Posts for Oscar-nominated shorts programs?
January 18, 2019 11:15 AM - Subscribe
Following the release of Oscar nominations, ShortsTV usually arranges theatrical and streaming releases of the films in the three shorts categories. I've made posts for these in the past, but the past two years I've run into technical issues. Are these posts worthwhile, and if so, can anyone suggest a good way to handle these?
Although the posts have garnered only a handful of comments, I'm pleased with what discussion there has been, and if these draw more attention to Oscar-nominated films that are often overlooked, I'm happy for that too.
In 2015 and 2016 I was able to post the full set of three: one each for the animated, live action, and documentary shorts. In 2017, I was able to make a post only for the animated program, even though I had posts mostly drafted for the other two. The other two were not coming up in the FanFare submission form when I searched, or even input the IMDb URL. (An IMDb entry that is findable by MetaFilter is required for a Movie FanFare post.) Once the Oscars had taken place, there didn't seem to be as much point in posting them. I didn't pursue the issue further at that time.
In 2018 I had drafted one for the live action shorts, when I was contacted by another MeFite asking if I was planning to do them. I explained the situation and encouraged them to go ahead and draft posts for the other two categories, if they wanted to. That also gave me the nudge to contact the mods asking about it, and they explained that for Reasons, FanFare actually doesn't query IMDb directly, but a third-party site which scrapes IMDb data, and there can be a lag between the time a movie gets an IMDb entry, and the time the third-party site gets it, and then FanFare can find it. (Mods or anyone else with knowledge, feel free to correct this if I'm misunderstanding, or add further details.)
For most movies it isn't an issue since they get IMDb entries months, possibly years, before their release, but with the Oscar shorts compilation, they can't get an IMDb entry until the nominees are announced, and then ShortsTV formally announces their release as a compilation, then there's a lag for IMDb to review and approve the information (I've submitted some of them myself in the past, a non-trivial exercise as IMDb wants quite a bit of information; the lag at that stage may be a few days to a week), then apparently a longer lag for the third-party site to pick it up, making it findable by FanFare. In 2018, none of the IMDb entries for the compilations were available on FanFare by the time of the Oscars, so none of the posts were made.
The 2019 Oscar nominations are scheduled to be announced on January 22, and I'm anticipating the announcement of the release of the compilations some time after that. Do people feel these posts are worthwhile? If so, I'm interested in hearing ideas about how to do so, given the technical limitations.
One option would be to make a post for each individual short - those should already be in IMDb, so they should be postable - but that would mean 15+ posts, fragmenting what little discussion there is, and I think part of the fun is comparing the nominees to each other within each category, which wouldn't work as well with a separate thread for each nominee. Any other thoughts?
Although the posts have garnered only a handful of comments, I'm pleased with what discussion there has been, and if these draw more attention to Oscar-nominated films that are often overlooked, I'm happy for that too.
In 2015 and 2016 I was able to post the full set of three: one each for the animated, live action, and documentary shorts. In 2017, I was able to make a post only for the animated program, even though I had posts mostly drafted for the other two. The other two were not coming up in the FanFare submission form when I searched, or even input the IMDb URL. (An IMDb entry that is findable by MetaFilter is required for a Movie FanFare post.) Once the Oscars had taken place, there didn't seem to be as much point in posting them. I didn't pursue the issue further at that time.
In 2018 I had drafted one for the live action shorts, when I was contacted by another MeFite asking if I was planning to do them. I explained the situation and encouraged them to go ahead and draft posts for the other two categories, if they wanted to. That also gave me the nudge to contact the mods asking about it, and they explained that for Reasons, FanFare actually doesn't query IMDb directly, but a third-party site which scrapes IMDb data, and there can be a lag between the time a movie gets an IMDb entry, and the time the third-party site gets it, and then FanFare can find it. (Mods or anyone else with knowledge, feel free to correct this if I'm misunderstanding, or add further details.)
For most movies it isn't an issue since they get IMDb entries months, possibly years, before their release, but with the Oscar shorts compilation, they can't get an IMDb entry until the nominees are announced, and then ShortsTV formally announces their release as a compilation, then there's a lag for IMDb to review and approve the information (I've submitted some of them myself in the past, a non-trivial exercise as IMDb wants quite a bit of information; the lag at that stage may be a few days to a week), then apparently a longer lag for the third-party site to pick it up, making it findable by FanFare. In 2018, none of the IMDb entries for the compilations were available on FanFare by the time of the Oscars, so none of the posts were made.
The 2019 Oscar nominations are scheduled to be announced on January 22, and I'm anticipating the announcement of the release of the compilations some time after that. Do people feel these posts are worthwhile? If so, I'm interested in hearing ideas about how to do so, given the technical limitations.
One option would be to make a post for each individual short - those should already be in IMDb, so they should be postable - but that would mean 15+ posts, fragmenting what little discussion there is, and I think part of the fun is comparing the nominees to each other within each category, which wouldn't work as well with a separate thread for each nominee. Any other thoughts?
Okay, so if you send your post(s) to me (or to the mod of your choice!) I will post it as a special event. Then in a week or two, when imdb catches up, frimble will manually change it to a "movie" and add the imdb info etc. so it'll be easier to find in the proper category later. They also might be able to change the "poster" from me to you if you want, but I intended to be like "post written by DevilsAdvocate" anyway. :)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:54 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:54 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
Wonderful! The posts will likely wait at least until the ShortsTV programs are announced, as they typically add additional films beyond the nominees to the animated shorts program.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:35 AM on January 21, 2019
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:35 AM on January 21, 2019
ShortsTV has announced that the theatrical release will begin Feb. 8, and the streaming release Feb. 19. I'll try to get posts to EM on or about Feb. 8.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:57 AM on January 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:57 AM on January 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:25 PM on January 18, 2019 [1 favorite]