I’m going to be moving in mid-October. I have a collection of several hundred DVDs. Some are TV season collections or Ken Burns documentaries, but most are movies.
Now, my books are organized into several groups - Non fiction oversized, short-stories collections, romances (two historical authors I enjoy :eek:), mysteries, classics, and fiction alphabetically by author (Series within an author are chronological and some authors/series are entirely apart on a different shelf - it just worked out that way). And that works OK.
But I don’t know how to do it with the DVDs. It’s not always clear whether a movie is a comedy or a drama, the director may or may not be well enough known that I remember his or her name, etc. So do I so it strictly by title, separating out the TV stuff, or what?
Thanks in advance for your help.
It’s possible this thread should be in Cafe Society. I’m not sure.
You should organize them however makes them most accessible to you.
My DVDs are divided between TV shows and movies, because that happens to divide them roughly in half, which best suits the storage space I have for them. They are then organized alphabetically by title, then chronologically (sometimes with exceptions for movie series like Star Wars where true chronological would make the episode numbers go out of order).
I faced the same problem, and it finally came down to: TV shows in one area, collections on their own shelf, and everything else grouped by either genre or star. All of my Clint Eastwood movies are next to each other, whether he starred in them or directed them, etc.
Oy, how do you pick which star? Is it a Richard Gere movie or a Julia Roberts movie. What category is Pirates of the Caribbean? Is it the same as The Mask of Zorro? How about Indiana Jones? Star Wars? Lord of the Rings?
I mean, some are easy. I can put all the James Cameron movies together except for Aliens, and that can go right next to the Camerons, with Blade Runner next to that - the outright thrillers, and Sci-Fi thrillers at that. But Star Wars, while taking place in space, is not exactly Sci-Fi. I’d say all of the above with the possible exception of LotR are Action-Adventure Romances (in the original sense of the word romance), and I have quite a number of them. But I also have plenty that aren’t, and are pretty much singletons wrt sequels, directors, or even, in some cases, stars. I have other movies with big ensemble casts. Wag the Dog, for example. Which star do I pick? A Mighty Wind can go with This is Spinal Tap, and The Princess Bride, but where do they go?
This is why I’ve never organized the damn things before. With books, it’s pretty easy.
I guess I may as well go ahead and actually ask the question that always rings in my ears when this kind of thing comes up: Who are you trying to please?
Then alpha by title except for groups that are logical to me.
Examples from above.
All the Bond movies together.
All the Clint Eastwood stuff together.
Blade 1, 2, & 3
etc.
Sure, some titles are going to fit more than one group, ie. you make a Wesley Snipes group and a vampire flick group, Blade can go in either one. Just pick the one you would most likely look in first.
Just keep in mind, whatever system you decide on only has to make sense to you. And maybe an SO if there’s one involved.
With children in the house we also have another divide for suitable or not suitable for kids. Don’t think I want my 9-yo watching Sin City.
Me, I’ve got lots of musicals, so I have all ten Fred and Ginger movies in chronological order, followed by other movies with Fred. Next section is all other musicals, alphabetical by title. Next section is all other movies, alphabetical by title. After that is TV shows, alphabetical by title.
I can find what I’m looking for quickly, and that’s what matters to me. Too many genres just start getting confusing – pick two or three main groups (whatever are most important to you – action, comedy, drama, musicals, sci-fi, whatever) and then everything else goes into the “everything else” category. Within categories, just go alphabetically by title.
The only problem with alpha by title, aside from not being classified by genre (which would be desirable at times) is that you get series of movies that are are not identically titled. Example: The Three Musketeers (the real one) is followed by The Four Musketeers.
Off to watch the news. Thanks to all for your input!
Fortunately, no kids, no SO. I have only to make sense to myself. I’m giving more thought to doing sort of a genre/star grouping using free association to move from one group to the next. For example, Steven Spielberg movies and lead into Tom Hanks movies can in turn move into Ron Howard movies. Johnny Depp obviously feeds into Tim Burton or vice versa. Action-adventure and thrillers together, and most of my series movies fall into those categories. I have a number of romantic comedies ( I like to laugh and I’m not all that big on toilet humor or slapstick - what can I say?), so they can go basically alphabetical.
We use Movie Collector software to sort movie titles however we want but for the physical filing, it’s almost exclusively alpha order. We do have some collections together, like all of the Errol Flynn movies are in one place because that’s where we’re gonna go to find them.
I have all the TV series sets sorted more or less by type of show, but there’s some leeway in the order so that any given show is all on the same shelf. I gave up on trying to sort my movies by genre and just file them all alphabetically, the only exceptions being things like the LotR movies, which are grouped together under L, and the Harry Potter movies, which are under H but then in chronological rather than alphabetical order. Collections are separate from the movies, and the music DVDs are all together and sorted by artist.
And my collection of “special interest” DVDs and videotapes are in a small chest of drawers.
Seriously, just go with your gut on this stuff – the only point of the order is to make it easy for you to find stuff. It’s not like the Alphabet Police are going to come in and bust your ass if you put The Four Musketeers next to The Three Musketeers, is that’s where you’d look first the next time you wanted to find that movie.
I go by alphabetical order without any categorization, except that series are sorted in their proper order (i.e., Bond movies, Harry Potter movies, where “Chamber” would come before “Sorcerer’s” in pure alphabetic).
are in a small chest of drawers.