We called it "FRBR-inspired" since it probably wouldn't pass muster as
an orthodox FRBR interpretation. We were looking to experiment with a
practical approach that we thought would make it much easier for patrons
to discover moving images in libraries and archives. If you haven't read
it, the "about" page gives a general overview of our approach at
http://blazing-sunset-24.heroku.com/page/about
Our top level is a combination of FRBR work information and information
about what we are calling the "primary expression." We haven't made any
internal distinction between these two types of information. This
enables us to record together the data that we think people expect to
see about the generic moving image and reflects the sort of information
that is given in IMDb, the All Movie Guide, and film and TV reference
sources. This is also the data that we would want to re-use in every
MARC record for a manifestation of a given movie.
This also allowed us to get around some of the areas of more orthodox
FRBR modeling that we found unhelpful. For example, FRBR doesn't allow
language at the Work level, but we think it is important to record the
original language of a moving image at the top level. In addition, RDA
has mapped a number of functions, such as art director, costume designer
and performer, to the expression level. We would prefer to present these
at the top level. It is hard to imagine a version of Gone With the Wind
with a different costume designer or cast that would still be the same
work. So all the Seven Samurai data you listed above belongs either to
the work or the primary expression.
We mingle expression, manifestation and item information in the version
facets on the right. We don't show any explicit expression records. In
this demonstration we are not actually identifying any unique
expressions, although in the future we will probably want to do this for
what I think of as "named expressions." Since this is a demo, we are
working with a limited number of attributes and the only
expression-level facets we provide are soundtrack and subtitle
languages.
In this sense, our approach is similar to the near manifestation idea
that Simon mentioned. We are not trying to assert that we have
identified particular expressions. Rather, we are trying to provide a
mechanism for the user to identify the set of items that meet their
needs. It is not clear to me that libraries are always in a position to
accurately identify expressions.
Rather than providing a hierarchical view where the user selects a
work, then an expression, and so on, as is common in FRBR presentations,
we permit the user to begin at any FRBR level. The user is invited to
limit by as many characteristics as they desire to delineate the set of
things that they are interested in. They only need to select as many
attributes as are important to them and no more. This may not meet the
needs of all scholars, but we hope that it will meet the vast majority
of general purpose user needs.
It's a bit of a different approach than I have seen elsewhere, but I
think it works particularly well for moving images. One of the main
reasons I think this is because of the types of expressions that
predominate in commercial moving images. I will try to explain some of
my thoughts on types of expressions below.
1. Expressions that can be reduced to controlled vocabulary options
These are the most common types of commercial moving image
expressions, especially in the DVD era. They are distinguished by
characteristics that such as
Soundtrack language(s)
Subtitle language(s)
Accessibility options (captioning, SDH, and audio description)
Aspect ratio (although in this era of widescreen TVs, full screen
modifications are less common)
Colorization
Soundtracks for silent films
These can be full described based on standardized data (although for
the silent film soundtracks, this would involve multiple pieces of
information, i.e., musical work, composer, conductor, performer(s),
etc.)
DVD often contain what essentially are multiple expressions in that
they offer multiple soundtrack and subtitle options and may offer
multiple aspect ratios. A silent film on DVD may come with alternate
soundtracks. All of these can be combined in various ways by the viewer,
which can make for a large number of expressions contained in a single
manifestation.
2. Named expressions
These are versions that are different in moving image content due to
have been edited differently. Examples include
Theatrical release
Director's cut
Unrated version
Although Martha Yee found a strong correlation between differences in
duration and the likelihood that two things represented two different
expressions, this doesn't always work. The archetypical example of Blade
Runner was released on DVD with five different versions
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versions_of_Blade_Runner), all of which
had run times
