User:Erik/Sandbox

Film genres
Main film genres per 1
 * Action film
 * Adventure film
 * Comedy film
 * Crime film (a.k.a. gangster film)
 * Drama film
 * Epic film (a.k.a. historical film, but may not be same)
 * Horror film
 * Musical film
 * Science fiction film
 * War film (See also: Anti-war film)
 * Western (genre) (no "Western film" article)

Film sub-genres per 2


 * Biographical film
 * Chick flick
 * Mystery film (a.k.a. detective film)
 * Disaster film
 * Fantasy film
 * Film noir
 * Melodrama (no film article)
 * Road movie (should be road film?)
 * Romance film
 * Sports film
 * Supernatural film
 * Thriller (genre) (no "Thriller film" or "Suspense film" article) (User:Erik/Thriller film)

2014

 * 10th anniversary (2004)
 * Downfall (2004 film) (Core)
 * Million Dollar Baby
 * The Passion of the Christ
 * 25th anniversary (1989)
 * Born on the Fourth of July (film)
 * Do the Right Thing (Core)
 * Driving Miss Daisy
 * 50th anniversary (1964)
 * Dr. Strangelove (Core)
 * Goldfinger (film)
 * Mary Poppins (film)
 * My Fair Lady (film)
 * 75th anniversary (1939)
 * Gone with the Wind (film) (Core)
 * Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
 * Stagecoach (1939 film) (Core)
 * The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) (Core)
 * 100th anniversary (1914)
 * Gertie the Dinosaur

2015

 * 10th anniversary (2005)
 * Brokeback Mountain
 * Crash (2005 film)
 * The Proposition
 * 25th anniversary (1990)
 * Dances with Wolves
 * Goodfellas (Core)
 * 50th anniversary (1965)
 * The Battle of Algiers (film) (Core)
 * The Sound of Music (film)
 * 75th anniversary (1940)
 * The Grapes of Wrath (film) (Core)
 * The Great Dictator (Core)
 * The Mark of Zorro (1940 film)
 * Pinocchio (1940 film)
 * The Philadelphia Story (film) (Core)
 * The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film) (Core)
 * 100th anniversary
 * The Birth of a Nation

2016

 * 10th anniversary (2006)
 * Pan's Labyrinth
 * 25th anniversary (1991)
 * The Silence of the Lambs
 * Thelma & Louise
 * 50th anniversary (1966)
 * Persona
 * 75th anniversary (1941)
 * Citizen Kane
 * The Maltese Falcon
 * Dumbo
 * 100th anniversary (1916)
 * Intolerance

Naming conventions for films of the same name
Films that share the same name and are disambiguated from a primary topic also need to be disambiguated from each other. WP:DAB says, "Disambiguation in Wikipedia is ... when a single term can be associated with more than one topic, making that term likely to be the natural title for more than one article." If there are multiple films, " (film)" could refer to any one of them. Disambiguate the films from the primary topic and each other by using the year of its public release, which does not include film festival screenings. There are several films called Titanic, and they are disambiguated as follows: Titanic (1943 film), Titanic (1953 film), and Titanic (1997 film).


 * If there is one film named Auqakuh with no other topics that share this name, then the film's article should be.
 * If there is one film named Auqakuh and one unrelated, non-film topic also named Auqakuh, then:
 * If unrelated topic Auqakuh is the primary topic, it should be at the article titled, and film's article should titled
 * If the film Auqakuh is the primary topic, it should be at the article titled, and the unrelated topic's article should be disambiguated based on naming conventions for the related subject matter


 * If non-film topic Auqakuh is the primary topic, it should be at, and if there are two or more films named Auqakuh, then:
 * Disambiguate Auqakuh films from non-film topic Auqakuh using "(film)" and adding release year to disambiguate the films from each other, e.g., and

What if, ignoring no other primary topic...
 * The film is more popular that the source material on which it is based? How does one determine the primary topic?  E.g., Road to Perdition
 * What if a film is the primary topic, and a remake of the film (with the same title) is similarly popular? E.g., The Day the Earth Stood Still
 * What if a popular film is based on a more obscure film, both having the same title? How to name and disambiguate them?

To-do for individual articles

 * 1) Expand Interpretations of Fight Club; consider peer review
 * 2) Incorporate rest of academic material into Apt Pupil; consider peer review and FAC
 * 3) Expand Dark City with resources (User:Erik/Dark City)

To-do for WikiProject Films

 * 1) Propose yearly review of Featured Articles to ensure that they are still of high quality (e.g., compare Changeling (film) on April 26, 2010 to draft when it was first promoted)
 * 2) Discuss possibility of "Multimedia" department for images and potentially video clips (technical instructions and peer review)
 * 3) Review User:Jarry1250/Films
 * 4) Propose move from WikiProject Films/Style guidelines to WikiProject Films/Article guidelines due to guideline encompassing both style and content; replace with Guideline
 * 5) Accomplish goals for improving article guidelines
 * 6) Revisit older FAs (like Casablanca and Sunset Boulevard) for review and improvement and eventual WP:FAR (very long term)

To-do for general editing

 * 1) Master Keyboard shortcuts
 * 2) Review WP:JS to see if there are any useful user scripts
 * 3) Explore WikiProject Spam
 * 4) Explore User page design center
 * 5) Explore Datescript

Notabillity guidelines

 * Copy-edit article body
 * Review thresholds for notability (contact MichaelQSchmidt, who frequents AfDs for films of weak notability)

Naming conventions

 * Copy-edit article body
 * Include guidelines for film titles with decorative formatting like interpunct for WALL-E and ending punctuation for Adaptation
 * Include guidelines for films whose titles are not confirmed (e.g., Shutter Island vs. Ashecliffe)
 * Determine how to handle articles like The Hobbit films

MOS:FILM
March 24, 2009: I proposed a draft to establish consensus for how to cover film ratings in articles. I also made several changes to the article guidelines, including main templates and reducing verbiage for the "Non-free images" section in particular. I reviewed the guidelines and think that it could be better structured. Some issues I perceive:


 * 1) The "Infobox" section and its subsections dominates the guidelines too much. May be ideal to export the guidelines to the template's documentation page.  In addition, the presence of the "Infobox" section at the beginning of the guidelines forces the sample infobox (The Terminator) down, resulting in an awkward presentation.
 * 2) "Article body" may be too broad of a section heading, considering that "Other article components" houses "Marketing" and "Adaptations" subsections. An idea is to rename "Article body" to "Primary article sections" and relegate the "Soundtrack" subsection to a new "Secondary article sections" with "Marketing" and "Adaptations".  The "Documentaries" subsection should also be placed elsewhere, preferably a section where certain articles may need to be approached differently.  This can include documentaries, short films, and other film-related articles not about individual films (awards, organizations, technologies).
 * 3) A new section can list guidelines for other components not directly related to the article body. For example, a better presentation of how to use categories, lists, and navigation templates in film-related articles.  Section can also cover images, tables, and templates (quote boxes and awards).  Note to self: Guidelines still need an "Awards and honors" section; probably most suitable for "Secondary article sections".

Trying to determine the best way to reform the guidelines since discussion is not fast-paced. Is it better to seek re-structuring of the guidelines now? Is it better to work on individual sections now and worry about the presentation later? For now, I will try to incorporate the "Rating" section, then possibly draft a more in-depth "Soundtrack" section. — Erik (talk • contrib) 15:52, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Cast
Background information about the cast and crew should be provided, ideally as well-written prose. There are several ways to provide such information: Halloween contains "Writing", "Casting", "Direction" and "Music" subsections within the "Production" section, which uses well-written prose to describe the casting and staffing decisions made, as well as discussing the reasons behind some of the cast decisions, the thoughts of the actors themselves about their roles, and some brief explorations of their careers before and after the film, e.g:
 * Current draft
 * The part of Dr. Sam Loomis was offered to Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee; both declined the part due to the low salary. English actor Pleasence—Carpenter's third choice—agreed to star. Pleasence has been called "John Carpenter's big landing." Pleasence's daughter supposedly saw Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 and liked it, thus encouraging her father to star in Halloween. Americans were already acquainted with Pleasence as the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967).

Alternatively, Tenebrae (film) discusses "Production" in its own section, and provides the cast via the plot summary only. When a character is introduced in the plot summary, the actor playing that role is listed in parentheses immediately following the name of the character. The well-written prose enables the character to be introduced without breaking the flow of the plot, e.g:
 * Tilde (Mirella D’Angelo), a beautiful lesbian journalist, is murdered at her home along with her lover. Later, Maria (Lara Wendel), the young daughter of Neal’s landlord, is bloodily hacked to death with an axe after stumbling into the killer's lair.

The key is to provide plenty of added value "behind the scenes" background production information, without simply re-iterating IMDB. Of course, some film articles will lend themselves to one style better than others.

Failing that, a cast list inserted into the body of the article may be appropriate, though some editors frown on lists inside articles. It should be longer than the list in the infobox, and, depending on the number of minor characters in the film, can be furnished with a dozen or more credits. Credits should be written in the "ACTOR as CHARACTER" format, but for credits where the character has not been mentioned in the plot section, a short summary of the importance and role of the character in the film would be necessary, e.g, an example from Witchfinder General (film):
 * Robert Russell as John Stearne: Playing Hopkins’s thuggish assistant, Russell certainly looked the part. However, as filming progressed, Reeves found the actor’s high pitched voice unsuitable for such a rough character, and after production was completed he had all of his dialogue dubbed by another actor, Jack Lynn (who also appeared in a small role as an innkeeper).

Pertinent casting information might also be included in this section (or in production), and only then should bolding be used to make the credits stand out from the additional information. Try to avoid using the section as a repository for further "in-universe" that really belongs in the plot summary.

The major cast members in a film can be identified in a "Cast" section. The section can be structured in several different ways, depending on the availability of content about the actors and their roles in the film. If little or no content about the actors and their roles is available, write a bulleted list starting with the actors' names and following with the roles they played, e.g., "Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker". (Wikitables have been used in the past to lay out the actors and their roles, but their usage has been deprecated due to the complexity of the coding and the inability to add encyclopedic content to the table. Wikitables can still be used in rare instances such as laying out multiple casts, such as Japanese voices and dubbed English voices for an animated film.)  If there are not many major roles in a film, the actors and their roles can be highlighted in the "Plot" section. Also, if the content is more suitable in the scope of the film's production, it can be placed in a "Casting" subsection under the "Production" section.
 * Revised draft

If necessary, define the roles in the "Cast" section with a short, descriptive sentence for each character. Ultimately, focus on real-world context for the actors and their roles. Cover topics like how the actors came to be cast, what thoughts they had on their roles, and what steps they took to prepare for their roles. If there is too much content to be comfortably contained in a bullet about an actor and his/her role, consider converting the content into prose. The same can also done if there is content that encompasses more than one actor, such as training by an entire cast to prepare for their roles. Minor roles can also be grouped in prose, but take care to focus on major cast members in the section since adding every actor in a given film is considered too indiscriminate.