Wikipedia:Filmographies and Discographies
Wikipedia:Manual of Style :: Wikipedia:Filmographies and Discographies
This is just a first draft. Please fell free to modify and perfect it.
What are filmographies and discographies? A filmography is a list of film of all the films that an actor has acted in/ director created/producer produced etc. A discography is a list of all the albums that a musician has created. Wilkipedia contains many filmographies and discographies.
A standard format helps to make the list easier to read and edit Keeping to a standard has the obvious advantage of making it easier for the reader to compare and contrast different articles and for subsequent authors to build upon a filmography when it becomes out of date.
A standard format helps to reduce the possibility of breaching copyright Many people think that facts cannot be copyrighted and therefore filmographies and discographies contain no copyright. It is true that facts do not contain copyright, but the layout and sort order of the facts do contain copyright. If you just copy and paste a filmography or discography then you will be breaching copyright. However if the facts are placed into a Wilkipedian layout and sort order then they will be free from copyright.
The standard for filmographies and discographies I based this standard upon what is most common practice in Wilkipedia.
1. Each object on the list should be marked by a bullet point not a number.
2. The list should be on the same page as the article about the author.
3. The list should contain at least the title and date of first publication.
4. The list should be in descending chronological order. This means that the most recent film/album should be at the top of the list and the earliest film/album at the bottom.
5. When more than one film/album lands upon the same year then they should be sorted alphabetically.
NB: Using a spreadsheet is one of the easiest and most reliable ways to sort a list.
Example Filmography
Below is an example of a model filmography for Natalie Portman:
- Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
- Where the Heart Is (2000)
- Anywhere But Here (1999)
- Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
- Beautiful Girls (1996)
- Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
- Mars Attacks (1996)
- Developing (short) (1995)
- Heat (1995)
- Léon (aka The Professional, aka The Cleaner) (1994)