There have been several topics that ask for clarification for the production year of this or that film.  These seem primarily to occur because of the question of what counts for "original theatrical release."  I think we should amend the rule regarding this to indicate what we are seeking here.  So, I thought I'd put out a poll and when (if!) we get a consensus, then take it to the rules committee to hammer out the exact phrasing.

The argument I can see for using film festival or limited showing dates would be that those earlier releases sometimes qualify films for awards for that year.

The argument I can see for using general release dates would be that this is when the majority of the public can see the film, and is also used for some awards.


In other thoughts toward that portion of the rules, I think we should also put a note to indicate that for Television the original air date should be considered the production year, and the date of release for direct-to-video productions.

Well, looking at those poll results, there is no consensus. 

So, I'll just echo what was said in the Astronaut thread.  We need Ken to make a decision on this and tell us whether he wants to count festivals/limited showings or general release.

And then, once Ken has spoken, to codify that into the rules.

I have another thought...

Production Year should be the year it was produced. The best part about this is that there would be no arguments as I think all productions include a copyright "year" when produced.


Woohoo! I'm the only one who voted this way - I must be an individual 

Edit: Btw, if you manage to get consensus and a ruling on which "theatrical" release is to be used, can we also get the field name changed from "Production Year" to "Theatrical Release Date" or something....

Quoting Danae Cassandra:

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I wish that was the case.  I have 2 railroad DVDs with no copyright date.  Don't know what the hell to put as production year there, and that is a required field.

Not sure what a railroad dvd is.. but I'm guessing they also don't have a theatrical release date either...

Just to add to my little soapboxing here, all those people who constantly remind us that we are cataloguing dvd's/blu-ray's etc not movies should agree with me as never on a disc or case does it present any first day theatrical release date information. But it does often have production copyright year dates.

Quoting Parsec:

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Just to add to my little soapboxing here, all those people who constantly remind us that we are cataloguing dvd's/blu-ray's etc not movies should agree with me as never on a disc or case does it present any first day theatrical release date information.

Nor does it present a release date or SRP for the DVD itself, yet we enter it all the time. Obviously we are not taking all information from the disc, only the information that can be found there.

Quoting Parsec:

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Quoting Danae Cassandra:

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I wish that was the case.  I have 2 railroad DVDs with no copyright date.  Don't know what the hell to put as production year there, and that is a required field.

Not sure what a railroad dvd is.. but I'm guessing they also don't have a theatrical release date either...

This is an example of what I mean.  All of them have content that was originally on VHS (says that on the back), and many of them originally showed on public television.

Quoting KinoNiki:

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Nor does it present a release date or SRP for the DVD itself, yet we enter it all the time. Obviously we are not taking all information from the disc, only the information that can be found there.

Ahh yes but the distributor of the dvd/blu-ray (which is on the cover) will often have the disc release date and SRP displayed - and I would consider these an authoritative source (and have used this to back up some of my contributions). However they very rarely, if at all, ever mention the theatrical release date of the item, for that you need to use less authoritative sources.

Quoting KinoNiki:

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It sounds to me like you are trying to construct a problem that doesn't exist. During the many years I have used this program, I have rarely found it a problem to document a theatrical release. Usually there are many correlating sources in case there is any doubt, including the film studios themselves, AMPAS, national film institutes, etc. I've had far more problems trying to find the original release date and SRP for DVDs whose publishers have since long disappeared off the face of the earth. And often it's not even enough to find them because they will have been reissued with a new date and SRP.

Say what? I am not trying to construct anything, I simply provided my idea on a poll for "Production Year", you are the one that deviated from this with reference to other fields within a profile. If anything you are constructing the problem by complicating the issue into other areas. If you want to discuss my opinion on why I would prefer the actual production year vs theatrical release year, then just ask.