Talk:Bush Pilot: Reflections on a Canadian Myth

Year

My only concern, once again, is that you may run afoul of Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Film#Categories, which specifically says that categories for films by year are for films "that came out in" a given year, not produced in such a year. I think the logic is WP:V. While the NFB maintains a well organized database that lists films by year of production, most private producers do not, and so the decision was made, years ago, to categorize by year of release -- a much more easily verifiable attribute. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 00:09, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

I still think that using dating that is at variance with the NFB record, makes it more difficult for the user/viewer/researcher to find this film, especially if looking by year of release. FWiW Bzuk (talk) 03:54, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

I don't think that's a practical problem. People don't tend to search for individual films by browsing the film by year category -- it's massive. They use the search window, or more likely find it by Google. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 04:21, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

The example I started with is The Defender which is such a commonly used title that it is hard to differentiate which film, except by release date, then you run across The Defender (1988 film) which is found on various sites as The Defender (1990), The Defender (1989) and so on, only to realize the best source of information is the NFB website, with the Wikipedia article falling closely behind. That's why I am struggling with the whole dating conundrum for National Film Board productions. It's an interesting enough issue to actually ask for a discussion to occur and possibly to create an "exception to the rule" stipulation. FWiW Bzuk (talk) 14:33, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Then by all means you should open a discussion at the Categorization project, if you want. However, I don't expect you'll have much success: the NFB is but a tiny speck in the global film production scene, and regardless of the reliability of their website, I think you'll have an uphill battle trying to get Wikipedia to move away from year of release, based on your concerns over a handful of articles. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 14:45, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

I am not actually proposing a change in categorization or in how films are titled by release date, only to recognize that the National Film Board which has somewhat of middling size collection of films, from shorts to feature length productions, and most if not, nearly all have no problem in being identified by the "official" date of release, includes some exceptions, two of which I have "bumped" into: The Defender (1988 film) and Bush Pilot: Reflections on a Canadian Myth. FWiW Bzuk (talk) 15:32, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

I don't know how much you've participated in WP:CFD, but I think what you may have in mind is a much bigger issue that you imagine. Consistency is prized above all in categorization schemes. I understand what you mean better than you may know, as I created an NFB film article some time ago where I'd categorized it as a film year based on the NFB production site, and I'm pretty sure Bovineboy came along and changed it, too. I was miffed, to be honest, but then came to see that this is simply how it's done, here. I'll certainly watch this with interest! best, Shawn in Montreal (talk) 15:43, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

See Further discussion on this topic. (Yes, I am actually enjoying a discourse that has not turned into rants or divisive bantering!) FWiW Bzuk (talk) 16:19, 3 October 2014 (UTC)