Site Takeover Question: How Do You Arrange Your DVD Collection
Thursday, September 9, 2021 at 12:30PM It's the Christopher James Site Takeover Day!!!
Hello Film Experience readers!
Nathaniel is on his way back from Venice to New York right now, so the site belongs to me for the next 24 hours (or until he gets wifi and tells me to stop)!
The past year of writing for The Film Experience has been a dream come true. I've been reading the site for over a decade (hence the bags under my eyes) and have enjoyed all your comments so much. Thus, I'm mining for more...
Here's a special question from me, my partner, my parents and my home decorator... How do you organize your DVDs and Blu-Rays?
I can remember the first movie I bought. It was The Emperor's New Groove. My Dad had just won a DVD player at a golf tournament (the only way we would've upgraded from a VCR) and I was obsessed. I built my collection through saving up chore money and babysitting paychecks. Now, my small Los Angeles apartment is bursting through the seams.
Of course, no one can just go alphabetically. You have to make it interesting. Here are some of my favorite shelves.
The Big Little Lies Shelf
Yes, this was made in a certain time and certain place. Still, I love having the works of Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley, Zoe Kravitz and Meryl Streep displayed, in chronological order my actress. To complete it all, a Meryl Streep candle. God bless. Yes, "The Princess Diaries" by Carrie Fisher seems random, but she's connected to Meryl and I ran out of room elsewhere. My house my rules.
The Best Picture Shelf
Okay, Oscar obsessives. I know we all have this one. The collection is spotty at best. My parents bought Crash back in 2005 and unfortunately I care more about filling up the shelf with as many Best Pictures as possible. Get a look at the "I Love the 80s" wrap for Terms of Endearment. This is one of two copies of All About Eve, because yes, I am both very gay and very forgetful.
Criterion Closet Cabinet
Who doesn't love a good Criterion set? I will say, I've opted for a Criterion Channel membership, but can't help but schill out for their sales to fill with movies that have gone off the service. Who else loves Criterion?
High School Memory Lane
Does anyone else keep their yearbooks? I won't scare you with photos from the late 00s. Instead, I thought it would be fun house them with some of my favorite high school movies from over the years. From Rebel Without a Cause to Easy A, the genre sure has gone through a transformation.
There are other shelves filled with other themes (Female Directors, LGBTQ+ Movies, Foreign Language Films, The Extended Nancy Meyers Universe, TV Seasons + Real Housewives Memoirs). One's home should be a reflection of one's self - the good, the bad, the ridiculous.
So let's hear it readers, what are your favorite pop culture displays in your house? How do you organize your physical media?
Burning Questions, DVD, Home, Reader Questions
Reader Comments (17)
I loved reading this. As someone with a massive physical media collection, it's been difficult to organize. Mostly, I organize individual movies in chronological order - by year on IMDB. Then, within each year, they are organized by personal preference.
That works for three floor-to-ceiling bookcases, but the collection has grown too big to be contained thusly. There's also the matter of box sets and specific collections. So there's another set of shelves for box sets. The first shelf is for historical movements or national cinemas - like a box for early Soviet cinema. Then I have two shelves dedicated to director-themed sets and one for boxes curated by actors.
There are shelves for my Masters of Cinema and Criterion editions, ordered by collection number.
Finally, I separate DVDs from Blu-rays, have a special area (on the corridor outside my room) for TV series, and keep some movie series together - Collections of shorts, The Godfather, Kill Bill, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Cornetto Trilogy, etc. - separated from the chronologically ordered shelves.
Some special editions are always moving because they're too big. Like a Titanic collectors edition, a giant Harry Potter box, and the Godzilla Criterion book/box set.
I may have a bit of a problem :/ Did I mention I currently own over 600 films on Blu-ray and DVD that I still haven't watched? I promise I'm not completely deranged.
I always get confused looks when people ask me how my blu-rays are arranged and I say they’re in “emotional order”. They’re very loosely organized into pre and post-80s but after that it’s kind of a free for all. Not chronological or alphabetical, but instead I have titles grouped together that feel thematically or aesthetically similar and some are grouped together because they share a genre. Franchises are kept together and I try to keep movies with the same star or director near each other as well. Criterions have their own similarly convoluted shelves.
I’ve also run out of shelf space, so newer blus are just stacked on top of each other on my desk. DVDs are kept in books.
Basically it’s a mess, but it makes sense to me! lol
I guess I'll be the boring one to say... alphabetically by title. Otherwise I will forget where a movie is located. I *do* have separate shelves for collector editions, special editions, boxsets, multi-season TV shows, etc. but I also try to keep them roughly alphabetized.
I know someone who arranges by color though. I know people do that with books, but I don't see many people do that with DVDs so that was interesting.
I never got into Blu-ray but I actually got rid of 99 per cent of my DVDs a few years ago because I was fed up of watching movies in subpar quality. If I want to watch something now I either buy it on YouTube, Amazon or stream it via 'unofficial' means on my big TV. I keep the DVDs I have kept in alphabetical order.
I love your ordering - especially the Big Little Lies shelf.
I order by year. It just feels easier, and more in line with how I want to watch films.
Ok - I am boring and just have them in alphabetical order. I do have my criterion collection separated though. I love the idea of an Oscar shelf.
I would typically put them in a shelf below the TV in no particular order, since I could usually scan them quickly and find the one I want. But now with our baby crawling around, there's a daily "pull them down from the shelf" session and they're always in a pile on the floor every morning. I told my wife we should start a game -- whichever movie the baby pulls down first, we'll watch it next.
I don't have an appropiate place to put my DVDs and recently an aunt gave me a box with more films so basically all of them are mixed in no particular order here and there.
I'm looking for a furniture to put my films, music, comics, books and drawing stuff but I haven't find one that convinces me in terms of measures.
I want to get a furniture first, I will worry about the organization later.
For me, much of my collection is organized by filmmaker's last name and then the film of its earliest release date. It's kind of like this on my list minus box sets while there's other films I have in my collection that aren't by established filmmakers/auteurs but I list them in alphabetical order.
Another question for you: who's the framed photo above the television?
First things first, The Extended Nancy Meyers Universe is an ICONIC name for a shelf.
Second, my organization has changed a LOT over the years. I used to sperate my collection by film studio (Disney, Fox, Paramount), but that got way too Disney heavy. Then for a while I did it by genre, and that confused me a lot because sometimes a movie is multiple things at once. Nowadays, I have them in the following:
1. Oscar Winners/Nominees (by year, then Best Picture winner, then BP nominees, then other winners/nominees)
2. Personal Canon, or The Movies I Love More Then I Love Myself (order is usually by year, but sometimes I like to rank these ones)
3. Criterion Collection
4. TV
5. Mom and Dad's (movies I know my parents will watch)
And the rest are by genre and then by year. One day I'll go through THOSE and organize them by sub-sections.
@Claudio: Wow, I am jealous! That sounds like an incredible collection. With 600 movies you've never seen, I can only imagine the decision paralysis once you get some free time to watch something.
@thefilmjunkie: I love the concept of "emotional order!"
@Ryan T: My partner just did the organize by color with his books and it does look great! Definitely worth a try (though I could definitely see it behind hard to find stuff.
@Paranoid Android: Let's hope the baby has good taste, lol.
@thevoid99: That is such a good idea to also keep a Letterboxd list of what you own. I might have to do that now! (also great list)
@James From Ames: The framed photo is of Diane Keaton circa the 70s. I like to think she's watching movies along with me and offering commentary.
@CALonBway92: So glad you love the Nancy Meyers Extended Universe idea! Having a Mom & Dad section must be so handy. What falls in your Personal Canon?
Hi Christopher!
What a fun topic for an article! I love a nice display. Even though DVD shelves sadly feel like they're growing ever more quaint and old-fashioned, much to my chagrin, I love them. For me, they are just as much a part of necessary decor as stylish artwork or groovy lighting.
I try to organize by my favorite actresses--Jennifer Jones, Greer Garson, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Anne Bancroft, the two Julies--Andrews and Christie--Ellen Burstyn, Diane Keaton, Marsha Mason and Jessica Lange. My pride and joy.
Since I moved most of my DVD collection is in boxes. I do have all 93 Best Picture winners displayed in a case in my living room, and I love seeing them all together. My best friend looked at them one day and said "It really bothers me that these aren't in order." They are in chronological order - my friend probably had no clue. Lol
I've got the same Academy Awards book. I open it up and read sections at least once a week.
A week late to the party, but this is a topic near and dear to my heart, and was so thrilled to see so many systems similar to my own, which my friends often find inscrutable.
I also organize chronologically. I have an enormous collection (with even more unwatched movies than Claudio!) and it's the only system that makes sense to me. As I try to explain to people, I'm often in the mood for some Pre-Code or '40s noir, or '80s camp, etc. I'm rarely in the mood for something that starts with R.
Every time I try something new it spirals out of control. I've tried actress sections, but my head explodes trying to decide where A Map of the World goes (Sigourney or Julianne?!?! Should I get a second copy?). Or Walking and Talking (Heche or Keener?!?!) I have a panic attack even thinking about The Hours! So I stick to chronological.
I designed and built my own adjustable shelves to hold it all (with my Dad doing most of the actual carpentry.)
AND I, TOO, HAVE A FRAMED PICTURE OF DIANE KEATON ABOVE MY COLLECTION!
(But mine is her laughing on the beach from Something's Gotta Give.)
I have had most of my DVDs in a folder (alphabetised) as I have lived in various places where taking an entire collection wasn't possible. Despite living in the same place for nearly three years, though, and I just didn't have the space so they sit next to the telly. I do, however, have a few special ones like my SHOWGIRLS box-set and a few other random ones I have collected over the last few years sitting alongside my blu-rays, which are not as numerous although I have recently begun purchasing physical content again for certain titles I expect to watch again or just want to have around. The blu-rays currently aren't in any order beyond "there is one at the front on each row that I can see" and those are usually David Lynch ones although atm its BARB AND STAR with Twin Peaks and DRIVE. When I am in a bigger place and can find a proper shelf for them I will do so.