I meant to make note of this when hitting 1000 DVDs but time kind of kept rolling and I found myself 7 movies further along before putting this post together. So, 1007 titles. It all started in December 2001 when I had asked for a DVD player for Christmas and had already started buying DVDs to replace my then 100 VHS tapes. Not quite 7 years later I've crossed the thousand mark and have acquired quite an extensive and diverse collection of work that I like to refer to as my library.
I used to receive a lot of flack from my folks, especially in my early uni days because of the money I'd spend on movies. I understood their point, but really, all students have their vices. For some it's booze, some it's fast food, and mine just happened to be DVDs. I can't remember the number of times that I used the excuse that because I was in film production, DVDs were really like my textbooks. That's true, but it's also clear they weren't the most financially responsible choice (especially back in the beginning when they were $20 and up).
Now-a-days, I'm a previously viewed buyer and because I've acquired most of the movies that I had on my wish list, most of my purchases are either pre-1980 films or recent releases. Keeping track of all these flicks can be difficult, but thankfully I'm a pretty organized guy and have all my films databased, referenced, and alphabetically catalogued in binders. A bit obsessive? Maybe a bit, but it's tough not to care about the films that I've spent thousands of dollars on.
The nice thing about having my films in a database is that I can easily share some of the statistics about the films I love and the collection itself. So, here goes!
- There are 1007 titles in my collection.
- With a total of 1361 actual discs.
- A total length of 146852 minutes.
- It would take approx. 102 straight days to watch all the movies.
- The average year of the collection is 1993.8
- The years I have the most movies from are 2005 and 2006, both with 80 titles.
- Top 5 directors in my collection: Steven Spielberg (18), Charlie Chaplin (11), Robert Zemeckis (11), Woody Allen (9), Martin Scorsese (9).
- Time it took to reach 1007 DVDs: 6 years and 9 months.
- That's 2.9 DVDs purchased per week since December 2001.
- I was 17 when I purchased my first DVD which was Mel Brook's Spaceballs (1987).
- Oldest movie in the collection: The Kid (1921) directed by Charlie Chaplin.
- DVDs by decade: Pre-1970 (98), 1970s (38), 1980s (130), 1990s (225), 2000s (516).
- 17 Genres in my collection: Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Crime, Documentary, Drama, Fantasy, Holiday, Mockumentary, Music, Science Fiction, Sports, Television, Thriller, War, Western.
- Most common genre: Comedy (253)
- Least common genre: Mockumentary (13)
- 48 Academy Award Best Picture Winners
- Oldest Oscar Best Picture in collection: Grand Hotel (1933)
- Most Recent Best Picture in collection: No Country for Old Men (2007)
- And yes, I have watched every DVD I own. Some only once, some tens of times, and the majority somewhere in between.
So there's a handful of tidbits regarding my DVDs, and there doesn't seem to be any sign of things slowing down. Although over the years, whenever I told people how many DVDs I was at, they'd always assume the next time I saw them that I must have several hundred more movies. I bet from the date of this post if you add 3 DVDs per week to whatever date, that will be the current total.
I don't have a single favourite movie, but if you're interested the Desert Island Flick entries I've been writing on this blog are all about the movies I own and love. Happy flick watching!
9 comments :
Damn, Luke! I think you have too much time on your hands compiling these stats.
Good luck in our BotB!
I find some director commentary tracks to be like a film school course. Got any favorite commentary tracks?
Very impressive Luke! As you yourself said, however, as a film student and now 'out there on your own' film maker, if anybody's justified in buying movies, it's you!
.....I think we've got about 200....
Well, Luke, I must say, I'm very proud of you. But the real question remains . . . how many April O' Neil's in the original packaging do you have? Or for that matter, Suzanne Summers' autographs? . . . that's what I thought. :-)
Matt - I'll take the credit, but the database did the work :)
Jason - As funny as it may seem, the first director commentary that I really enjoyed was Chris Columbus' on Mrs. Doubtfire. It was obvious he prepared what to say, and had really insightful things about what the scenes meant, why he shot them the way he did, and generally really elaborated on the production aspect. For a film that isn't full of special effects, and is a comedy for that matter, I thought it was a pleasant surprise.
And I completely agree that many of the special features on dvds are film course material.
Kath - haha, thanks. My parents eventually came around to the idea when they started treating my collection like a free video store.
Tyler - I do not own an April O'Neil in the packaging. I do have the opened version in one of the old toy boxes, and soon you'll have an open version as well . . . next visit i promise.
That is a lot of movies Luke, I bet I'd be close if I counted all the ones that I have burnt for codec play on the computer or legally backup copied discs as for my actually DVD collection I'd be in the 200 range. I love special features and of all my DVD's have watched most of them all the way through including these features. I have a thing for box sets and also have a reasonable TV on DVD collection. Some I haven't watched yet but am slowly getting to. Favorite commentaries are defiantly from the Special Edition "Seven". The full length commentaries and features commentaries give great insight as to what they were thinking and doing even to go as far as to say the type of film they shot on, the process and at point the f-stop. Others would be the comedy commentary on Anchorman and a lot of the stuff in the Matrix box set.
Based on TC's Q I want to make sure you own the Ninja Turtles trilogy. If so is it worth me getting it? I remember it being entertaining and would like to see them again but fear the re-watch experience I had with Howard the Duck. Also I would like to eventually get the X-files series and movies someday.
Also FYI you can write off a percentage of DVD purchases and rentals and other art goings now that you work. Don't do all of them and only do the ones that apply to what you do just in case you get audited. But if you plan on doing another buick show and happen to by Easy Rider...
Lastly what are you going to do when Blu-ray takes over?
Damn! That's a ton of movies! I think I own...10? Sad, I know!
I forgot with your stats are they all Proportional?
As in percentage of the directors actual work rather than numbers. It seems to me you own more directors that have more work to choose from. I think a percentage would be more accurate as to your likings. I am open to a sway due to sheer volume like a 5 point upgrade for ever 10 films.
Same with your Genre's. I'd like to see a percent to totals. As in The world produces 253 comedy's every year while only 13 Mockumentaries. This would give us insight as to stylistic tendencies you prefer.
M, you're going to have me write an essay! As to some of your questions, it's tough to give accurate percentages for how many films of a certain director I own, or how many genres in terms of how many were released, because all I can really accurately compare to is what amount of the 1007 DVDs that they make up.
Chaplin for instance has hundreds of shorts, some of which I own in a box set, but in my collection I've added the box set as 1 title. And then for Back to the Future, for instance, I've included each of the 3 films as seperate titles, and not just as the box set.
In terms of my genres, I've broken my dvds down into what best describes them too me. Animation and Television for instance can easily be comedy or drama, but I've chosen to divide them up into their own seperate groups. I don't have any overlap to try and keep more accurate percentages as to the significance of each genre. As to my stylistic tendencies, I can easily say that I watch comedy most regularily, and the fact that I own 13 mockumentaries and have given them their own genre instead of just adding them to the comedies, should speak to the fact that I enjoy those a lot too.
When Blu-ray truly takes over, which doesn't seem to be happening all that fast, I'll start buying them. Although because I'm quite happy with my DVDs (I mean there were good reasons to upgrade from VHS) I don't see myself making a complete transition. I'll have a mix of both. When I think about how long it took for some of the older movies I really wanted to come out on DVD, I already know that certain TV shows and movies may never be released on blu-ray.
Anyways, hope that explains a bit more.
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