[Data-modeling] Made-for-TV Movies

[Faye Li]

Hi,

There are about 200 topics in Freebase that are typed as both /film/film 
and /tv/tv_program, a co-typing that was previously deemed incompatible. 
Bryan Cheung and I looked through a few instances of them, and some are 
clearly mistyped, some are feature-length TV episodes or miniseries 
arguably marketed as movies, while others are made-for-TV movies that 
qualify for both types.

So, does the co-typing of /film/film and /tv/tv_program make sense? Does 
it apply to feature-length TV episodes and miniseries in addition to 
made-for-TV movies, or only some of the above? Should there emerge a new 
type altogether (/film/tv_movie? /tv/tv_movie?) for it?

The problem of cotyping is that the two types, for obvious reasons, have 
overlapping properties: producers, actors, etc. I'm not as concerned 
about having to enter the same data twice as I am about the type 
implication of doing so, where the same actor then gets cotyped as both 
/tv/actor and /film/actor, just for being in a TV movie! Ditto for the 
producer. On the other hand, /tv/tv_program has no director property, 
which is attached to /tv/tv_series_episode, and /film/film has no TV 
channel property that is part of the data about a TV movie. So without a 
new type, both types are needed to capture all the data. And by the way, 
when I say I'm not *as* concerned about having to enter the same data 
twice, I mean I am concerned. ;)

Examples:
1) The three-hour miniseries "Battlestar Galactica" that was a pilot to 
the new series, co-typed with the unholy combo of /film/film, 
/tv/tv_program, and tv/tv_series_episode:
http://freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f80000000009aaffd

2) "Love Comes Softly", a Hallmark Channel movie original starring 
Katherine Heigl, poster child (the movie, not her) for the new TV Movie 
type if there would be one, currently typed as /film/film:
http://freebase.com/view/en/love_comes_softly

3) Too many BBC drama series of "Jane Eyre", such as this one, cotyped 
as both /film/film and /tv/tv_program:
http://freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000000c551bf

-- Faye