User:Erik/Film article guidelines

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Contents 1 Film title 2 Lead section 2.1 Critical information 2.2 Primary information 2.3 Secondary information 3 Attributable sources 4 Plot 5 Cast and Casting 6 Production 6.1 Budget 6.2 Development 7 Marketing 8 Release 8.1 Box office performance 8.2 Critical reaction 9 Controversy 10 Comparisons to source material 11 References 12 External links 13 Future films

[edit] Film title

Further information: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (films)

[edit] Lead section

[edit] Critical information

The first sentence of the lead should clearly identify the film title, the release year, the language if the film is not English, and the film's genre. An example is below.

"2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 science fiction film..."

• Film title: If there are notable alternate titles for a film depending on the territory, then the primary film title should be drawn from the home of the primary studio (e.g., American, British, Indian). However, a second caveat is that film's English language title should be used as the primary title since the film articles are on the English Wikipedia. The title used by the film in the primary studio's home country should be identified in parentheses following the film's English-language title. (See Downfall and Pan's Labyrinth for two such examples.) If necessary, create redirects of the films' non-English titles to point to the article under the English-language title.

• If the film has differing titles in English-language territories, then the English-language title of the film at the primary studio's home country should be used. Live Free or Die Hard is an American production, but it is known as Die Hard 4 or Die Hard 4.0 in other English-language territories. The other English-language titles of the film should be noted in parentheses, and redirects should be created of these other English-language titles to point to the primary English-language title. If there is difficulty determining the primary title, initiate discussion with other editors. This has been an issue with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the UK title of the film, and the film is known in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

• Release year: The release year should be the second piece of information provided about the film. The year should be wiki-linked as such: [[19XX in film|19XX]] or [[20XX in film|20XX]]. The year should be the one of the film's first commercial release, whether in an English-speaking territory or not.

• Foreign language: If a film is conveyed in a language other than English, then the language should be mentioned and wiki-linked following the release year. For the most part, the language will be in a piped link, such as [[German language|German]] or [[French language|French]].

• Film genre: The film's genre should define the film as indisputably as possible. A list of film genres can be seen at Category:Film genres. If a genre article does not end with the word film, then include it in the piped link, e.g. [[Western (genre)|Western film]]. The word "film" is considered a common word and does not need to be linked in a film article.

[edit] Primary information

Following the first part of the lead section's initial sentence, various methods can be used to define the film. Ideally, either the director or the film's source material, or both, should be identified in the rest of the sentence. Secondary to this is a mention of the top-billed actors in the film. Other basic information about the film can include the writer(s), the producers(s), or a brief description of the film's plot.

• Director/writer/producer: The director should be wiki-linked if possible. If the director does not have his own Wikipedia article, then several techniques can be followed. If the director's filmography (check IMDb) is extensive, then if possible, be bold and create an article for the director. The article should identify the person as a director and show at least a brief selection of previous work, which is not limited to direction. If there is not enough background to the director to warrant an article, it may be possible to identify the last film or the last most notable film by the director. This criteria may not apply to producers and writers, and if they are not notable, they can be excluded from the lead section altogether.

• Source material: The source material for the film should be mentioned, with the brief details of the author, the year of publishing, the type of source material, and the source material's title. The author should be wiki-linked if possible, and the year of publishing can remain unlinked. The type of source material should be drawn from that source material's article (e.g., novel, novella, or short story). If there is no article for the source material, then use the type defined in the reference that described the origin of the film's story. If this is not available either, quick research may be required. If the title of the source material is different from the film title, include that title and wiki-link to the source material's article if possible. If the source material's title is the same as the film title, you can either repeat the title, or you can write "of the same name", pipe-linking the source material's article in the whole phrase or just "same name". It may be preferable to mention the title again for the sake of clarity, if a "same name" piped link is not immediately recognized to be a link to the source material's redundant title. See examples below:

• "...is based on Chuck Palahniuk's 2001 novel ''[[Choke (novel)|Choke]]''.
• "...is based on Chuck Palahniuk's 2001 novel [[Choke (novel)|of the same name]].
• "...is based on Chuck Palahniuk's 2001 novel of the [[Choke (novel)|same name]].

• Lead roles: The actors who portray the lead roles in the film should be mentioned in the lead section, no matter their previous notability. Other roles and the actors who portray them are mentioned later in the article, so a full listing is not always appropriate. If the film contains an ensemble cast, there can either be zero mention of specific names, or all the names in the ensemble cast can be mentioned. Keeping the number of actors in the lead section to a minimum keeps focus on the lead section's goal of providing a concise overview of the article.

• Plot: If desired, the plot of the film can be briefly described in the lead section. The full Plot section is available later in the article, so details should be excluded whenever possible. Spoilers may also need to be avoided in the lead section; review spoiler guidelines for more information. The plot information can be interwoven with the actors portraying the lead roles, such as: "Romeo (John Doe) falls in love with Juliet (Jane Doe)..."

[edit] Secondary information

Further information: Wikipedia:Lead section

Per the style guideline linked above, the lead section should be a concise overview of the entire film article. This can include production, themes, reception, and so forth. The overview can be written at one's discretion to attempt encompassing the article's contents in two or three paragraphs overall. Secondary review and discussion may be necessary to ensure the lead section's overall nature. If there is controversy with statements made in the lead section, they may need to be backed by a duplicated reference from within the article.

[edit] Attributable sources

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warnings are unnecessary as "Plot" already marks a telling of the whole story. Plots should be kept to under 900 words unless especially complex, and summarise main details. Consider gags and subtle character information into cast description of characters.

[edit] Cast and Casting

Cast lists should be written as Actor as Character: with information on character. Casting information may go under production or underneath character descriptions, or may go into each listed actor and why there were cast if there is enough content.

[edit] Production

[edit] Budget

The production budget for a film is not always available to the public, and in the vacancy of public information, estimates are generally provided by websites like Internet Movie Database and Box Office Mojo. The estimations of these sites and similar sites do not qualify as attributable information, since it cannot be determined how these estimations were derived. An attributable source for production budgets is usually the studio itself. As a primary source, the studio may not present the correct production budget if there will be negative backlash from shareholders and other parties. Other attributable sources include news coverages that have open access to information about films' productions. Anonymous reports are unattributable since the sources and figures are not verifiable, thus they are disputable. An example of an attributable budget breakdown is The Guardian's coverage of Spider-Man 2.

[edit] Development

When a studio acquires feature film rights to the source material, including novels, comics, and video games, the project's development does not always immediately enter production. Projects will change writers, directors, cast members, and even studios before a film is actually produced. The stalled period is known as development hell, and it is part of the project's development history. A timeline of role changes is appropriate to establish to reflect the paths a film would have taken under certain guises. If possible, development history completely separate from actual production should be established in a broader film-based article, such as a film series article. An example of this is Spider-Man film series#Development, a phase that lasted over a decade before Spider-Man was actually produced.

[edit] Marketing

Studios pursue different marketing strategies for different films. Conventional marketing strategies include the introduction of advertisements in public places and the introduction of footage in theatrical previews or on TV. Toy lines and other kinds of media are usually introduced with franchise films and should not be covered in great detail. If a film defies convention by excessively spending on marketing or by devising a unique approach to appeal to film audiences, attributable coverage can be provided to record marketing activities. Some examples of unconventional activities are listed below:

• Viral marketing (e.g., I ♥ Huckabees)
• Specifically derived word of mouth (e.g., The Sixth Sense)
• Controversial advertising (e.g., Captivity)
• Tourist attractions with film's theme (e.g., Spider-Man 3)

[edit] Release

If a film had an original release date and was postponed, then attribution should be provided, especially with reasons for the postponement. The film's first premiere at a film festival, if any, should be noted. If the film commercially premieres outside of the studio's home country, the specific location(s) should be noted, regardless of whether they are English-speaking territories. If a film is released worldwide on the same day as its studio's home territory, the date should be noted.

[edit] Box office performance

Information to include:

• If the film was released earlier in the week than Friday
• If the film was released on a holiday weekend
• The opening day gross, if it is significant in terms of box office records
• The number of theaters in the studio's home country
• The opening weekend gross
• The second weekend gross, if it is significant to note in relation to the opening weekend
• The gross of the film's theatrical run in the studio's home country
• The number of territories the film was made available outside of the studio's home country
• The gross of the film's theatrical run outside the studio's home country (optional, can be derived from worldwide gross)
• The gross of the film's theatrical run (worldwide)

[edit] Critical reaction

User ratings on websites should be avoided because they are not fair representatives of how the general public's perception of a film. Gender and geopolitics are trends that can influence the prominence of a film.^[1]

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Comparisons to source material

When adapted screenplays are written from the source material, there will usually be differences for creative and conventional reasons. The differences between the film and its source material, especially in a list format, constitutes indiscriminate information if there are no attributable sources that specifically compare both forms of media. Personal observations between the two sources is original research, since the importance of individually discovered differences cannot be measured as significant without being backed by an attributable source. The most attributable sources include the director, the writer(s), and cast member(s) explaining a difference between the film and its source material, especially why there was a change. Also attributable are film critics' reviews that observe differences, which are usually significant to notice, but reviews will not usually explain why there was a change in the adaptation process.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] Future films

Further information: User:Bignole/Future films and reference guidelines