at times, there is a huge advantage:
- I keep the stack of unwatched DVDs small, so I can keep on buying without regarding myself merely as a collector who doesn’t even watch their films, which seems to me somewhat pathetic, no offence.
I firmly belief that consistency can only be achieved by being strictly formal, like using the ASin, Ean or some sort of barcode. But who would want that?
Posted by Dagmar on August 8th, 2011I’m speechless. Amazing bonus episode.
Posted by Kasper on August 8th, 2011The only rule is, there are NO rules
Posted by Hero Supreme on August 9th, 2011The problem here is that you guys are to focused on the cases. I’m 100% content with keeping all my films inside 320 slot dvd magazines and scrapping the boxes all together. Alphabetical order and TV shows get their own binder. I have 5 cases almost at capacity and my all my hundreds of dvds fit nicely right below my tv on a 4ft. Just label what letters are in what binder and you’re good to go.
Posted by Nick on August 9th, 2011Awesome episode and it seems I do a mix of Jay and Frank. I absolutely hate the cardboard covers and remove them from all of my films before filing them. I actually also hate steelbooks and digibooks as they ruin the uniformity. I do have a couple of digibooks because that is all that was available at the time, but I will be re-buying them as normal Blu-rays as soon as I can.
I do, however, put my Criterion Blus in their own section as they do not match the rest of my collection and since I have a rather large number of them, it makes sense to me to have them on their own.
Most other things I believe I side with Frank on, it’s mainly the Criterion thing where I differ and aesthetically it just makes the most sense to me.
Anyway, looking forward to part 2!
Posted by KeithTalent on August 10th, 2011Finding out that not only did I have a 3 hour filmjunk podcast but a bonus episode to listen to during my 18 hour shift at work put me in a swell mood, despite the fact that I absolutely hate my dvd collection and would like to set it on fire.
It’s around 400 and I haven’t bought a dvd since blu was introduced. I know they are barely worth anything and totally useless, so while I have no interest in organizing them, this podcast was fucking hilarious. The chemistry between you three is absurd, I could listen to you people talk about anything as long as gregs not around to ruin it with talk about bands that haven’t been decent in about 20 years. Which also reminds me that “Midnight City” is a great song to end a podcast with.
As far as things go with my blu-ray collection, I keep them in drawers so I can better keep track of them, I recently went over my collection and found about 40 missing, if only had my drug addict roommate had taken my dvds instead.
thanks for the entertainment
Posted by mike v on August 11th, 2011Great stuff, looking forward to the sequel.
Something to think about and maybe someone mentioned it above… what about using an online catalogue as a means of sorting, while leaving the collection alphabetical? I am in the process of adding my collection to the My Movies app via iPad and it is a sorting wet dream. Not only can you easily sort by genre or actor or the usual stuff but you can create your own categories.
If you already do this I would be interested to know what unique categories you have come up with.
So far I have:
Nostalgia
Posted by rot on September 2nd, 2011Exploitation
Hanging Out
Travelogue
Political Conspiracy
Criterion
Pathos
Apatow (which includes the whole incestuous group that revolves around Judd Apatow, not ONLY movies directed by him)
I agree that using a database is the best way to search and filter your collection by genre or using whatever other criteria you can come up with. It doesn’t make sense to physically organize the entire thing by these random criteria.
Posted by Sean on September 2nd, 2011Leave a Reply