How do you organize your collection?

[Phillip c. Niethe]

Does The BLURAY.COM APP not have a built in filter to allow you to see only the Action films or only the comedies so forth and so on?... If you did Alphabetize your collection then Your cell phone collection could help you find a movie. I use a different application and mine has that function.

[Bugg]

In my dvd collecting days it was always A-Z. These days I just put them on the shelf wherever I have space. It sounds like a headache but I actually find it easier to find stuff to watch when everything is placed so randomly. Of course I'd go back to A-Z if I had the multiples of thousands of discs some of you have. Though it was always a pain in the ass making shelf space when suddenly you find yourself adding a lot of movies that happen to be within a few letters of each other. I do keep seasons of TV shows together.

[oilers73]

I organize my collection based on my mood when I bought the disc. I have sections for "happy", "tired", "feisty", "aroused", "hungry", "irritable"...

Actually, my discs are placed on shelves in alphabetical order by title. Nothing fancy.

[Phillip c. Niethe]

I organize mine One at a time

[SlayersCouncil]

Originally Posted by mcvitie

I have individual sections for Ultra HD, Criterion, Masters of Cinema, Arrow Disney, Pixar, Animation, TV. The rest are all alphabetical. I also have 2 flight cases for DVDs that I haven't upgraded to Blu

Unfortunately Mrs mcvitie's films have to live with mine. haha

[Show spoiler]Masters of Cinema, Arrow, Ultra HD, Criterion


Pixar, Disney, Animated


A-M


N-Z


TV


Movies, Documentaries and Stand-Up DVD that I don't have on Blu-ray are in here. TV shows on DVD are still in their boxes

Two things stand out to me that I like in your pictures:

1. The numbers on the Pixar slipcovers are cool. Is that they way they are in that region or are they custom?

2. I like the flight cases. Must be so much easier to organize than what I have. I might just steal that idea. Below is what I have for DVDs. One binder for movies and one for TV shows. It would be way too time consuming to keep them alphabetical.

[JTStarkiller]

Originally Posted by eiknarf

I organize em by the second letter of the director’s spouse’s maiden last name

Where do you put your films directed by women?

[eiknarf]

Originally Posted by JTStarkiller

Where do you put your films directed by women?

Second letter of the director’s spouses’ last name (men don’t usually have a maiden name. That’s why I wrote “spouse” in my op, because of the women directors out there

[drak b]

Originally Posted by eiknarf

Second letter of the director’s spouses’ last name (men don’t usually have a maiden name. That’s why I wrote “spouse” in my op, because of the women directors out there

I follow the exact same system except in the case of men without maiden's names, I go by what I assume each of them would have chosen for their maiden's name, had they originally been given a choice in the matter.

[RICKBONDOO7]

My movie collection is in order by Year film was released. Bond section, Hammer section, Westerns section, Disney Animation section, Universal Monsters section, Hitchcock section and films from 1931 to 1999.

[Bradsdadg]

I'm having a hard time figuring this out right now. I have Criterion, Arrow, Twilight Time, Kino and Disney Exclusives in their own area. The rest is kind of a hot mess. Not sure if I should go A-Z or Christmas, Halloween, everything else. Also not sure if I should have a Stephen King section (Which would take away from other areas;Kino etc) I am a bit confused at the moment

[crikan]

I thought mine was easy until I made a flowcart of how organize them. Criterion is the only publisher I single out.

A-Z

Criterion -> Halloween Franchise -> Godzilla -> Euro Mediabooks -> Roger Corman -> Andy Sidaris -> Trailer Comps -> Hong Kong/China/Shaw Brothers/Bruce Lee -> Japan -> Blaxspoiltation -> Drive-in Exploitation -> UK Horror/old B&W horror -> EuroCrime -> Spaghetti Western/Western -> European/Australian -> Thriller -> Comedy -> Horror -> Action/SciFi

[superx13]

At one point I had it so sub-genre specific it was driving me nuts. Now It's down to this and I can pinpoint things pretty easy after a few beers.

[Member-222782]

I wish I'd kept records of when I made purchases so I could organize by date of purchase. Nobody's thought of that yet

[ogjongray]

I organize mine by Pantone-approved spine color grading with a secondary alpha-numerical sorting sub-categorization when specific shades are duplicated. Aesthetically pleasing and maddeningly difficult to actually locate titles.

[AaronJ]

I'm still in the process of re-organizinig -- what a mess -- and like bradsdadg up above, I'm having a very difficult time figuring out what to do. The Criterions will remain together, organized alphabetically (which I despise, but just have to do). But beyond that, I can't figure it out.

I'd prefer to do everything by director, and that worked when I had a small collection. But now there are too many films which were directed by someone where I only own 1 or 2 films max. A lot of those, I'll never remember off the top of my head. Obviously if it's someone like Nolan or Sofia Coppola or Fincher or Godard or Malick or Aronofsky -- no problem. I mean, I'm not going to forget that Coppola directed Lost In Translation or that Aronofsky directed Black Swan, etc. But as much as I would like that system, it won't work.

So, next option is genre, but that presents its own set of problems. First, some movies are just difficult to categorize. Like, the Ocean's movies are very funny, but they are also crime movies. And where the heck do you put something like A Cure For Wellness?

And then the dreaded alphabetical, which as I said I despise. It might be easiest, but I just dislike it.

I've also considered separating English-language and foreign-language films into different sections.

I obviously don't know what I'm doing,

[crikan]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

I'm still in the process of re-organizinig -- what a mess -- and like bradsdadg up above, I'm having a very difficult time figuring out what to do. The Criterions will remain together, organized alphabetically (which I despise, but just have to do). But beyond that, I can't figure it out.

I'd prefer to do everything by director, and that worked when I had a small collection. But now there are too many films which were directed by someone where I only own 1 or 2 films max. A lot of those, I'll never remember off the top of my head. Obviously if it's someone like Nolan or Sofia Coppola or Fincher or Godard or Malick or Aronofsky -- no problem. I mean, I'm not going to forget that Coppola directed Lost In Translation or that Aronofsky directed Black Swan, etc. But as much as I would like that system, it won't work.

So, next option is genre, but that presents its own set of problems. First, some movies are just difficult to categorize. Like, the Ocean's movies are very funny, but they are also crime movies. And where the heck do you put something like A Cure For Wellness?

And then the dreaded alphabetical, which as I said I despise. It might be easiest, but I just dislike it.

I've also considered separating English-language and foreign-language films into different sections.

I obviously don't know what I'm doing,

I put pure comedies in the comedy section and combined sci-fi and action. I think that fixes the genre problem. I'd put the Ocean's films in Action or Crime just to keep it simple.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by crikan

I put pure comedies in the comedy section and combined sci-fi and action. I think that fixes the genre problem. I'd put the Ocean's films in Action or Crime just to keep it simple.

Makes a lot of sense.

[BurningAstronaut]

Originally Posted by superx13

At one point I had it so sub-genre specific it was driving me nuts. Now It's down to this and I can pinpoint things pretty easy after a few beers.

[Show spoiler]

Gotta keep those Exploitation films on the top shelf and away from snoopin' kiddies or neighbors!

[CelestialAgent]

4Ks/BDs/DVDs, steelbooks, limited editions, regions ABC etc. all combined together

Some covers flipped depending on artwork and ratings logos, some custom artwork

TV series on a bookcase and films on shelves (some exceptions for series e.g. Twin Peaks with Lynch’s films

Some specially organised sections, including LGBTQIA, DC/Marvel and comic adaptations, animation

Top rows cover particular labels including Arrow - Arrow Video > Arrow Academy > Third Window Films > Second Run

Other labels organised together including 88 Films, 101 Films Black Label, Shout Factory

Big sections for BFI and Eureka - Masters of Cinema > Classics, same for Criterion, even Second Sight

Smaller sections for Indicator, Severin, Signal One/Plan B, Vinegar Syndrome

I like to have some flow so similar labels are close together. Arrow and 88 Films both tackle cult films and have had shared titles in their libraries and also some recurring people involved. Similarly, Scream/Shout have licensed extras to Arrow. BFI and Eureka both share titles with Criterion and also both have an interest in silent film and classic American and international film. Second Sight’s newly produced extras tend to be produced by Severin as well!

The rest of the collection is organised by year of release - an organisational method I also apply to the themed collections. It makes most sense to me especially when this means films from particular movements - say, New Hollywood for example - end up close together. Alphabetical order has always seemed too random and cumbersome (what will you do with alternative titles, or foreign discs with text in another language?) and I tend to always know when something is made. The year will always affect the background behind a film. That said, I’ll still alphabetise for films within a year - tracking down month of release is too much hassle!

The one thing that breaks chronological order is films by the same director or even primary production crew. This isn’t necessarily a perfect system - the Alien/Prometheus boxset demands it diverges not only into other films by Ridley Scott, but also James Cameron, David Fincher and even Dan O’Bannon. Recently I decided family is family so why not organise Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, Francis Coppola and Sofia Coppola? Would Ridley Scott’s career then diverge into Denis Villeneuve’s for Blade Runner 2049 or should the franchise be kept separate from the filmmaker?

Sometimes the disparities can become noticeable - in the section for the 2000s, in the height of the DVD boom, there’s so many DVDs that have never been upgraded to Blu-ray, so it only tips down in height occasionally - every other era is outnumbered by Blu-ray.

I organise my unwatched discs separately, sometimes in stacks or with the spine facing outwards. I tend to put this in the order I want to watch and organise this by theme or label, even a shared director or actor - which again becomes complicated because this changes all the time based on my mood or what I’ve seen in the cinema recently!

I’ve also decided to put some of my film books and copies of Cinefex that fit on the shelf together with the rest of my collection than with my books - but this will have to change once the shelves fill up again and is just as arbitrary for the books that don’t fit on there!

[oilers73]

Alphabetically is the only way that works for me. At some point I'll actually do this. I've got floor to ceiling bookshelves lining 3 of the walls in my office, and my collection is a mess. Maybe I should spend less time on this site, and more time organizing?

Nah!