NEWSLETTER #17

late-August 1998

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Welcome to issue 17 of the IMDb newsletter. The newsletter is intended to keep database users and contributors informed of the latest developments from the management team. Comments and suggestions are welcome and should be directed to newsletter@imdb.com. Issue 18 is scheduled for October.

Yes, this follows the "December" issue; it obviously got delayed a bit, for reasons too tedious to detail. We're trying to keep it from happening again - there's a new editor who actually enjoys this sort of thing.

See the further information section at the end of this file for more information about The Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

this issue edited by Jon Reeves

Contents

Short subjects:

• Weekly changing URLs are no more
• "In Production" section new look
• "Awards" section changes
• Authorized photos
• Appearances in long-running TV-series
• Outline list
• Web interface changes
• WASHED-UPdate washed up
• More reliable template submission interface

Features:

• The merger
• User comment system
• New aka format

Trailers:

• Hot searches
• Hot movies
• IMDb in the news
• Database statistics
• Future developments

WEEKLY CHANGING URLS ARE NO MORE

We know you loved them ;-) but we've finally gotten rid of those pesky weekly URLs containing numeric values that made it awkward to link to the database. As you'll notice while wandering the site, those URLs have been replaced with more permanent ones (some names/titles will change over time, so there's a <0.5% chance that a title/name will use a different URL from one week to the next from now on).

You may also have noticed that many URLs changed, e.g. from /M/title-exact? to /Title?. This should compensate for some of the extra space consumed by the permanent URLs.

All existing links into the database are unaffected. If you have links that use the old style URLs, please consider moving them to the new style when convenient as this will help browsers and proxies to cache the new URLs rather than new and old together.

"IN PRODUCTION" SECTION NEW LOOK

The "In Production" section has been revamped and now includes more detailed information about the production status of each title. This can be one of the following:

Announced:

greenlighted/confirmed projects in a very early stage of development. The sequels to high-profile productions that are immediately announced after the original film has hit the box office would fall into this category (like "Men In Black 2").

Pre-production:

the film is in development and in the initial stages of production (casting, location scouting etc.) but it's still not filming.

Filming:

self explanatory. Principal photography is currently being shot on location or in the studio.

Post-production:

filming has been completed, the film is now in the scoring/editing/effects phase.

Completed:

the film is more or less complete but is still awaiting a proper release. In this phase the film might be shown during test/sneak previews for further editing or reshoots.

Unknown:

self-explanatory

Each entry may include more extensive comments about the status of the project, including news, updates, rumors and other data submitted by users. A date field will also tell the user when that title's information has been updated for the last time.

The "In production" data is now also listed on the corresponding title details pages.

"AWARDS" SECTION CHANGES

The IMDb awards section is filling out well with many awards covered completely. As a result, the old method of tagging awards by cryptic attributes in filmography listings (as in "BS:AAN") has been largely phased out. Some old abbreviated award attributes will remain attached to filmographies for a little longer until they have a corresponding entry in the dedicated awards section.

The awards pages have also been redesigned for easier viewing. Here are a sample title and a sample name.

AUTHORIZED PHOTOS

We've occasionally been asked by people if we can put photographs they have online. Sometimes these photographs have been scanned by fans of actors and actresses, and due to copyright issues we cannot include them directly in the database (i.e. served from our machines). However, other times the requests have come from the subjects themselves, their agents, friends or family. We now accept authorized photograph images from these individuals if copyright issues permit.

If you own a photograph or have the right to allow IMDb to publish a photograph of a person in the database and would like us to add it to this person's biography page then please contact us to arrange a convenient way for us to receive the image.

The photographs will appear on the biographies page and should preferably be headshots; no pin-up photos please (those can be sent privately ;-).

Please send enquiries (do not include the photo/image) to photo-content@imdb.com. Please do not use this address for any other correspondence, requests for photographs will be ignored.

For an example of how this new feature appears, see this photo sent to us by Michael Driesch.

Note that we may need to shrink and/or crop images to more appropriate sizes.

APPEARANCES IN LONG-RUNNING TV-SERIES

We've improved the way filmographies are listed when the actor/actress has appeared in a long running TV-series. The year they first appeared (as used in the character name field where known) now overrides the year the series first aired in the filmography sort order. For example see Meg Ryan and her early 1980s appearances in "As the World Turns" (1956). There is more information on this issue in the FAQ.

OUTLINE LIST

Over the years, one popular request has been for a brief summary of a movie's content on the main movie page. Since the existing plot summaries were usually too long to display conveniently, a new list has been started: the plot outline list. A plot outline is one or at most two lines long. Only a single outline is stored for each title, and while we retain the author's name internally, it's not displayed.

The outline list was started with the shorter entries from the existing plot list as well as some outlines written by team members; in its short life, it has proved to be very popular.

To submit a plot outline, use the keyword OUTLINE and the same tags as the plot list -- MV:, PL:, BY: -- but be sure to use no more than two 80-character lines for the PL tag or your outline will be rejected.

WEB INTERFACE CHANGES

Over the months, we've made a number of minor improvements to the web interface that you might have noticed. The year and country browsers now include release data; there's a title browser; and, most significantly, there are a number of new search options available at the main search page.

You can now search taglines; more search options have moved from the obscure advanced search page to the main search page; you can now do a new search from any search result page; and there's a new power search.

The power search makes complex searches easier; for instance, if you have already found all movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock, you can use the power search to limit the display to only those that were in color without having to start a new search.

WASHED-UPDATE WASHED UP

Longtime IMDb contributor Greg Bulmash decided to stop writing his column, The WASHED-UPdate, in March (he swears it was a coincidence that he had just met me in person). However, he has recently become an IMDb employee and has plans for several new features. Since he will also be taking over the newsletter, I'll let him explain them himself in the next issue.

MORE RELIABLE TEMPLATE SUBMISSION INTERFACE

To complement the mail server TEMPLATE method of submitting data, we've added a new method, called KEYWORDS, which aims to improve the accuracy of the submissions made, resulting in data being added in an accurate and timely fashion to the site.

The KEYWORDS method places some extra responsibility on you, the submitter, to ensure that what you submit is correctly formatted and conforms to the current IMDb rules for data submission. The upshot of this, as noted above, is that data can be added more quickly because less of the information will be rejected during team processing due to problems.

The problem with the existing template method is that very little checking is possible until the template has been processed and packaged up for the IMDb team to process. By this time, important contextual information can be lost, leaving the manager unsure what to do, which in turn can lead to errors in the data or outright rejection of information.

The KEYWORDS method attempts to solve this problem by handing responsibility for "correctness" back to the submitter, who, after all, knows what they are trying to submit :-)

Using this approach, templates are edited as normal, and submitted using the new command KEYWORDS TITLE, but rather than being passed directly to the IMDb team, all the new data in the template is converted into keyword additions and returned to the submitter. The submitter then checks that they are happy with the conversion before submitting the new keyword data to the traditional additions interface for processing. Any problems with the submission are then returned to the user for attention, correction and resubmission.

We hope that you will take the time to familiarize yourself with this method of submission because, at the end of the day, we all want the IMDb to be the best movie resource in the world!

AMAZON.COM ACQUIRES IMDb

At the end of April IMDb was acquired by Amazon.com. The details were widely circulated in a press release at the time.

As mentioned in the release, Amazon expects IMDb to support its eventual entry into online video sales on their web site. In addition, the intention is to continue to maintain and grow the existing IMDb site at www.imdb.com. The difference being that IMDb will now be properly funded, staffed and supported, so the long term future and success of the site is secured.

All the existing IMDb staff are staying on so the site is being run by exactly the same people as always. I will continue as the managing director of IMDb Ltd which is now a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc. Everyone at IMDb is pleased to see the deal completed and we're all looking forward to the future with Amazon. There is an excellent match between the cultures and people at the two companies.

The changes to current features and options at the regular www.imdb.com site should be minimal, aside from improvements we will be able to make as a result of access to better resources. We've already been able to expand the staff significantly and many new features are starting to appear as a result. This week saw the launch of the user comments system -- something we've wanted to add for a long time. A long overdue site redesign is on the way too.

Thanks to everyone who has supported the IMDb over the years. We hope this support will continue. Please contact the IMDb feedback address if you have any specific questions regarding this announcement.

USER COMMENT SYSTEM

One of the new features we've been able to add as a result of the acquisition by Amazon is a user submitted reviews section. We've wanted to add this for so long but previously didn't have the resources to do so.

To add your own comments about a movie or TV series you have views on, look for the link at the bottom of the production's page saying "I've seen this movie and would like to comment on it". After clicking on that link entering your comments is very easy. You can read comments by clicking on the appropriate menu item.

Please note that you must read the guidelines before you start posting comments; each comment is checked by a human and it is always a shame to reject comments in which people have gone to great lengths to spell out the entire story or discuss the views put forth by others.

In order to comment, you must be a registered user.

NEW AKA FORMAT

We have introduced a new format for the collection and display of data about alternative titles. The main change is that the old attribute field has been replaced by two new fields, one for the country and language and one for the title type. In addition these fields are now based on finite sets of valid attributes that are accepted by the mail server. Attributes not in these sets are rejected. Also, the country-language attribute must be defined. The new data format is

AKA
primary title|alternative title|country-language attribute|title-type attribute|

The country-language field records the country in which the alternative title has been used together with the language of the title or alternatively the language region of a multilingual country. The valid set of country-language attributes contains all currently valid countries, plus several other members that include a country and language. See the submission guide for the complete current list.

The type of a title should be explained in the title-type field. Again, see the submission guide for the current complete list; a few common ones follow:

(TV title) (abbreviated title) (promotional abbreviation) (working title)

If these sets do not provide the specific attribute you need please use a COMMENT-AKA and define the new required attribute for your alternative title(s). If it's appropriate and generally useful it will be added to the set of valid attributes. The new format will allow for easy integration of general alternative titles that go beyond the current set of acceptable titles that is limited to titles in the (co-)producing countries of a film. But keep in mind that for the time being we still do not accept general alternative titles. There are some additional aspects worth mentioning that have been added to the additions guide for alternative titles. If you intend to mail in new alternative titles please have a look at this updated guide before you do so.

HOT SEARCHES

Here's the most popular searches people have done lately, based on total pages for the week ending August 23. Since it's been so long since the last issue, I'm going to skip the comparative positions. Suffice to say Titanic was on top for a long time.

Titles:

1. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
2. Blade (1998)
3. Titanic (1997)
4. Armageddon (1998)
5. Avengers, The (1998)
6. There's Something About Mary (1998)
7. X Files, The (1998)
8. Ever After (1998)
9. Dead Man on Campus (1998)
10. Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
11. 54 (1998)
12. Snake Eyes (1998)
13. Star Wars: Episode I (1999)
14. Wild Things (1998)
15. Wag the Dog (1998)
16. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
17. Good Will Hunting (1997)
18. How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)
19. Godzilla (1998)
20. Mask of Zorro, The (1998)

The usual batch of new releases, cult faves, and new-to-video, with the newsworthy Wag the Dog making a strong showing. The Pam-n-Tommy tape is lurking in its trenchcoat at #91; 27 different TV series in the top 300 (up from 22 last time); 25 of the AFI 100 titles made the list, but 23 made it last time without the publicity, so it's not clear if the AFI helped. Big prerelease interest in Dogma, helped by Kevin Smith's strong web presence. And renewed interest in everything connected to Hanks, Spielberg, and Kubrick as well.

People:

1. Pamela Anderson
2. Leonardo DiCaprio
3. Bruce Willis
4. Tom Hanks
5. Traci Lords
6. Ben Affleck
7. Harrison Ford
8. Steven Spielberg
9. Neve Campbell
10. Drew Barrymore
11. Denise Richards
12. Uma Thurman
13. Matt Damon
14. Tom Cruise
15. Nicolas Cage
16. Cameron Diaz
17. Kari Wuhrer
18. Robert De Niro
19. Demi Moore
20. Mel Gibson

No big surprises in the top of this list. Mark-Paul Gosselaar apparently made a strong impression in Dead Man on Campus to land at #37; in fact, nominal star Tom Everett Scott only made #89, also losing to wild man Lochlyn Munro (#71). And after an initial strong showing, the Saving Private Ryan supporting ensemble has dropped off sharply, mostly landing lower than Edward Burns (#61). Lark Voorhies landed at #99 for no apparent reason except an old guest shot on ST: DS9.

HOT MOVIES

Movies opening in the US from January to July sorted by number of votes (to July 24):

Movies opening in the US from January to July sorted by average votes (to July 24):

IMDb IN THE NEWS

Just a few of the traditional media outlets that have mentioned us lately:

Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada). Arizona Star [10 January]. Tampa Bay [8 January]. Wilmington NC Star [8 January]. Santa Rosa Press Democrat (online feature); reprinted in, Charlotte Observer. Syndicated TV Q&A column. Computerworld. Journal Now (Winston-Salem NC). Austin Chronicle. Contra Costa Times. Weekly Mail & Guardian (South Africa). The Internet Cafe. The Guardian (UK). Variety. The Industry Standard (several times). Nando.net. TIME.

We've also won several new awards. See selections from the gallery here.

PC Magazine Top 100 sites. Virgilio site of the day. Global Information Infrastructure Awards Finalist. Cool Site of the Day (finally). Los Angeles Times Pick (6 July).

And again this year, we won both the Judge's and People's Choice Webby award in the film category. Thanks for voting for us. We are the only site to win both awards both years.

Greg Bulmash's WASHED-UPdate, before he stopped writing it, was mentioned in:

Wild Wild Web Site of the Week

DATABASE STATISTICS

This is a regular section giving information about the current size and growth of the IMDb. We receive between 50,000 and 75,000 additions every week (to all lists, not just those in the totals below) from thousands of users all over the world.

   Number of filmography entries: 2,406,554
   Number of people covered:        616,324
   Number of movies covered:        156,133

Size of the database (Mb): 244

Not-so-recent milestones (some are far surpassed now):

• 100 trailers
• 500 titles with crazy credits
• 500 DVDs
• 1,000 awards known
• 1,000 movies with alternate versions
• 1,500 posters
• 4,000 mini-biographies
• 5,000 titles with taglines
• 7,500 titles with outlines
• 10,000 titles with literature entries
• 10,000 miscellaneous company entries
• 10,000 name URLs
• 25,000 awards entries
• 25,000 alternate names
• 25,000 certificate entries
• 25,000 distributor entries
• 25,000 location entries
• 25,000 titles with plot summaries
• 50,000 biography entries
• 50,000 editor entries
• 50,000 release dates
• 50,000 sound mix entries
• 50,000 title URLs
• 50,000 alternate titles
• 100,000 color-information entries
• 100,000 guest appearances
• 100,000 language entries
• 100,000 producer entries
• 100,000 production company entries
• 125,000 country entries
• 125,000 director entries
• 125,000 writer entries
• 150,000 movies
• 200,000 genre entries
• 250,000 titles
• 750,000 actors
• 1,250,000 acting credits
• 2,250,000 filmography entries

A note on the plot summary milestone: very short summaries were split out to the separate outline list, so the 25,000 milestone was reached once before.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

This is a regular section listing some enhancements we're currently looking at. Please bear in mind that some of these may take quite a while to come to fruition or even fail to materialize because the original volunteer decides not to proceed.

• a long-overdue redesign is in the works; don't worry, we know you like our lightweight use of graphics and lack of useless glitz. In fact, the redesign should make the site even faster.
• online review and updating of your voting history
• a company information list, analogous to the biography list, with details about both current and defunct companies.
• a split of the "miscellaneous" filmographies into more manageable departmental lists
• improved handling of episodes in television series
• a movie recommendation service that will use your vote records to suggest other movies you might enjoy. Initially available via an E-mail interface. Time to check you're up-to-date with your voting!
• a list of "influential scenes"... the scenes that launched a thousand spoofs, became the director's trademark, changed cinema forever, launched a star.

Academy Awards and Oscar are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. UNIX and X Window System are registered trademarks of The Open Group. The WASHED-UPdate is a trademark of Greg Bulmash. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.