More Movies = Less Movies

As I've rebuilt my movie library -- I did a stupid and accidentally deleted almost everything -- I've also added new content to the library.

As a reminder (or for the first time if you haven't read the previous posts) I have been collecting the unriffed versions of the movies featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000. So that would make it a rebuild with additions.

Oh, and the fact that in order to get some of those movies, I'd have to buy "50 Great Schlock Sci-Fi Classic Duds!" (or names something similar) which left me with a few dozen extra films that I wasn't seeking. But, hey, I had them. I put them in the "burn" pile (yes, it should be the "rip" pile, but "burn" pile sounded better) and rip them out when I had a few minutes. With everything lately, I've had a few minutes.

Anyway, I got the library from 1,525 before the deletion to over 1,600.

As I've mentioned before, the original number immediately became lower because of the reorganization of the music library. Using iTunes running on Windows as the video server, I could have Movies, TV shows, and Home Movies. That's it.

With Plex (the reason for moving everything that led to the accidental deletion) I could categorize much better. Disney or Warner Bros. shorts were now in a separate category, no longer all counted as "Movies." And the MST3K episodes became TV shows, whereas in iTunes, they were Movies. So, a few hundred drop right off the bat. But, I still kept adding.

The other day -- it may have been over a week, I don't know -- it suddenly hit me that I could utilize the "extras" feature of Plex. That's where you can add "Behind the Scenes" features, deleted scenes, interviews, etc. They even have an "Other" section. And suddenly, after all this time, I realized that I didn't need to have separate movies for the theatrical release, the "Director's Cut" or "Special Edition," or any variety of different versions of movies (think original Gamera, U.S. edit of Gamera, and the Sandy Frank edit of Gamera). I could pick my primary version (usually the theatrical cut) and place the other versions as extra in the same directory on the drive. Name it correctly and Plex plays real nice with that.

One effect of that was to lower the overall number of movies, even with more movies. Which means these 21 files (once renamed like this) became extras, rather than their own movie.

• Alien (Director's Cut)-other.mp4
• Alien Resurrection (Special Edition)-other.mp4
• Alien³ (Special Edition)-other.mp4
• Aliens (Special Edition)-other.mp4
• Blade Runner (The Final Cut)-other.mp4
• Bride of the Monster (Color)-other.mp4
• Dreamgirls (Director's Extended Edition)-other.mp4
• Gamera, The Giant Monster (Original)-other.mp4
• Gammera the Invincible (U.S. Edit)-other.mp4
• Gamera vs. Barugon (Original)-other.mp4
• Gamera vs. Gyaos (Original)-other.mp4
• Gamera vs. Guiron (Original)-other.mp4
• Gamera vs. Zigra (Original)-other.mp4
• Plan 9 from Outer Space (Color)-other.mp4
• RiffTrax! Star Wars - A New Hope-other.mp4
• Rifftrax! Star Wars - The Force Awakens-other.mp4
• RiffTrax! The Wizard of Oz-other.mp4
• Stripes (Extended Cut)-other.mp4
• The 40 Year Old Virgin (Unrated)-other.mp4
• The Exorcist (Extended Director's Cut)-other.mp4
• To The Stars By Hard Ways (2001 Remaster)-other.mp4

So, even though I increased the number of movies, I also cut back by combining different versions of the same film into one entry. Which works better for me.

My total number of movies is at 1,586. And yes, that's more than I started with. But, it's less than the number got up to along the way. I passes 1,600 movies a couple of times along the way. I'd pass the 1,600 mark, notice where I had separate entries for movies, combine them, then watch the number drop back down.

I've highlighted some of the milestones along the way: 1,000 movies, 1,500 movies, but this will be the first time that I've actually had an accurate count of what I think of as a movie. And I'm 11 short of 1,600.

And who knows? I may not ever hit 1,600. It's not like I have many to go to complete the MST3K Unriffed collectino (two, by the way), and they ain't making a lot of good movies any more.

Besides, I do need to watch what I already got.