Quoting Magmadrag:

Quote:
Not sure if I should post this here or create a new thread as this could be a new tool - if even possible.

The difficulty for the possibiliy is that we don't list the death dates anywhere. If available, Luigi lists them, but if not.....

And I got to this as I had to find out that "Peter Cook (1937 - 1995)" is credited in several profiles as an actor after his death (e. g. "Terra Nova")

So if we would have any list of death dates a tool would be interesting to check out cast & crew, if they are credited after their death. That's only possible for "archive footage". The only chance to question if the credits could be correct is "Production Year - 90 > Birthyear".

It's only a thought (for a future far far away^^) but another way to find out probably wrongly used cast & crew

At this point, anything is on the table. It is a new tool so we can do whatever we want. I will be in London for a week with my Son and family, so I will enjoy having some kind of project to play with when the kids are asleep.

For whomever might be interested, here is the code so far:

(1) Create a master dictionary of cast and crew credits in the local database

The key is: "Cast_fn_mn_ln_{by}" or "Crew_fn_mn_ln_{by}"

The dictionary entry is an instantiation of the  CastCrewEntry class:

        class CastCrewEntry
        {
            private string _FirstName = "";
            private string _MiddleName = "";
            private string _LastName = "";
            private string _Part = "";
            private string _CreditedAs = "";
            public string FirstName
            {
                get => _FirstName;
                set => _FirstName = "" + value;
            }
            public string MiddleName
            {
                get => _MiddleName;
                set => _MiddleName = "" + value;
            }
            public string LastName
            {
                get => _LastName;
                set => _LastName = "" + value;
            }
            public string Part
            {
                get => _Part;
                set => _Part = "" + value;
            }
            public string CreditedAs
            {
                get => _CreditedAs;
                set => _CreditedAs = "" + value;
            }
            public int by = 0;
            public bool Voice = false;
            public bool UnCredited = false;
            public bool Puppeteer = false;
            public int CreditType = 0;
            public int CreditSubType = 0;
        }


(2) Create a dummy profile placeholder for the newly created credits
                    DateTime date = DateTime.Now;
                    string DummyTitle = "Cast and Crew Dummy Profile";
                    string dummyID = "M" + date.ToString("yyyyddMMHHmmss");
                    dVDInfo.SetTitle(DummyTitle);
                    dVDInfo.SetProfileID(dummyID);
                    dVDInfo.SetProfileTimestamp(date);
                    dVDInfo.SetDVDReleaseDate(date);
                    dVDInfo.SetCollectionType((int)PluginConstants.COLLTYPE_WishList);
                    DVDPFauxAPI.FauxAPI.DVDProfilerAPI.SaveDVDToCollection(dVDInfo);

(3) Now scan the master credits dictionary in a loop (this is what I will be trying to speed up)

When an entry has a by>0, then I synthesize a key, using "{0}" for by. If found, I move on.

If not found, I extract the CastCrewEntry object from the dictionary, set by=0, then add that credit (cast or crew) to the dummy profile and save it. Since there was no such credit in the database, this causes a new entry in the database table for cast or crew (at least I think it does).

Continue for all entries in the dictionary.
Final save of the profile.
Call for a database resync to update pointers.
Done.

Quoting Magmadrag:

Quote:
Quoting Magmadrag:

Quote:
Not sure if I should post this here or create a new thread as this could be a new tool - if even possible.

The difficulty for the possibiliy is that we don't list the death dates anywhere. If available, Luigi lists them, but if not.....

And I got to this as I had to find out that "Peter Cook (1937 - 1995)" is credited in several profiles as an actor after his death (e. g. "Terra Nova")

So if we would have any list of death dates a tool would be interesting to check out cast & crew, if they are credited after their death. That's only possible for "archive footage". The only chance to question if the credits could be correct is "Production Year - 90 > Birthyear".

It's only a thought (for a future far far away^^) but another way to find out probably wrongly used cast & crew

Second recognition about this: Sometimes it's funny - because it can't be real - to have an actor, BY 1950+ credited in a movie before his birth. Another fact to be checked.... manually work is horrible. When I am done tonight, the BY-list is done for actors up to letter C - and I'd like to say that I had to change/correct more than 100 profiles....

What is in my mind is a tool that has the dummy profile entries, the full set of local cast/crew, the common names, and accepted birth years with the ability to interact and make changes to the database.

What functions could you imagine to be on the context menu (right click) when you select an item from one of those lists? I know it will be easier once you get the tool to play with, but in case you already thought of something.

Quoting Magmadrag:

Quote:
If you would like to enhance your "imagination" how much profiles have to be corrected because of wronlgy used birthyears, just check all your profiles with any "version of "John Moore".

I'd like to say that I had to correct about 70 % of them (most times wrongly used the 1966 insted of the 1968 one).

I will  take a look for education. But I am depending on you for the imagination. I have mostly no clue about this stuff. Writing code and solving problems for people is a hobby and I enjoy it. But I really don't care much about the actual problem in most cases. Of course I need to understand it, but the passion is not there.

Quoting mediadogg:

Quote:
That is not me you are quoting. You know that I know better. Editing the cast and crew comes pretty close to editing a person. You can even make new ones.

Yeah sorry, made a mistake when removing nested quotes and now can't edit anymore because time's up. Was supposed to look like this:

Quoting GSyren:

Quote:
So changing that birth year would not create a new cast record, but either change the birth year for the existing record

In the API you don't really have access to the cast/crew as people. You just can tell a profile that it contains this first, last and middle name with that birth year. There is no way to edit an actual person.

I used to but only for main people. There is a Kevin Smith that used to play Ares on Xena: Warrior Princess and then there is the Jersey guy. But not for any random John Smith I have never heard of and will never look up anyway.

Well, as long as they are the ones with accepted/released Birthyears I think that's neccessary. Or what do we have the BYs for, if nobody cares about their use?

Quoting Magmadrag:

Quote:

Well, as long as they are the ones with accepted/released Birthyears I think that's neccessary. Or what do we have the BYs for, if nobody cares about their use?

You didn't create BYs. Somebody else who cared about their use, did. And other people maintain a website supporting accepted ones. Get a grip on yourself.

I can ensure you, as long as there is data in the dummy profile, it doesn't matter if it is owned, ordered or wishlist. There are a few profiles in my wishlist, and even they are part of the update process.

This way I'd like to say that for the program it doesn't matter where the cast & crew is to find in a profile. As soon as they are anywhere without a BY, they became part of the ACTORS/CREW files.

Not sure if this thought could be integrated in THIS tool or needs another one: You remember a few posts before I had the death date issue. Well, there's the same one with birthyears: I found actors with a BY listed in movies which were produced several years before they were born. But I think this check might need another tool, as I got no logically idea how this issue has any connection to the problem I started this thread for.

Not importand but anyhow confusing and funny: To find out if the actors listed in the profiles are the ones with the right BY, I have to check a lot at the IMDB. And today I reached an actress, allready passed away in 1998, and they list several movies "in planning" up to 2026. I can't imagine that she has been kind of mummified and now only plays dead corpse.