Talk:Asian Americans (film series)

Length Of Article

The 5 hour docuseries Asian Americans covers a large range of topics spanning from the 19th-21st century. While the summary portion is fine for giving a base understanding of the episode topic, I felt that if anyone wanted to find material on certain events or people within individual episodes the content section must be more detailed than the summary, which is why this article is so lengthy. The content section also serves as a way for people who have already watched the documentary to go more in depth about the mentioned topics on wikipedia. --CarCai (talk) 15:47, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

@CarCai: I appreciate what you're saying, but describing the documentary in too much detail can make it a derivative work and in violation of copyright. Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Film § Documentaries says that The synopsis should describe the on-screen events of the film without interpretation, following the same guidelines that apply to a plot summary (see WP:FILMPLOT).

If we extend this and follow WP:TVPLOT as a guide, you can have episode summaries of no more than 200 words per episode, or alternatively 500 words for the full season/series. Although local consensus may allow for this to be exceeded somewhat, the present summaries in the article (933, 767, 736. 704 and 705 words) would seem to be of excessive length. Reidgreg (talk) 20:35, 14 August 2022 (UTC)

After looking at the resources you cited, I think they actually point toward the conclusion that the length is appropriate. WP:FILMPLOT states that "Plot summaries for feature films should be between 400 and 700 words. The summary should not exceed the range unless the film's structure is unconventional, such as with non-linear storylines, or unless the plot is too complicated to summarize in this range."

Even though each individual episode of Asian Americans (documentary series) may not meet the typical length for a feature film, PBS classifies the entire series as a "five-hour film series." Following WP:FILMPLOT with the knowledge that each part is its own film within a series, I think it would put the summaries of each episode pretty close to the acceptable 400-700 words range. Moreover, WP:FILMPLOT allows for length exceptions when the "the plot is too complicated to summarize in this range," which this series falls into since it juggles multiple storylines and events that span across 100+ years in 5 hours. CarCai (talk) 16:42, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

I'd be okay with that, especially if you can add to the lead (with citation https://www.pbs.org/weta/asian-americans/ ) that it's a documentary film series. – Reidgreg (talk) 05:18, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

Requested move 14 August 2022

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved to Asian Americans (film series) and Uprising (TV series). The guideline is clear that "documentary series" isn't preferred, and based on the minimal participation here it seems that these disambiguators are most apt—feel free to start a follow-up RM if something else would be better. (closed by non-admin page mover) Extraordinary Writ (talk) 03:07, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

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• Asian Americans (documentary series) → Asian Americans (TV series)
• Uprising (documentary series) → Uprising (TV series)

– Note that Asian Americans (TV series) is currently a redirect to Asian Americans (documentary series).
These are the last two articles with the disambiguator (documentary series), the others having been migrated to (TV series), (TV program) or (film series). Per Wikipedia:Naming conventions (television): Do not disambiguate by genre or format, i.e. "sitcom", "telenovela", "soap opera", etc., unless further disambiguation is required. Uprising (disambiguation) lists no other TV series (standalone episodes only) and there is no DAB page for Asian Americans (a nav template at Template:Asian Americans lists nothing which conflicts). I believe that these are series rather than programs, because each has a connected narrative and is more serial than episodic. – Reidgreg (talk) 21:11, 14 August 2022 (UTC) — Relisting. – robertsky (talk) 10:34, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for bring up that (documentary series) is not common disambiguator, I hadn't realized. Since PBS classifies the series as a "five-hour film series" and that we agreed to use the WP:FILMPLOT guidelines for the length, I think it would be appropriate to change the disambiguator to (film series). CarCai (talk) 19:24, 18 August 2022 (UTC)

Support Asian Americans (documentary series) → Asian Americans (film series) –  Reidgreg (talk) 13:50, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.