How do you organize your collection?

[Starbreaker]

I've only got a few, so they're just alphabetical. My DVDs are all boxed up from the move still...

[silentblu]

Mostly by studio chronologically, theatrical release year. Actually it might currently be by blu-ray release year. Criterion by spine number. Digibooks all together, release year. Then some by genre and/or director and/or actor.

[polishinator]

I keep my by genre than in each genre by how much i like the movies , and sequels right after them for example 300, batman dark knight,batman begins,transformers, so on

[OrlandoEastwood]

ABC order but sequels/prequels/remakes go next to the first film. So, it's like Gojira and then the U.S. Godzilla.

[Kasponius]

I have an odd organization. I keep my Criterion Collection together, StudioCanal Collection together, TV series together and a few of my favorite director's movies all grouped together. Pretty much the rest of the blu's are grouped by genre.

[Hillside Trece]

This thread was originally begun in the "New Members" section, but I have decided to take it here as it would be much more appropriate -- my apologies to members, administration and moderation teams for the inconvenience and confusion...

When alphabetizing your film collections -- we keep a separate DVD and Blu-ray collection -- I know the "THE" references and the "A" and "AN" references are supposed to be ignored in the titles, but what do you guys do with the films that are numerical in name?

I realize the recognized way to deal with these is to put all "numbered" titled films first before the "A"'s -- for example, "1408," "40 Year Old Virgin" etc. would be first in the collection -- but how are these organized in terms of their numerical order? Would "1408" come before, let's say, "40 Year Old Virgin" or even "2012" because of the "1" in the title? Does it go by the numerical VALUE -- i.e. "2012" is really "Two Thousand Twelve," so would that come AFTER all the "4"s and "1"s?

What do you guys do? Aside from the proper numerical order, is it "better" or "more official" to use the phonetic interpretation of these numerical titles -- that is, should "2010" actually be considered "TWENTY TEN" or "TWO THOUSAND TEN" and thus be put under the "T"'s of a collection?

Okay, here's another one -- what about the sequel alphabetic factor?

What I mean is, let's say you have "Escape From New York" and "Escape From L.A." or "Meet the Parents" and "Meet the Fockers"...which way is the "official" way to store them? "Escape From New York," for example, is the original film in that duo, but "Escape From L.A." should come first on the shelf because "L" comes before "N." The same with "Meet the Parents/Meet the Fockers"...however, I just don't like that, because then the films aren't in the order of their release and it doesn't make sense to me to do it like that...

But, doing it this way:

"Escape From New York"
"Escape From L.A."

puts the films out of alphabetic order, even though they're in release chronology order...

THEN, if that wasn't enough, there's the notion of what to do with films part of a franchise collection but which don't follow the name of the previous films to categorize them correctly -- in other words, in "The Exorcist" collection (individual DVDs), there's:

The Exorcist (original)
Exorcist III (I don't own II)
Exorcist: The Beginning (the prequel)

and then

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist

"Dominion" was one of the two prequel films released for this franchise, but the "D" doesn't go with the "E"s of the other films, even though it belongs in that collection -- in this case, do I put it under "D" for "Dominion"? I don't really care for it like that...

What are your thoughts?

[painted_klown]

If you input your collection into the database here, it will answer all of your questions.

[Hillside Trece]

Originally Posted by painted_klown

If you input your collection into the database here, it will answer all of your questions.

Can you give me a hint or idea of how the system does it?

Are the numerical titles first?

[painted_klown]

Originally Posted by Hillside Trece

Can you give me a hint or idea of how the system does it?

Are the numerical titles first?

Uhhh...Just enter your movies and see how it organizes them. If you do not like it then you can organize them any way you choose. That's the beauty of owning your own collection.

I do not organize my movies exactly hoe this site does. I just use it as a "starting point" of sorts.

EDIT: Yes, numerical titles are first.

[DanFan]

Put them in alphabetical order, with the exception of sequels. The sequels should follow the first movie, which is in alphabetical order. Then pick up with the next movie alphabetically.

Example:

"Dr. No" comes after "Donnie Darko", then "From Russia With Love" through "Quantum of Solace". Then pick up with the next "D" title in alphabetical order. Which in my case would be "Dude Where's My Car".

[Hillside Trece]

Originally Posted by painted_klown

Uhhh...Just enter your movies and see how it organizes them. If you do not like it then you can organize them any way you choose. That's the beauty of owning your own collection.

Okay, obviously you're not gonna give me the hint or let me in on it, so I'll have to try it or just keep askin' others for their ways of doing it...the thing is, of course we can organize things the way we want, but I was just curious as to how others do theirs to get some ideas of whether the numerical process was considered more "right" or "wrong"...

At any rate, I am assuming the system here just alphabetizes them and puts the numerical titles first...if so, I wonder if that's the more "official" way of doing it, or if there are some who say the phonetical interpretation should be respected -- that is, "30 Days of Night," for example, should really be considered "Thirty Days of Night"...

EDIT: I didn't see your edited post before I posted this; I see now that you suggest numerical titles first...

[painted_klown]

Originally Posted by DanFan

Put them in alphabetical order, with the exception of sequels. The sequels should follow the first movie, which is in alphabetical order. Then pick up with the next movie alphabetically.

Example:

"Dr. No" comes after "Donnie Darko", then "From Russia With Love" through "Quantum of Solace". Then pick up with the next "D" title in alphabetical order. Which in my case would be "Dude Where's My Car".

This is what I do.

I also skip things like "Bram Stoker's" in Dracula and just put it in as Dracula, or "Micheal Jackson's" for This Is It. I also put Metropolis under the "M"s instead of under "C"s for Complete Metropolis. Just because the film has been restored, doesn't mean the title is now different...

[Hillside Trece]

Originally Posted by DanFan

Put them in alphabetical order, with the exception of sequels. The sequels should follow the first movie, which is in alphabetical order. Then pick up with the next movie alphabetically.

Example:

"Dr. No" comes after "Donnie Darko", then "From Russia With Love" through "Quantum of Solace". Then pick up with the next "D" title in alphabetical order. Which in my case would be "Dude Where's My Car".

Thanks Dan.

Indeed, my entire collection is alphabetized (of course, ignoring "The" and "A/An" etc.) but I was wondering if the films with numerical titles (i.e. "300," "30 Days of Night" etc.) should come before the "A"s in the collection start, or if these should be phonetically sequenced -- in other words, "40 Year Old Virgin" should really be under "F" for "Fourty"...

As for what you're saying about the sequels, I think I follow you, and I think that's how I have been doing it -- except with your example of the James Bond films, I don't keep those BDs together, as all I have is "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace" so I keep these under "C" and "Q" respectively...

However, are you suggesting that I am doing the sequel sequencing correctly? That is, let's take my EXORCIST DVD discs as an example: In this collection, I have the original EXORCIST (under "E" of course) then EXORCIST III and then EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING -- but, there is another sequel called DOMINION: PREQUEL TO THE EXORCIST, and I keep this right after THE BEGINNING because it seems odd to me to keep this title under "D" for "Dominion" by itself, away from the other discs in the franchise...

Am I doing that right?

Also -- what about sequels of films that are out of alphabetic order? In other words, take my ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK/L.A. example...L.A. came out after NEW YORK, but it should come first on the shelf if in alphabetic order. I prefer the order to be which one was RELEASED first, such as MEET THE PARENTS/MEET THE FOCKERS, etc...

[painted_klown]

Originally Posted by Hillside Trece

Okay, obviously you're not gonna give me the hint or let me in on it, so I'll have to try it or just keep askin' others for their ways of doing it...

Why? Wouldn't it just be a lot easier to enter your movies into the database and see what it does?

That certainly would be easier/faster than hoping someone "lets you in" on how the system works. It's not a secret club man, just enter your movies into the system.

EDIT: I LOVE you avatar BTW!

[Hillside Trece]

Originally Posted by painted_klown

This is what I do.

I also skip things like "Bram Stoker's" in Dracula and just put it in as Dracula, or "Micheal Jackson's" for This Is It. I also put Metropolis under the "M"s instead of under "C"s for Complete Metropolis. Just because the film has been restored, doesn't mean the title is now different...

I know what you're saying about ignoring the filmmaker's name before a title, as it's officially done sometimes -- I have a ton of John Carpenter's films, and when I had them on home-recorded VHS tapes, the label clearly said "JOHN CARPENTER'S HALLOWEEN" etc. and they were all categorized under "J." Now, with DVD and Blu-ray, the notation to "John Carpenter's" on the DVD spine case is so tiny and sometimes not even there or visible, I just ignore those and place them as "V" for "VAMPIRES," "H" for "HALLOWEEN" etc...

[Hillside Trece]

Originally Posted by Farid

I categorize after studio. Uniformity is king

Yeah -- I see a lot of people do that; I don't have the patience for a system like that! Alphabetic organization is fine with me; I just don't know what to do with out-of-place sequels in a franchise or numerical titles...

[painted_klown]

Another thing I do is put all of the Rambo films under "R" instead of "F" for First Blood. This is the ONLY exception I make to the rule of putting the first film in a franchise in alphabetical order. The reason...no one is going to come over and be looking for my First Blood movies...they will be looking for my Rambo films.

[Hillside Trece]

Originally Posted by painted_klown

Why? Wouldn't it just be a lot easier to enter your movies into the database and see what it does?

That certainly would be easier/faster than hoping someone "lets you in" on how the system works. It's not a secret club man, just enter your movies into the system.

I wasn't thinking it was a "secret club" -- it could have also just taken you two seconds or so to let me know how it organizes it...

EDIT: I LOVE you avatar BTW!

Thanks! Lost people I knew on 9/11/01.

[Ray_Rogers]

I put the James Bond films in the beginning of my regular Blu-ray case part of my collection in release order, from Dr. No being OO7 (007 actually) 01 to Quantum of Solace as OO7 21 (if I owned it yet) with Never Say Never Again being OO7 AB. Casino Royale (1967) would be OO7 AA. For other film series I put them in release order, Bourne Trilogy being the easiest and Magnificent Seven Collection is already housed in a boxset. For the Jack Ryan Tetrology I have a 4-Disc DVD case since I don't have any 4-Disc Blu ones. They're in order from 1 through 4 being The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger then finally The Sum of All Fears.
My entire EVIL DEAD series collection is another story. For each film in the series I have them organised of course by the trilogy but for them individually it's the multiple releases with the earliest for each one at the beginning and then to the most current at the end. Regardless of format, well only in regards to 5" disc ones.
BATMAN is the 1989-1997 grouped together of which I only own BATMAN (1989) and BATMAN RETURNS. Still damn iffy about wanting to own BATMAN FOREVER and no damn way would I ever own BATMAN & ROBIN. For Christopher Nolan BATMAN it's BATMAN BEGINS and then THE DARK KNIGHT. Pirates of the Caribbean and eventually Planet of the Apes (Original Pentology) are in release order. Planet of the Apes (2001) is a third disc in the 2-Disc DVD set as mentioned in my collection.
I don't have La Femme Nikita in the L's or F's. It's in N being as I call it NIKITA. LÉON is ALWAYS called by that title by me and I do own three releases of it as it's one of my all-time favourite films and never by its USA title.
Digibooks are in alphabetical order but I only own two of those so they're grouped together. Also packaging is a factor.
Yes I have several Blu-rays which I replaced the DVD counterparts of in my collection. Mainly the film discs but otherwise in cases such as Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World or The Monster Squad, both compliment the DVD release. Both discs sit proudly with the DVDs in their respective cases. FROM HELL and The Fifth Element are just film disc equivelants (sp?) for the 2-Disc DVDs so they're now disc one in both DVDs.

Damn this would be complicated if I ever got around to posting my Blu-ray collection as pictures in that thread.

EDIT: 12 Monkeys isn't in Twelve. I have it in the beginning of the collection along with the other numerical titles AFTER James Bond.

[painted_klown]

Originally Posted by Hillside Trece

I wasn't thinking it was a "secret club" -- it could have also just taken you two seconds or so to let me know how it organizes it...



Thanks! Lost people I knew on 9/11/01.

OK...only because it's 4:30 AM here, and I am bored, I will indulge you.
Here is how the system organizes my movies at the beginning of the alphabet, or with numbers in the title. Remember that with the system I use, I do NOT put Army of Darkness there, but instead after Evil Dead II, as it is the third movie in the Evil Dead series...Hope this helps.


2001: A Space Odyssey
2010: The Year We Make Contact
28 Days Later
300
8½
The A-Team
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Alien vs. Predator
Amarcord
America Lost and Found: The BBS Story
American History X
Another Stakeout
Army of Darkness
Army of Shadows
The Arrival
Avatar

EDIT: I also keep my Criterions on a separate shelf. They are in order by spine number. I keep Criterion DVDs and BDs on the same shelving unit. The rest of my DVDs are on a smaller rack that sits a few feet away from my two "Main" storage shelves. They are alphabetized as well.