[Data-modeling] Made-for-TV Movies

[Christopher R. Maden]

Faye Li wrote:
> 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

I debated with myself at some length on this when fleshing out the 
_Babylon 5_ pilot, _The Gathering_ 
(<URL:http://www.freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f800000000037240f 
 >).  It helped to note that IMDb treats feature-length TV movies just 
the same as theatrical releases and straight-to-video films.

The approach I came up with is this:

• A feature-length TV production should be a film.

• A pilot aired separately from the series (as _The Gathering_ was) 
should be just a film, not an episode.

• A feature-length pilot aired as the first part of a series, especially 
if broken into parts for broadcast, should be a film and an episode. 
(The real episode-test is whether it can be considered as part of a 
season.  This dual-typing should be a fairly rare case; Faye is right 
that it is inconveniently duplicated.)

• A normal-length episode produced as a pilot is just an episode.

• A miniseries is a short TV series, not a film.

So for Faye’s examples, the _BSG_ mini is a TV series; _Love Comes 
Softly_ is a film, distributed via Television; and that _Jane Eyre_ is 
also a TV series, not a film.

Another litmus test: if it was made to be viewed in pieces on 
television, it is a television series; if it is made to be a single 
motion-picture work, it is a film.

IMO,
Chris
-- 
Christopher R. Maden
Data Architect
Metaweb Technologies, Inc.
<URL: http://www.metaweb.com/ >