BASICS

Destinations

Attributes

Alternate Cuts

Background

Films go through several cuts before being released. The most common of these are known as rough cuts (also known as workprints) and editor’s cuts. A Director’s Cut, therefore, is just one of several cuts that can exist whilst a "final cut" is being produced.

The Director’s Cut is a version that typically better represents the director's original vision. Since most directors aren't given "final cut" privileges, it is the studio that dictates the version that gets released. A Director's Cut is usually released after the film has had an initial theatrical run.

Data Considerations

Director’s Cut (DC) versions utlise different metadata and imagery to present and market the movie, this also has implications in the context of consumer search & discovery. These subtle differences need to be considered when managing these types of titles within a catalog. These differences can include:

• Title

  • Original: Kingdom of Heaven
  • DC: Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut

• Synopsis

  • Original: Still in grief over his wife's sudden death, village blacksmith Balian (Orlando Bloom) joins his long-estranged father, Baron Godfrey (Liam Neeson), as a crusader on the road to Jerusalem. After a perilous journey to the holy city, the valiant young man enters the retinue of the leprous King Baldwin IV (Edward Norton), which is rife with dissent led by the treacherous Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas), who wishes to wage war against the Muslims for his own political and personal gain.
  • DC: Experience Ridley Scott’s original vision for the historical action epic - Kingdom of Heaven. In the twelfth century, blacksmith Balian travels to Jerusalem, a city seething with religious wars. He transforms into a defending warrior who saves the city and its people. The Director’s cut includes an additional 28 minutes of previously unseen footage.

• Release Year

  • Original: 2005
  • Director’s Cut: 2006

• Cast & Crew

  • Addition of previously omitted scenes can introduce additional contributors, as removal of scenes can remove contributors. Therefore the Original Version and DCs may have different Credit Lists.

• Imagery

  

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  Title Identification • EIDR

  Despite a DC having it’s own unique metadata and image requirements, the industry preference (and EIDR best-practice guidance) is to register DCs as child entities (Level 2) of the original release title. This can add some confusion & complexity when mangaging titles and metadata, as Level 2 EIDR IDs are intended for Asset Identification, and typically all metadata, credits and imagery are associated with the Level 1 EIDR.

  • Level 1: Abstraction: Kingdom of Heaven
    • Level 2: Performance: Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut

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  Director’s Cut in Fabric

  Fabric offers a 1:1 hierarchy mapping of EIDR Levels against it’s titles and asset management:

  • Titles - Level 1 Abstraction EIDRs
  • Assets - Level 2 Performance EIDRs

  Fabric Asset containers are typically configured to manage asset & component-related metadata (frame rates, duration, bitrate, etc.) and not attributes relating to title records (Release Year, Country of Origin, etc.). As such, DCs need to be handled differently to Original Versions and the Fabric best-practice guidance is as follows:

  • Titles
    • The Original Version is stored as a Title in Fabric, and is matched with the Level 1 Abstraction EIDR. All of the typical metadata and imagery for the Original Release is stored against this title.
  • Assets
    • A specific Asset Type “Alternate Cut” is created and matched with the Level 2 Performance EIDR that has been registered for the DC. This container still represents a video asset, and presents the typical asset & component related metadata fields. For Alternate Cut assets specifically, additional fields are recommended which are: Cut Type (Director’s Cut, Extended Edit, etc.), Synopsis (250 Characters), Synopsis (1,000 Characters) & Release Year. This enables DC specific metadata to be associated directly with the version.
  • Cast & Crew
    • If required, an Alternate Credit List is created in the Cast & Crew Tab for the DC and this is linked to the DC asset via the Asset ID.
  • Imagery
    • If there is Artwork & Imagery specific to the DC, these are added via the Images tab and link to the DC asset via the Asset ID.

  This allows for Directors Cuts to be managed in line with industry norms, EIDR best-practice and also for unique and distinct metadata and imagery to be delivered via the Fabric API.

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  Additional Edit Types

  The same concepts presented above can be used to manage other similar release types like Extended Edits and International Release versions. It’s common for International Releases to have localised Artwork and Alternate Credit Lists.

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  Limitations & Other Considerations

  • This solution allows for a number of distrinct core attributes (Credit Lists, Synopses, Imagery) to be associated with the DC, however the remainder of the data attrbiutes will be from the related Original Version (Country of Origin, Primary Language, etc.)
  • Additional business logic is required to generate the required normalised delivery payload from the Fabric API in the case of Alternate Cuts.
  • Any Synopses included in an Alternate Cut Asset automatically inherit the Language specified within the Asset container.
  • The Alternate Cut Asset Type, Synopses and Release Year configuration are supported in Fabric today.
  • Alternate Credit Lists are being released April 2023.
  • The Image & Credit list Asset ID links are due for release in May 2023.
  • The Fabric EIDR integration performs registration and lookup against Level 1 EIDRs only, as such Level 2 EIDRs need to be populated either manually of via the Asset Management Integration.
  • Dependent on the historical management of DCs there may be additional logic required for initial data laods and migrations.