How can I keep a comprehensive film log?

June 2, 2008 7:33 PM

I want to start a log of films I see, to include director, lead actors, genre, date viewed, etc, and my own review of the flick. This is for my own use only. Can anyone offer a recommendation for software to use/how to set it up in something standard like Excel so that I can search on any category but still have somewhat extensive space for my eloquent prose? Might also extend its use to books and music. I'm a mac user. Thanks!
posted by GrowBD to computers & internet (13 comments total)

I think this is the sort of thing that you could accomplish easily with Bento, but I don't have any first-hand experience with the product.
posted by strangecargo at 7:41 PM on June 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Is there any reason to keep anything other than, say, the imdb id of the movie, and the date you viewed it? All the other data is on imdb. I guess it depends if you want to be able to search by, say, director or what not.

It would be sweet if imdb had a feature like this built in. If there's no such thing I'd consider making one, that scrapes imdb.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:01 PM on June 2, 2008

I'd use DVD Profiler. Although I (and let's face it, most people probably) use it to catalouge DVDs I own, I don't see any reason you couldn't use it to catalouge only those films you've actually seen. It fits your needs further insofar that each film you own have seen will have a list of actors and directors associated with it. Don't think it'll extend so far as music and books, though.
posted by Effigy2000 at 8:02 PM on June 2, 2008

imdb DOES have something which is intended to keep lists of movies. I think you could add a category for "Watched" or what not. It doesn't have a date field but I think there is a field for "notes" and you could put the date in there.

This lets imdb.com manage all the details of director and actors and what not.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:04 PM on June 2, 2008

Seconding DVD Profiler. While you'll lose a lot of the features after you've put over 50 movies in the database, it should still do everything you ask of it.

I'm currently in the process of looking for something that will do music and books. I looked at Libra before. But it has some pretty big flaws for me, like not being able to tell which release of Who's Next I'm about to enter into the database and not having my exact copy of Alice in Wonderland. But I'm a stickler for detail with that sort of thing, so it might be good enough for you.
posted by theichibun at 8:07 PM on June 2, 2008

Damn, I remembered this right after I posted the last comment from me.

Collectorz has everything you're asking for on Mac at $24.95 each. Doesn't look like there's bulk discounts, and I didn't see anything about if updates are free or not. But I've looked at a lot of these type of things lately and can't keep all the details straight.
posted by theichibun at 8:12 PM on June 2, 2008

For note-like things I really like Notational Velocity, spooky spokesperson notwithstanding. If you need the information to be fielded then I guess it's less than ideal, but for swatches of text and keyword lookups it's fine.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:13 PM on June 2, 2008

if this is only for you, do what you like. Want to share it with the world, I suggest Expression Engine.

Ah hell, even if you don't want to share, this beats the above suggestions.

Macs come with MySQL and PHP built in. Just publish it locally.

Add as many custom fields as you like. Can totally style it, learning curve isn't that large, and if you ever want to share, be totally easy.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:14 PM on June 2, 2008

And it's free if all you need is the Core version, which will do all you ask for.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:18 PM on June 2, 2008

Ah hell, even if you don't want to share, this beats the above suggestions.

I disagree. Looking over the demo it seems way to complicated and suffers from administration and features overload. Sounds to me like all this guy wants is a reliable way to store records of the films he's seen. If a blog is the way to go he may as well just get a blog, not set one up running locally on his computer.

Using a traditional applicaton rather than a web app also means he can benefit from faster searching as well as having the data stored in files rather than in a mysql database, which will make moving it around a lot easier.

It's a shame that HyperCard is no longer around because a HyperCard stack would be the perfect way to do this: Just set up the card with the desired fields and labels, maybe even a slot for pasting in a thumbnail of the movie, and you'd be good to go.

Man, I haven't thought about HyperCard in years. Gosh I miss it.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:31 PM on June 2, 2008

THANK YOU!!!

I'll have to investigate all your suggestions when I've had a bit of sleep, but thanks so much for knowing more than me! Sounds like there's plenty out there to choose from.

Y'all rock.

Deb
posted by GrowBD at 8:47 PM on June 2, 2008

Seconding Bento. I have not used it much yet, but it's really slick and if you're familiar with the 'iApps' like iTunes and iPhoto you will love it.
posted by rokusan at 9:38 PM on June 2, 2008

You could use Excel and autofilter.
posted by mr.dan at 9:10 AM on June 4, 2008