I have recently submitted an update for Fahrenheit 9/11 (UPC 043396086708) that expectedly sparked som unnecessary rude comments in the no votes. The thing is that most documentaries doesn't include a credit list for the people that appear, so instead the profiles are filled up with undocumented and uncredited (not marked as such, mind you) people appearing in archive footage - most of it ripped from IMDb. For instance in Fahrenheit 9/11, Robert DeNiro is appearing in a fraction of a second, standing behind Al Gore on some old TV footage, shown in the movie. This apparantly gives him a credit in DVDP.

The rules do not really cover this, so some sort of clarification would be nice. My view is that these "archive footage" do generally not belong in the profiles. None of these people "act" in or have anything to do with the movies in which they are credited - the director just used some footage where they appear, coincidentally or not. I have even seen a guy get a credit because he sings a (non original) song on the radio somewhere in the movie. Next, we might as well start crediting people who appears on posters shown in the movie or who are merely mentioned. To me, people appearing in archive footage do not belong in the profiles.

As the rules don't say anything about this, what I did with Fahrenheit and have done with others is to go through the movie itself and credit people interviewed for the movie with their name and title (where the title goes into role description field), for instance "Byron Dorgan as Senator in Subcommittee on Aviation". This, in my opinion, is the closest we get to a credit list and works quite nice I think in contrast to random archive footage credits that are rarely verified and just ripped from imdb.

I would like to hear your thoughts on the subject and since I respect your opinions on the subject, I expect you to respect mine.

I do not intend any disrespect but since I am one of the no voters, and because I personally don’t consider them to be “unnecessary rude comments”, I thought it important to include them in this discussion:

Sorry, "mikl doesn't think they belong here" does not appear in the rules.
Sorry but I agree with the others.
People in archive footage are often included
no
if they are identifiable, you can leave them in, in my opinion


Edit: I thought I should also include the contribution notes:

- Cast verified from credits. Removed non-original composers and uncredited cast.
- Removed all archive footage people from the credit list. They did not appear in this movie, they appeared in some random footage that ended up in this movie so I don't think they belong here. All interviewees, interviewed for this movie is instead listed with the title they have in the movie, in the order in which they appear.

In my opinion we should refrain from entering uncredited cast members in documentaries - be it archive footage or interviews/appearances.

(Just imagine how many hits Adolf Hitler would get if we were to enter him in each WWII Documentary. )

Quoting Berak:

Quote:

(Just imagine how many hits Adolf Hitler would get if we were to enter him in each WWII Documentary. )

Interesting point, I hadn't thought of that.

I agree with Mikl that this issue does need clarification. Since the rules do not specifically outline what should be done, like Jon I'm going to have to think about this some more.

Here I go, back to the neutral voting until I can make up my mind! 

I personally wish the rules would just get updated to get rid of uncrediteds. It should be exactly what appears in the opening and ending credits, and in some cases what appears in the credit block on the packaging, exactly as credited in all of those places, end of story.

Instead, we have people searching for things like one second sceenshots "PROVING" that a person is there and adding the credit, etc.

Since the rules allow it though it's just something you have to accept for the online data.

ok just checked farenheit 9-11 on imdb and there must be over 30 names that is listed as uncredited including this dude:

Max Schreck ...  Graf Orlok - from 'Nosferatu' (archive footage) (uncredited)

looks like imdb just simply lists every single person who has shown their face in this movie.

I still stand by my decission that not in the credits not in our credits.

Quoting Grendell:

Quote:
I personally wish the rules would just get updated to get rid of uncrediteds. It should be exactly what appears in the opening and ending credits, and in some cases what appears in the credit block on the packaging, exactly as credited in all of those places, end of story.

Instead, we have people searching for things like one second sceenshots "PROVING" that a person is there and adding the credit, etc.

Since the rules allow it though it's just something you have to accept for the online data.

I agree - to a point, but we should be able to enter obvious cameo-appearences like Peter Jackson in 'LOTR-trilogy' and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kathy Bates in 'Around the World in 80 Days'.

Quoting Dvdjon:

Quote:
Actually i believe that the rules for actually getting credited in a movie in the states is that you say atleast 1 sentence. If you do not have this or your only word is ugggggggghhhh (and fall over dead) you wil be listed in the production as an extra and this is not something you get your name on the movies end credits. I bet this is the same for documentaries. wich in turn would mean that deniro is not supposed to be credited in farenheit 911

Yeah but then you get people insisting that Arthur C. Clarke get added to 2010 and stuff like that.