Weekend Discussion: The Great DVD Organization Debate

Posted by David Baxter (dbaxter@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 22, 2009

weekend-discuss-dvd

I am moving flat in the coming week and one question has plagued me, so you dear readers may be able to provide the answer. How should I order my DVDs? Easy sounding sure, but in practice a logistical nightmare. Some background – in my current flat I was hindered by a lack of space necessitating a great amount of my DVDs to be under my bed, whilst the great and the good were squashed onto a shelf. Then came Blu-rays, which turned my ‘University’ shelf into my ‘Blu-ray’ shelf pretty quickly. But now I will have all of my shiny discs in one place, hopefully in some semblance of order.

The first, most obvious, solution is alphabetical. A simple A through Z would make it easy to find anything and everything, but it would also put the ill advised American Pie 4-play box set at the forefront of my collection along with no less than three Adam Sandler ‘comedies’. Not that these should be hidden, I’m very proud of my whole collection (well apart from Pledge This! starring Paris Hilton that was bought at 5 in the AM under the influence of alcohol) but maybe they shouldn’t be leading the pack when casual visitors try to assess my tastes.

So possibly I should go for ordering by genre. Still simple to find what I’m in the mood for and allows for me to have a ’shit’ genre in which to hide my indiscretions. But wait, what genre is Fight Club? Drama? Comedy? So what genres do I allow? Too many and it’s scattershot, but too few and picking one over t’other becomes a crapshoot.

All tough decisions and that’s just the start. Should Blu-ray be integrated or separate? Should I have a TV section or can they mingle? Too many questions, too few answers.

How do you organize your DVD collection?

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kheas

1st, obviously it is Alpha by title.
Now that that is out of the way lets get to the details.
Nothing in the "feature films" are separated by genre. Sci-fi (not SyFy GORAMIT!), FANTASY, HORROR, DRAMA, ETC stay together. If a movie falls into a series, it is then alpha'd by the series name, i.e. Batman, Batman Begins comes before The Dark Knight and they are both located on the shelf under "b" for batman (all series are in production order, not time line order (with few exceptions). We also file all "Disney" produced films under "D" for Disney so they are all in one place and are Alpha'd withing the "d" section.

Television shows are then broken out onto other shelves, these are separated into, Sci-fi/fantasy, drama, comedy and animated. They are then alpha'd by title/series. If a movie was made to begin or end a tv series it is included with the series. (i.e. Firefly includes Serenity as part of the series, Stargate movie leads the SG-1/atlantis collection.)

that's about it.

kheas

oh yeah, once i start into blu-ray, they will be separate as they would look really weird next to DVD cases.

Dan

I go alphabetical by title (mixed format) but I'm sometimes tempted to go alphabetical by director's surnames (although that's possibly a bit too nerdy.) Guillermo Del Toro does the latter, actually. I separate film from TV, too.

kheas

i forgot about that. I put all of Stephan Kings movies together, all Quinten Terantino's together, etc. Only if they have a niche film genre to they get that treatment.

pykmi

My collection is organized by director for directors I have many movies from and for others by ratings I have given to them..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pykmi/3845598654/s...
Here's a recent shot of how I have arranged my collection.. Blu-ray's are integrated..

Shannon

I alphabetize by title then by release order or with something like Indiana Jones/Star Wars, chronological order. Putting Dark Knight under 'B' would make no sense to me since Batman isn't in the title. TV shows/miniseries go at the end of either format alpha by title and then by season number. Genre is difficult since so many movies/shows are in a grey area.

I would separate Blu-rays also, putting them before the Dvds since Blu comes before DVD. If there are DVDs or Blu-rays that you are ashamed that you bought, and I think we all have a few of them, I would put them at the very end of the collection. Alpha by title of course.

nyp

Alphabetical by Key Grip.

Ernie

alphabetical order by genre. fight club is drama. comedy is anything like knocked up, wedding crashers and clerks. stuff like fight club, lock stock and two smoking barrels, while containg funny scenes, are still dramas.

daveroynan

If you have the space, put them alphabetically with their spines facing outwards, but turn a few of your favorites so the front cover faces out. This allows you to keep them organized and also draws attention of casual visitors to the movies you'd like them to notice.

JEff

A cool way you might not think of immediately would be to organize the large sections by publication company (i.e. all Criterions together, all MGMs, Lionsgate, etc.) Within that you can organize each subsection accordingly, but those company spines tend to follow similar formats, at least for a period of time, and that can make them look nice on the shelf. Classical radio stations do this because often certain performers record on specific labels, in this way, certain filmmakers work with certain studios for a period of time. Just offering an alternative suggestion.

Weekend Discussion: The Great DVD Organization Debate

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