Filing Films in Your Collection (when titles start with numbers) (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

How do YOU do it?

Do you sort by the first digit? Or by the entire number? What if there's a colon in the number (if it's a time)?

Does 2001: A Space Odyssey come before or after 3 Days of the Condor?

Does 39 Steps come before or after 300? And where would you sort 3:10 to Yuma with those two films?

The 15:17 to Paris? Do you switch that from non-military time to 3:17??

I've seen some stores sort such titles alphabetically! For example, 300 is filed under "T" in between Thor and Titanic. That's just wrong (unless the title number is actually spelled out--like Four Weddings and a Funeral).

But I've never been 100% sure which way is best when sorting movie titles that start with Arabic Numerals.

I know how DVD Profiler does it. Based on some of the titles in my collection they are ordered THIS WAY:

12 Angry Men
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
1776
2001: A Space Odyssey
2012
3 Bad Men
3 Days of the Condor
300
39 Steps
3:10 to Yuma
400 Blows
61
90 Minutes in Heaven

Maybe there's a right way and wrong way to do it that I'm just not aware of. But I suspect this is another one of those personal preference things. What do you do?

 

[Alan Tully]

Ha, an untidy mind & a very untidy house. My Blu-rays are all over the place, in fact when I'm looking for a title I want to view, I usually come across a title I'd forgotten I had & view that one. I will have a sort out one day.

 

[Rob_Ray]

I generally don't have so many numbered titles that I've ever made an issue of it, but I generally file them as I would spell them alphabetically. For example, Two Thousand One comes after Three Days of the Condor in the "T" section of my alphabetical shelves. Of course, The 39 Steps is filed in with my Hitchcocks, as Mr. Hitchcock's titles tend to be released in box sets. Actors and directors with multiple box sets tend to have their own place of honor.

 

[Malcolm R]

Ha, an untidy mind & a very untidy house. My Blu-rays are all over the place, in fact when I'm looking for a title I want to view, I usually come across a title I'd forgotten I had & view that one. I will have a sort out one day.

Ditto. I have far more discs than I can display/file properly in my apartment. If I'm looking for a specific title, I have to try and remember: is it on the book shelves, in a box under the couch, in the media rack in the hallway, the media rack in my bedroom, inside the TV stand, or one of the boxes stored in the closet?

I recently couldn't find my DVD of The Ghost and the Darkness, though I'd just handled it a couple weeks earlier, so I bought another (it was under $5).

Filing? Pfffft!

If I had the space, numbers would come first in ascending order, followed by "A". Numbers spelled out in words would fall alphabetically.

 

[JohnRice]

If the title starts with an actual number (25th Hour) it goes in order of the value of the full number, before the "A" movies. As in, 10 Things I Hate About You goes before 25th Hour, which goes before 2001, but titles with the number spelled out (The Fifth Element) go alphabetically like any other title. There aren't that many, but I suppose the first dozen or so titles on the shelf. Of course, in my case, 2001 is in a Kubrick box set, which often to go on the very top, since those tend to not fit in shelves spaced for regular movies.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I generally don't have so many numbered titles that I've ever made an issue of it, but I generally file them as I would spell them alphabetically. For example, Two Thousand One comes after Three Days of the Condor in the "T" section of my alphabetical shelves. Of course, The 39 Steps is filed in with my Hitchcocks, as Mr. Hitchcock's titles tend to be released in box sets. Actors and directors with multiple box sets tend to have their own place of honor.

I sort mine similarly. My collection is organized on shelves, sorted first by genre and then alphabetically within each genre. 2001 is sorted as Two Thousand and One within my science fiction genre, and The 39 Steps is filed as Thirty-Nine Steps within my Hitchcock genre (hey, it's my collection, so I can create any genres I want ).

 

[Wayne_j]

I don't sort alphabetically, but I would go with the entire number so 400 blows would come before 2001 A Space Odyssey.

 

[atfree]

I don't keep mine in a very specific order.

I have War movies in one place, Westerns in another (with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood together within that category), Christmas in another, and Rom-Com's in another (so my wife can find them easily). I also have my multi-title box sets in one place. Everything else is just on the shelves. I wanted to do some further organization but just never find the time. I keep up with my collection via the Collection feature at blu-ray.com.

 

[Thomas T]

It's all a personal preference really, isn't it? Numbered titles are done strictly alphabetical in my collection. Example:

Twelfth Night
Twelve O'Clock High
Twentieth Century
28 Days
25th Hour
20 Million Miles To Earth
2 Or 3 Things I Know About Her
2046

because alphabetically spelled out

Twelfth Night
Twelve O' Clock High
Twentieth Century
Twenty Eight Days
Twenty Fifth Hour
Twenty Million Miles To Earth
Two Or Three Things I Know About Her
Two Thousand Forty Six

 

[Josh Steinberg]

When I worked at Blockbuster a million years ago, the company policy for corporate-owned stores was to shelve numbered titles before the "A" titles in any section. Franchise-owned stores were free to do whatever they wanted, and there were some franchise stores near us, which would cause some minor customer confusion as to why things were stocked differently in one location vs. another.

At home, I organize everything alphabetically, and I put the numbered titles where they would fall on the shelf if their numbers had been spelled out. I have about a thousand discs, give or take, and I just find it easier that way. What I found was, if I go by putting numbered items before letters, then whenever I look for a movie, I have to try to remember "Is the movie title spelled out or do they use the number? Do they use the number in the film itself, but spell it out on the package? Do they use the number on the package, but is it spelled out in the film?" To me, it just makes it easier to find things to have it standardized, so "2001: A Space Odyssey" goes in the "T" section as if it were written out as "Two-thousand-and-one: A Space Odyssey".

 

[Walter Kittel]

Numbered titles before anything beginning with one of the letters of the alphabet. As far as sorting the numbered titles goes, pretty much like Mike's example in post #1 of this thread. (Sometimes I'll get the order messed up a bit, but having the titles sorted is more about finding them, vs. some sort of OCD condition so as long as they are 'in the ballpark' - good enough.)

- Walter.

 

[Paul Penna]

In my personal database, I have a "sort by" field that, for example, has "two thousand one a space odyssey" as an entry.

 

[lark144]

I also file numbered titles as if they were spelled out, because, as others on this thread have commented, it's easier to find that way. So "The 39 Steps" is before "2001 A Space Odyssey"; which in turn is before "Two Weeks In Another Town." This happens to work for me, as it's consistent, and I can usually find a disc in a few seconds, even though my collection has now basically taken over my apartment and expanded into two rooms and a foyer, with shelves stuck under and over the oddest of places and appliances.

 

[CarlosMeat]

This is how Kaleidescape organizes mine I assume it the correct way and answers your questions I think.


2 Weeks in Another Town
The 3 Worlds Of Gulliver
3:10 to Yuma

3:10 to Yuma
The 6th Day

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

8 1/2

9

12 Angry Men

12 Drive-In Theatre Cult Classics

12 Monkeys

12 To The Moon

12 Years a Slave

14 Hours

20 Million Miles to Earth

21

23 Paces to Baker Street
24 Hours After Hiroshima

The 27th Day

36 Hours

The 39 Steps

42
42nd Street

99 River Street
300
The 300 Spartans

The 400 Blows
1984

2001: A Space Odyssey

2010: The Year We Make Contact
2012

 

[ahollis]

Mike- I organize mine just as your list shows. I developed my own database using Access back before there was a DVD Profiler, for I started it with Laser Discs.

 

[JohnMor]

Initially I kept them before the A’s and in ascending order by the whole number, i.e. 84 Charing Cross Road came before The 400 Blows which came before 2001: A Space Odyssey. But as my collection grew, I started depending more on DVD Profiler, so now I keep it in their cockamamie order, but it bugs me. It’s just easier for me to know to look exactly where it appears on my printout given the sheer number of discs I have. I may redo it one day and go back to my instinct. We’ll see.

 

[DaveF]

How do YOU do it?

Do you sort by the first digit? Or by the entire number? What if there's a colon in the number (if it's a time)?

Does 2001: A Space Odyssey come before or after 3 Days of the Condor?

Isn't that like asking whether you file "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" before or after "Cats & Dogs"? B is before C, and 2 is before 3; the letters that follow don't matter.

 

[Paul Penna]

Is there a lexicographer in the house?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Isn't that like asking whether you file "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" before or after "Cats & Dogs"? B is before C, and 2 is before 3; the letters that follow don't matter.

Not exactly, Dave.

Because Buzz Lightyear of Star Command also comes after Butterfield Eight...because of the third letter which follows the initial "B" and "u."

Even if you decide to have all films starting with a "2" coming before all films that start with a "3", whaddya do when you have multiple films that start with a "3" and are followed by words or other digits or punctuation marks?

3 Bad Men
3 Days of the Condor
300
39 Steps
3:10 to Yuma

Or, would it makes sense to have 300 filed before 2001 (since 300 comes before 2001)? I guess under your thinking, 2001 would come first. And that 300 would come before 39 Steps? You don't see why this could be a question?

 

[DaveF]

????

2001 *always* comes before 300 in exactly the same way Buzz always comes before Cats.

B<C
2<3

Likewise, there’s no controversy whether 2001 comes before or after 2010, in the sane way there’s no confusion whether Butter comes before or after Buzz.
2001 < 2010
Butter < Buzz