Looking to create a film screening diary...any suggestions?

JamesDrake · 12-22-2003, 09:36 AM

I keep seeing people mention different things about what they experience during different films such as plots, characters, the experience itself, red dots, bad film or audio etc. I can't remember some of this stuff from one film to the next.

SO I was wondering if someone had come up with a diary format for movie going experiences. I for one would like to create one that fits my preferences. Has anyone seen such a thing? I have a small book like this for wine and wine tasting and I have found it to be helpful when looking back.

Some of the topics of the diary would include...

Title

Rating

Date, Time, Location, Theater number

Ticket price

Genre (Action/Adventure, Sci Fi, Drama...etc)

Brief Summary or synopsis

Snacks & Beverages

Friends attending

Crowd response (were they noisy, rude, disrespectful, cell phones...etc)

Recomendations

AM I missing any others that would be important? Do you have any recomendations?

This of course would be something that I would keep in a pocket sized notebook for just after the show note taking. I would later put this into some sort of database or template on my computer.

Adam_S · 12-22-2003, 02:05 PM

James, send a PM to dana filhart, he's working on a system/databse for the yearly film lists that keeps that sort of information on each film you watch. fwiw I'm considering starting a journal myself using a notebook that I keep with me.

Adam

JamesDrake · 12-22-2003, 02:59 PM

Adam, thanks for the tip!

I've decided that this journal/database will keep track of all movies watched including those watched at home or other non-theatre locations. I have come up with a larger information list. I am sure the list will grow a little longer before it is all said and done. Am I missing anything?

Title:

Rating:

Genre:

Running Time:

Date, Time:

Venue: (Home, elsewhere, theatre)

Location:

Theater number:

Seat location:

Ticket price:

Snacks, Beverages & prices:

Attended with:

Crowd response:

Brief Summary or synopsis:

Recommendations:

Credits:

ChrisBEA · 12-22-2003, 06:59 PM

I like this idea, currently I use a spreadsheet and only have:
Date
Title
Theater
Rating (*-*****)
MPAA Rating
Genre

I like some of those other things, I may start using them for 2004.

Dana Fillhart · 01-03-2004, 09:44 AM

Hi guys,

I've been on vacation for a while and haven't had a chance to respond to much of anything recently. Sorry about that.

I have a website (kinda slow, Comcast upstream *sucks*) that allows you to track the films you've seen, and create a stylesheet that gives output however you like it (for example, some of the fancier-looking posts in the 2003 Film List can be done with it). I call it HTF Film Tracker+ (the + is because you can also now track DVDs too). Films in my database are grouped by the year they are first released for distribution in the U.S., and have many attributes (integral to the film, not to be confused with one's personal attributes): Film name, alphabetical alias (so it can be properly sorted alphabetically, e.g. "Last Samurai, The" for "The Last Samurai), director, production studio, country of origin, original aspect ratio, feature type (full-length film, short film, commercial, etc.), release type (the most widely released type for public viewing -- theatrical, television, Internet, video/DVD), content type (genres/subgenres like Fiction (Drama) or Documentary), Age Restriction Rating (MPAA rating), theatrical/nontheatrical/other release dates, running time, and links to film on IMDB/RottenTomatoes.com. Those fields don't change for the film itself, but then there are your own personal fields that apply to each user: Rating (percentile, * out of 4, * out of 5, letter, 1-10 scale), ranking (personal rank within that film year), date seen, place seen (you can keep your own list of locales), release type seen (theatrical, DVD, etc.), times seen theatrically/nontheatrically, and a URL link associated with that film in case you want to link it to a review here on HTF. And as mentioned earlier, you can create your own stylesheet to tell the tracker how to display your list -- HTML tables, bullet-point lists, or other. The output of the stylesheet is available in a textbox as HTML so you can copy it and paste it directly here on HTF in the 2003 Film List (or now the 2004 Film List). Also, admins can create films in the database (among other maintenance options) but the intent is to have only a couple admins to keep the data accurate.

I've been so busy lately with work and other things that I've not had a chance to do anything with the site in a couple months, but I'm trying to address a couple things with it in the next couple of weeks. One is I'm trying to allow you to select your top 10 and rank them (a separate ranking than whatever ranking you give in the attributes I listed above), so that I can provide stats for the Top 10 of 2003 (Time to Throw Down) thread here. So far, there are only a couple users (Adam_S and Colin Hartnett), but one of these days I hope to have a few more

If anybody is interested, I can create for you an account and send them the username/password if you provide an email address to send it to.

**HTF Ads**

Rob Gardiner · 01-07-2004, 12:57 PM

I don't maintain a database, but I throw all my ticket stubs in a dresser drawer.



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