I’ve been working a lot with videos lately and building up my own library, and I’ve had some thoughts about FilmBrainz I’d like to share~ (feel free to use these, as well as any from my posts, of course)
first off, I feel like the data structure should be somewhere between BookBrainz and MusicBrainz, since we probably want Works, Videos (equivalent to MusicBrainz recordings), Releases, Release Groups, and Actors (equivalent to Authors and Artists).
I believe the video or work level should be the primary level, since releases are generally a bit less important in other databases
I think it might be a good idea to call the release and release group levels something else, since we already have different names between MB and BB, and that might make it easier in the future when talking inter-database, but not essential (especially since we can’t say the same for works). that said, the label/publisher entity can be called Studio, methinks
I feel like characters might be more important in FilmBrainz than they are in MusicBrainz, and they shouldn’t be forgotten. could handle them similarly to MusicBrainz in that they’re a type of Actor (which might get confusing, but it’s probably fine). this would especially work for when an actor plays another person, such as for a biopic (like Daniel Radcliffe playing “Weird Al” in Weird or Austin Butler playing Elvis in Elvis, etc.)
I don’t know how to work series yet, since you can have stuff like TV series (Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, etc.) which is handled one way in other databases, but you can also have film series (Star Wars, The Avengers, the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe, etc.), which is handled differently in other databases. I think we can keep it simpler with a single series entity for both types of series, perhaps with several series types.
that said, we could handle TV series-type series like we’d handle films, since most of the time there’s a core cast in most episodes (wouldn’t apply to all series, of course… Twilight Zone and Black Mirror come to mind, as well as Doctor Who)
one important thing on series, I believe we should allow for multiple default orders, such as production order, release order, story order, and more, as well as alternate names for seasons (for example, chapters, books, and series for My Little Pony: Make Your Mark, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Doctor Who, respectively)
for release types, I see a few main categories:
- theatrical releases, for films and shows released in cinemas (possibly including other screenings, like film festivals and conventions, but it might be good to treat these separately for original release date purposes)
- home video release, your typical DVD, Blu-ray, VHS, or digital release, might or might not include streaming releases here
- television/broadcast releases, more important for shows, but there are made-for-TV movies too. probably should focus on original releases, but reruns could count too, I’ve got nothing against that
- streaming releases, could be included under home releases, important for stuff like Netflix originals as well as YouTube videos. like the above, rereleased might or might not be included, especially with how much movies move around between streaming services these days
for images, in addition to having a new Film Art Archive with Internet Archive (for release scans and whatnot), we could possibly partner with Fandom.tv for extra art? like logos, backdrops, all the extra images you might need when tagging movies and shows for a media server/video player
for work types, some I can think of off the top of my head:
- film, for long form story driven videos
- short, for short form story driven video
- documentary, for medium to long form video about (a) specific topic(s), often including interviews and archival footage. could include short form video too
- video essay, for shorter form video about a specific topic, usually by a single person, but maybe not always. could also include longer form video essays
- song, for music videos
- musical, for stage performances and possibly musical movies?
- trailer, for promoting some other type, such as a film or TV show
- bonus content (needs a better name), for interviews, behind the scenes, featurettes, deleted scenes, other bonus content typically included on home releases. could be split into multiple types
film versions are pretty important in film (directors cuts, censored/uncensored versions, international versions, dubs, whatever George Lucas did to Star Wars), so I think having relationships for these is pretty important early on (some on the work level and some on the video level). some good examples are
- Deadpool 2, which has at least 3 main version groups, including the theatrical release, and also
- Once Upon a Deadpool, a PG-13 edit of Deadpool 2 with added scenes with Deadpool telling the story to Fred Savage in reference to The Princess Bride
- Deadpool 2: Super Duper Cut, adds and extends several scenes
- My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic S2E14 “The Last Roundup” has a scene that was edited with different voiceover for a whole character after some controversy
- Dark Midnight: Doll of the Dead, a now unlisted FilmCow video which had a scene changed to remove a somewhat racist stereotype of a Chinese person (which to be fair was in parody of old 50s shows), replacing him with a mysterious cloaked figure and also a ghost. also some minor dialogue changes
- Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed has an international version where a Burger King logo was changed to KFC (and perhaps other changes). probably a fairly common occurrence
- Star Wars, too many versions to list, most famously changing the order in which Han and Greedo shoot each other, but also inserting new actors in place of the old ones (namely Anakin Skywalker’s force ghost and Emperor Palpatine in several scenes)
- Kung Fu Panda had an entirely new version created for the Chinese market, in which the lips were changed to match the Chinese dub of the movie
- Zootopia famously has a different newscaster based on the region the film was released in (a moose for North America, a tanuki for Japan, a koala for Australia & New Zealand, etc.)
- Clue was famously released into theaters with three different endings, so if you and a friend saw it in different theaters, you might have seen a different ending. on the home video release, all three endings are included back to back in that cut
I’m wondering if perhaps we want to have video groups as well, as to group different versions, cuts, and variants together (tho in most cases, this could be achieved through simple video-video relationships too… not sure how to handle Clue tho…)
feel free to comment below on my ideas or leave your own~
