contribution declined: badly formatted

The rejection is probably due to this rule, which is mentioned in the 'Tips' in the contribution form: "Different roles for the same person within the same department should be submitted as different credits."

If you submit both occupations separately, they will then be combined with '/' when displayed on the site.

Thanks for the reply, Peter.   I very much appreciate your attempt to figure this out.  Since you used the word 'probably', I'll assume you don't work for IMDB.  

I tried a different approach to my problem, for just one of the episodes (out of 63 of the particular show) before I found this forum.  I just checked and that contribution was declined!!

CAMERA DEPARTMENTEDIT

Before

After

Unable to verify?!?!  And before that it was just 'badly formatted'.  

Are you kidding me IMDB??

I worked on that show for five seasons.  Am I supposed to submit over 600 call sheets?  I have no idea who entered the incomplete existing credit I have for 'How To Get Away With Murder'.  I'm only trying to correct it to reflect the job I did.  

I've finally figured out how to upload "evidence" (pics of call sheets) of my claim that I did the job I did, and apparently, unless I do this for all 63 episodes, plus seven more for another show, the form won't allow me to submit for approval.  That little exercise has taken the better part of two hours.  There is no way I have the time to do this for nearly 70 more episodes, with no guarantee it'll work.   Besides, some AD's never added Steadicam to my name on some call sheets.  How do I get my correct job recognized then?

Can someone please, in plain English, explain how to efficiently get this fixed?

Thanks for your time.

- j

Hi hancamera -

I reviewed your most recent episode credit updates for "Entourage" and can confirm that the have been rejected as our editors have verified that the on-screen credit is displayed as "Camera Operator".  The same is correct for the episodes of "How To Get Away With Murder', we will need to reflect the role that you were credited under for the on-screen credits which was "camera operator".

I hope this helps clarify.

Well, first off, Michelle, it's so nice to hear from a real person at IMDB.

Now, may I ask: how do I get my proper credit, for which I worked my ass off, attached to the shows for which I did that work?  

Are you telling me that just because some random production office worker didn't go to the trouble to verify credits before sending them to post, I can't be recognized for the work I did?

IMDB is a monopoly.  Nobody looks at resumes.  If my page doesn't show it I effectively didn't do it.  Well, the pains I suffer from, after YEARS of work on set, tell me that I did do more than simply operate a camera on 'Entourage' and 'How To Get Away With Murder'.  

PLEASE, tell me how I can get proper 'B Camera Operator/Steadicam Operator' credit for those shows.  There has to be a way.  Do you want a note from my D.P.?

Thanks.

- j 

I think following quotes from guidelines are relevant here [link]:

We list the on-screen credit only, please. It may have been well known on set that someone was the "key production assistant" but if the credit roll says "production assistant" that's what we list.

And this:

Unless radically different, credited work on a movie supersedes similar uncredited work on the same movie. For example, if you were a stunt driver and a stunt rigger on a production and received on-screen credit (and are listed on our site) as "stunt performer", your existing credit already covers your work on the movie. There is no need to submit an uncredited stunt driver or stunt rigger entry.

Hey mbmb,  thanks for responding.  I guess imdb staff doesn't have time.  

After years of my credits being listed by some magical process I wasn't a part of, forgetting about it, then years later noticing I had some errors, I rushed into trying to fix them by stumbling through the process.  Which I have to say is a torturous exercise at best.  I mean, what other organization has an online 'community' of regular folks do their customer support?  None that I've ever delt with.  A bonus frustration is the fact that it is, as you know, entirely separate from the main iMDB site!  The sign-up, new password, verifications, etc., etc.!!  Then there's the whole process of adding, correcting, deleting credits.  It feels like I'm trying to work out how to get on the internet, in 1995.  

Don't get me wrong, you, Von and Peter have been more clear in your suggestions and solutions than the one staffer that responded.  Still iMDB, why not help out your users directly?  I'm no different than the many thousands of crew members that work such long hours we can barely see straight to drive home.  Since iMDB is really the only place everyone ever goes to look up a prospective crew members work history, I'd like to hope iMDB would do a solid for the people who actually do the super hard work of making the content iMDB (Amazon, I suppose) most likely profits handsomely from: the working crew.  We're overworked artists, not IT specialists.  

Now, after having to mess with my filmography update for way too long, I'm faced with looking thru 70 TV episodes worth of credit sequences to check their claim of being unable to verify my credit.

Many thanks for your help, mbmb, Von & Peter!

Zero thanks to you, iMDB.

Some general ”rules” when adding occuptions to IMDb:

- Occupations are usually listed as they’re credited in the actual on-screen credits. If the end credits says just ”camera operator”, IMDb prefers that (and not e.g. ”camera operator: b-cam”, ”b-camera operator”, or something else).

- Different occupations are listed separately. For example ”camera operator” or ”steadicam operator” are two different things (related for sure, but still different). So no credits that bundle different occupations (for example) ”lighting technian/lamp operator/electrician”.

- Occupations are listed in lower case, EVEN when there are many examples that show otherwise. So ”steadicam operator”, not ”Steadicam Operator”, or ”Steadicam operator”.