ANSWERED: Double entries short films

Hi Sabsi_123,

Thanks for your message. It is dependent on whether any of the episodes in the series is made up of films that only exist in this format i.e. don't have other title pages and were only released as this series. If that is the case then we would consider listing the series but the episodes as "shells" with no data attached linking to the main film via a movie connection. In this case if there are existing title pages and there was no additional editing to the "episodes" then the series should be removed as it breaches policy.

We do not handle youtube channels well within our current title type structure. Sometimes it can be the best way to list the content but that is entirely dependent on the factors involved and the release format in each case.

Regards,
Will

As far as I can tell, "Film School Shorts" is nothing but a platform via which film school students can distribute their films to a larger audience. There is no editing to the episodes neither are they alternative versions. It seems "Film School Shorts" acts as a sort of distributing platform for student films from all over the US. They are not involved in producing or making the short films in any ways. They upload student films after a submission and selection process, which more reminds me of a film festival (without the actual ceremony) rather than a TV-series.

It looks to me that none of shorts wer specifically made for the platform, however, I cannot tell a hundred percent that each short film shown on the website/youtube channel (and appearing as an episode from "Film School Shorts" here in imdb) also has a corresponding single title entry on imdb. Still, I did some random episode checks for the "Film School Shorts"-series entry and all of them also have a single title entry (as already mentioned in my OP).

The examples of my OP show that all mentioned short films had far earlier release dates than when they were released on the platform, showing that they weren't explicitly made for "Film School Shorts".

Therefore, I say, since there are single title pages for the short films, that "Film School Shorts" is not the premiering platform for these films and that no editing or any altering of the films is taking, I say that the "Film School Shorts" entry is actually breaching policy, as you put it.

Giving this a bump, but also ask for some more input on this matter from other users/contributors. Maybe anyone is more familiar with the platform and can give some insight.

I don't know. It seems like the same situation as with the P.O.V. (1988) and a number of other series.

Thanks for pointing out similar series listings. I don't know about the background of "P.O.V.", but due to its age, I doubt that it is just a youtube channel and can therefore not really be compared to "Film School Shorts" in terms of eligibility. However, this also needs to be cleaned up, since double entries in a person's filmography for the same title are not allowed on imdb. This means that an entry for the film alone with all info should be listed, while the series level entry remains "empty" of all cast and credits information (except for tile and release date of course).

Hi Sabsi_123,

I've done a spot check and it seems that a lot of these episodes don't have an obvious duplicated listing on IMDb. If this is the case then we should retain the series listing and convert any known duplicates into shell episodes. Given your knowledge of the title and any known duplicates do you mind doing so?

Regards,
Will

I am okay with going through "Film School Shorts" in terms of looking for duplicates. However, P.O.V. is at 29 seasons, that's a lot of work.

Anyways, I would need instructions on how to create shell episodes. I thought, such cases were supposed to be forwarded to the help desk so this can be taken care of. What is the correct way to ask for coverting an episode into a shell episode?

Thanks Sabsi. So there are two ways; you can either merge the episode into the existing film and add a new episode without any credits with a trivia item and a movie connection linking to the original OR if the data already exists on the film entry strip the episode of any credits and add a trivia item and a movie connection linking to the movie.

Regards,
Will