How To Organise Your DVD Collection

Step 2: Genres & Subgenres

A popular way to categorize films is the genre system. In this system you would group films together by their type:
Action
Art
Comedy
Crime
Drama
Documentary
Film Noir
Horror
Romance
Sci-Fi
Thriller
Westerns
War

Think about the types of films you own, are there a lot of a particular genre of film? If that is the case, you could consider breaking them up into sub-genres. For example, if you own a lot of crime films you could divide them into subgenres such as "Gangster" movies, "Heist" movies and "Detective" movies.

Genre can become very vague, and there are whole university modules devoted to what constitutes a particular genre. Don't get too bogged down in this. If you don't know what film-noir is, but you like films with wrestlers in them, create a title called "Wrestler Films". Remember this is your collection so make choices that will help you.

Another problem with genres is the fact that not all films neatly fall into one genre. Is Robert Altman's MASH a war film, or a comedy? It's both, so in these scenarios you can pick the category that you find most useful.

Step 3: Auteurs

You might want to group your collections around Film Directors, in which case use the Auteur system. Films by great Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Goddard and Martin Scorsese can be grouped together under one title card. Again, do this only as it is useful to you. If the movie "Goodfellas" makes more sense in a gangster genre category, than in a Scorsese films category put it there. However, if you are a particularly strong fan of a particular Director it can serve a strange geekish sense of satisfaction to have all of his or her films arranged chronologically in their own section!

Also remember that the Auteur system's fondness for Directors does not have to dictate what goes on in your living room. If you watch films because of actors let them have categories of their own as well. Let's face it, you might not know who Truffaut is, but everybody loves Jim Carrey!

Step 4: Movements

If there is a strong art-house content in your DVD collection, you may want to create categories for different film movements. Title cards such as "French New Wave", "Dogma" and "Neo-Realist" will be useful in this scenario.

Step 5: Geographical

Similarly some DVD collections are best grouped by their country of origin, or by regions, such as South America or European.

In countries with huge film-making institutions, such as the United States or India, it may be worth differentiating between films produced by the studios of Hollywood and Bollywood, and the films made by smaller independent film-makers.

Step 6: Chronological

Within each category you may want to organise the order of your DVDs. There are 2 main ways to do this -
Alphabetically or Chronologically.

Alphabetically categorising films makes it easier to find them when you need them. This is simple and allows others to use your collection without strict supervision.

However, as mentioned earlier, in categories involving film movements, or a particular auteur's work it can be nice to have a visual reminder of the order the works were produced in.

Step 7: Other types of DVD

Create a separate category for other types of DVD's, such as TV shows, Home videos or sport

Step 8: Organising Your Collection

Once you have decided on your categories, you will need to make dividers for the various sections.

Take a DVD box and place it over your divider.

Then write your category title clearly on the card above the DVD box and down the side of it.

Repeat this for the other side of the title card, remembering which parts of the card will be exposed.

When you have completed title cards for all your categories, arrange them alphabetically to help you when you assemble your newly organised DVD collection

Step 9: Storing your collection

Pick where you choose to store your collection carefully. Avoid areas close to heat sources, or potential liquid spills.

It is also worth remembering that DVDs are best stored vertically, as opposed to horizontally.

If your DVD collection is out-growing your storage space, consider putting some categories into DVD wallets. Though not necessarily as visually impressive as wall full of DVD packaging, wallets allow you to leaf through your DVDs in a more relaxed manner.

Step 10: Logging your collection

While you are assembling your collection, it may be an idea to log which films belong in which section, this can be done in a notepad, or on a file in your computer.

Apart from helping those you live with use your collection, you can also use your log to keep track of who is borrowing what from your collection.