Wikisource talk:WikiProject Film

So it begins...

Truly it does, now. I think Wikisource theoretically has the capability of being a better source than Netflix or Hulu for movies and TV; the movies are free to view, freely licensed, can be downloaded as files, have complete transcriptions, and our coverage of films amounts to anything even counting as a published film, no matter how old or obscure it is. And our coverage will only expand as years go by; more and more films will be free of copyright, and in fact, in just a few years, the beginning of the talkie era will become public domain, thus beginning the era of public-domain sound films. I think in a decade when lots of sound films have gone into the public domain, that will give more people (at large) a reason to care anything about the public domain. And that'll give the site more traffic! PseudoSkull (talk) 23:55, 28 December 2020 (UTC)

• A number of those films are already in the public domain—but they are especially hard to find, as they are not particularly popular (to not have been renewed). I was going to add a number of films to the lists you have started, but there are so many films—over a hundred with Wikipedia articles from 1908 (the earliest year you started) alone. I note this list of films by a notable director, and think that focusing on directors and/or big-name films (e. g., The Birth of a Nation) would be a good start to this project. TE(æ)A,ea. (talk) 00:26, 29 December 2020 (UTC).

@TE(æ)A,ea.: It's the journey, not the destination. Please feel free to add whatever you'd like, even if it leaves the list by a vast amount incomplete. And yes, I do think that there are some major films that are in dire need of transcription. It's especially discomforting that some other sites have already transcribed the films, so we're not the first to do some of them (but we transcribe more thoroughly). Safety Last!, the Charlie Chaplin films, and Griffith's films which, unfortunately, includes The Birth of a Nation and two other racist-agenda ones (one of which is lost), come to mind immediately as popularly known today, at least among silents that is. But I plan on transcribing lists of films sequentially; if I had to guess, I'll probably do all of Griffith's (available) films post-1913 in chronological order. PseudoSkull (talk) 02:49, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

Edit: Can't believe I didn't add The Night of the Living Dead to that list, probably the most famous example of a PD film in existence. PseudoSkull (talk) 02:53, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

• Of course, any future contributor can add any (public domain) film that they would like, but I was thinking of a more general, WikiProject-wide collaboration effort. In that line, I think a focus on a specific director would be a good idea. If I may ask, why only his post-1913 films? Looking at Wikipedia, he certainly directed a large number of films, especially before then. TE(æ)A,ea. (talk) 16:16, 29 December 2020 (UTC).

@TE(æ)A,ea.: Never mind what I said about "post-1913" as I was only talking about my personal preference for transcribing films with lots of intertitles. I have no objection to having a collaboration on all of Griffith's films—that sounds like a good idea as a first task for this project—especially since I'm pretty sure we have none of his films transcribed here yet. If you would like to do a collaboration, I could compile a task subpage of this WikiProject that is a list of all of specifically Griffith's found films, from all his active (public domain) years. Afterwards you and I could claim individual films within that list to proofread; perhaps we could each take half of them if you would please. We could both verify each other's films that the other only proofread. For example, when we get to 1924 say I could proofread America while you proofread Isn't Life Wonderful, and then I verify Isn't Life Wonderful after you while you verify America. Would you approve of this collaboration? PseudoSkull (talk) 06:24, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

PseudoSkull: I totally missed this, sorry. I would definitely enjoy this; I have already proofread some of Griffith’s films, and I could help compile the list (based on the listing on Wikipedia). I could start after I finish up The Big Parade; I have finished the first hour. TE(æ)A,ea. (talk) 01:20, 23 January 2021 (UTC).

WikiFlix

Hello, everyone, I have been pondering about this for quite some time and after talking to at least Inductiveload about this personally, I know that this is the direction that I want the representation for films on this site to go.

I want to someday soon implement a streaming-service-like interface on Portal:Film and its subportals (which I informally here am calling "WikiFlix"). The film entries and much of the information on them would be sorted/added by my bot User:PastLovingBot on a regular basis. This would be a much nicer-looking representation of our films here in the Portal space, and while it may not be the norm of how things are generally sorted in the portals here, WikiFlix would be more attractive to specifically film-watching audiences. Having a nice interface will also make me feel better about our film portal being linked to on the Main Page, which will give our films the traffic they really deserve.

I didn't invent the name "WikiFlix"; I want to give credit to User:Spinster for coming up with, and implementing a prototype of, the original idea, of a streaming service in the WMF space.

I jotted down some ideas here about some of the features I want to be included in WikiFlix's interface. (I know, those notes aren't too presentable, but I was basically just brainstorming there.)

I have also set some milestones for what film transcriptions I think should be completed before the WikiFlix interface is implemented, please see Wikisource:WikiProject Film/Goal. I did this because I want WikiFlix to have a pretty decent variety of entries at least on the day it is officially implemented. It may look like a lot, but we've gotten quite a good portion of these films done already, so some more work is necessary.

I ideally want to be able to start WikiFlix by January 1, 2022. Note that the traffic to WikiFlix will only increase over the years. I'm very excited to say that in two years, the very first talkies of the pre-Code era (1927 films) will go into the public domain (on January 1, 2023). So to have WikiFlix already implemented by that time would be great.

Let me know what you guys think, or if you have any ideas. @TE(æ)A,ea.: @SurprisedMewtwoFace: @M-le-mot-dit: @Inductiveload: @Spinster: (pinging everyone I think will be interested in this project). PseudoSkull (talk) 16:39, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

@ShakespeareFan00: PseudoSkull (talk) 16:46, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

I'm not the person to ask about streaming. I'd also say WikiFlix has trademark issues given the similarity of the name to an existing brand.ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 16:51, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

You're right, and that is a good point. So some other naming ideas (off the top of my head) would be WikiWatch, WikiFilm, WikiStream, WikiMovies, or just not giving it a name and just referring to it as our Film portal like we've been doing. PseudoSkull (talk) 16:55, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

Better icons

@PseudoSkull: I think the current film icon () is too fiddly for such a small icon: you can't even see the perforations. I think either something minimal like this: , or keep the filmstrip metaphor and use more small-icon friendly version: ? Inductiveload—talk/contribs 09:53, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

Wikisource Eighteenth Birthday presentation

@TE(æ)A,ea., @SurprisedMewtwoFace, @M-le-mot-dit, @Mcrsftdog: Hi, all. I wanted to let you know that the WMF is hosting the Wikisource:Eighteenth Birthday online meeting, coming up tomorrow. I was asked to give a brief presentation about WikiProject Film and the film transcription situation on the English Wikisource. Hopefully some of you might join as participants. Happy editing. PseudoSkull (talk) 13:37, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

Lost film list

Hi WikiProject Film. Pinging the other most active contributor: @M-le-mot-dit: I would like to announce that there is now a fully formatted transcription of 7,200 Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films, which is a list of around 7200 lost feature silents recently and continuously compiled by the Library of Congress in PDF form. There's a search engine at the transcription page and everything, and the list is in the public domain. Please feel free to use it as a quick and convenient resource, for any purpose. PseudoSkull (talk) 07:52, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

Cast and crew automatically shows on film transcriptions

@M-le-mot-dit: and any other members interested... So, I've been working on some major improvements to our film structure by writing some Lua code for the frontend. And, (among several other more minor improvements), this has resulted in Template:Film now automatically displaying the full cast and crew behind all films sitewide. It automatically pulls this data from Wikidata, and will be extremely useful in the future.

Traditionally, in the past, we've only listed directors as authors of films, and only listed contributions as directors on author pages. Now, we have the chance to give full credit where credit is due, to everyone involved in the films!

And now it's time to fill in the gaps. We have a lot of author pages to create now, given that information on cast members, screenwriters, producers, cinematographers, etc. have been universally missing from enWS for over a decade. I've created a few—Author:Greta Garbo, Author:Harold Lloyd, Author:Clara Bow, etc. The biggest film stars, etc., are now free game so go nuts if you want. PseudoSkull (talk) 11:59, 14 January 2024 (UTC)