From my point of view, location crews are not unit crews and therefore valid. But this is still not clarified in the rules - neither this nor the other way.

Quoting TheMadMartian:

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Quoting AiAustria:

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From my point of view, location crews are not unit crews and therefore valid. But this is still not clarified in the rules - neither this nor the other way.

Agree with this.

Hello all....    I'm not trying to be too disagreeable here, but just want to clarify this discussion further.

Is the definition of a "Unit Crew" to be one that is hired and sent out by a Production Company to a Location to do film production?    If so, then should a Unit Crew and a Location Crew be one in the same, and therefore not valid for credits under DVDP Rules?   

Quoting perryoakridge:

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Is the definition of a "Unit Crew" to be one that is hired and sent out by a Production Company to a Location to do film production?    If so, then should a Unit Crew and a Location Crew be one in the same, and therefore not valid for credits under DVDP Rules?   

Indeed. What those wanting to include these tend to forget, is that deeming these valid pretty much means that every "aerial unit" or "underwater unit" then suddenly qualifies for entry. If "Do not enter unit crew" - how much more clear can a rule get? - suddenly no longer means not to enter unit crew, then pretty much all unit crew is fair game.

The distinction that certain users are making is decidedly not in the rules, and we're never going to get an international userbase, many of which never visit these forums, on the same page as to which times to include a set of unit crew, and when not to, when the rules don't make such a distinction. If you want to water it down, then don't be short-sighted and be prepared to get *all* unit crew, not just a few nice examples. 'Cause yes, there certainly are examples where I feel the location crew has made such a significant contribution to a film that I deem them worth tracking - and I actually do so, using the local-only custom credits. But against those few examples are thousands and thousands of splinter units that I certainly do not want to track, yet which will be hard to keep out once we start watering down the meaning of "Do not enter unit crew".

Either it's all in, or it's all out. I'd rather track a couple of credits locally, than filling the database with endless heaps of splinter unit crew. And that, IMHO, is why the "Do not enter unit crew" rule is in place.

Quoting huskersports:

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Seems like a simple one to me: If it's says Jamaica Unit - invalid. But if it says Jamaica Crew - valid. The 1st one is Unit crew, the second one is Location Crew.

Agree.

IMO, location crew should be included if they work directly with The Director of the picture.  Unit crew are usually filming scenes without the direct supervision of The Director.

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Quoting scotthm:

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IMO, location crew should be included if they work directly with The Director of the picture.  Unit crew are usually filming scenes without the direct supervision of The Director.

A lovely distinction, sure, but the credits generally don't state that. In the vast majority of cases, this'll come down to a guess - and that's no way to consistently build a database. Again, to make this work, we need the contribution rules to make a clear distinction as to what to include, and what not to include, so that everyone is on the same page. And *this* doesn't make for a great rule...

I guess the question that has to be asked is, "What are you trying to capture?  Data that's easy to enter or data that is correct?"

If it is the former then, yea, eliminate everything with the word 'unit' included and be done with it.  But, as mreeder50 points out, you will be eliminating anything labeled 'Main Unit' or '1st Unit', which makes no sense.

If it is the latter then. I'm sorry to say, you might have to do a little work and, on occasion, make an educated guess.

For the record, I think the second option is the better choice, but I honestly don't care about crew credits...I think they are a huge waste of time...so feel free to ignore me. 

Quoting huskersports:

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Quoting T!M:

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Quoting huskersports:

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If it's says Jamaica Unit - invalid. But if it says Jamaica Crew - valid.

That would be a totally random approach, one seemingly tailored to this specific example, but which would yield terribly inconsistent results when applied to a couple of hundred movies. I find that to be an inexplicable answer from someone who includes "Stop adding UNIT crew! They're invalid credits. Stop it!" in their signature below each post. That's not a dig - I just honestly can't reconcile the totally random approach you're advocating here with your signature...

Again, this is something that doesn't *have* a simple outcome: there's really no simple, sure-fire way to get "just the important ones" - it's either all or nothing. Either we focus on the main unit, and track the occasional set of unit crew locally, or we track all of it: location units, second units, aerial units, underwater units, reshoot units and so on. For anything else, there's just no simple rule, not one that works, that lets us all consistently make the same distinctions as to which units to ignore and which ones to include.

My signature was a response to those users who keep wanting to add every Unit crew to the database: Venezuelan Unit is the most recent example. It's not like there isn't already Makeup Artists already in the credits for this particular movie. Let's just add every makeup artist listed in the movie's credits while we're at it! My grievance isn't against Main Unit crew, it's against X country crew, or X city crew. Main Unit crew would be ok by me. I know this flies in the face of my anti-Unit crew stance, but I hope it gets my point across.