Identifying every actor in a cast (See: Aveleyman)

Anyone here familiar with Aveleyman? Their goal is to identify as many actors as possible, in as many titles as possible, with a screenshot for each. This is helpful when you are unable to figure out who played who from the cast list alone. (How many character names stick in our heads?)

Here's a sample of what they do: https://www.aveleyman.com/FilmCredit.aspx?FilmID=15933

Notice at the bottom that they even have a picture of someone they CAN'T identify, in the hopes that a contributor will supply the name.

I'd like to see IMDb do the same: encourage contributors to identify every actor in a title with at least one screenshot, posted in the image section.

Responses

bderoes

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117.6K Points

5 years ago

I love the idea, but can't imagine doing that for every title I watch. Or even 1 title a day. Not all the way down to the last cast member. And the stars probably don't need the extra images.

Since you included Happy Go Lovely (1951) by your emoticon, I looked it up on that site:
https://www.aveleyman.com/FilmCredit.aspx?FilmID=8008&Extra=Y
The star of the film, the titular character, is not included in the cast list!
But she is on the site.
https://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=79709

jay_spirit

938 Messages

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28.3K Points

Aveleyman has an enormous database of screenshots, but it is still missing information that IMDb has had since the 1990s. I'm not sure, but I think one guy runs it, and a handful of contributors add data to it.

HAPPY GO LOVELY needs work, for sure. Small cast list, and NO pictures yet, even though pictures are the point of the site.

You can tell they have a small, eclectic collection of contributors. GONE WITH THE WIND and CASABLANCA are still missing pictures, but a Swedish TV show or an obscure silent picture could have every face accounted for.

5 years ago

bderoes

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Happy Go Lovely has plenty of pictures, including the male leads: David Niven & Cesar Romero. Vera-Ellen was not listed AT ALL for the film.

Yeah, the site is awkward. Had to go to the Home page to Search, and never saw an opportunity to contribute - not that I wanted to.

5 years ago

jay_spirit

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28.3K Points

It took me a long time to figure out how to contribute, which is via their message board system. My first submission was published and the second was ignored; and then I gave up. Still a very useful site, but IMDb could do it better.

Those are the profile pictures of the actors on HAPPY GO LOVELY; they aren't actual screenshots from the movie. You can better see how Aveleyman does things in this example. The actual screenshots are large. The profile pictures of the actors are small. For that movie - DR. X (1932) - they are missing four screenshots, hence four smaller pictures.

5 years ago

eboy

2.5K Messages

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69.1K Points

5 years ago

This site is probably best suited for the older films where only selected (main) cast was credited. A film like ”The Revenge of Frankenstein” (1958) has probably around 15 ”uncredited” actors and these are not necessarily just background extras or people without any lines.

jay_spirit

938 Messages

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28.3K Points

Aveleyman can do a surprisingly thorough job on new titles and titles with lots of uncredited actors. Sometimes they identify background actors who can only be seen in a tiny part of the frame. Some titles even have a raft of unknown actors waiting to be identified.

Even still, IMDb could do it better.

Image: https://prod-content-care-community-cdn.sprinklr.com/26653d1b-7bb8-47bf-ac21-90f16f2e4b48/RackMultipart20190828866953o06-6b1ab65e-d9d2-4d44-ba59-70eb58a093eb-933229925.png1567004438

Image: https://prod-content-care-community-cdn.sprinklr.com/26653d1b-7bb8-47bf-ac21-90f16f2e4b48/RackMultipart20190828866953o06-6b1ab65e-d9d2-4d44-ba59-70eb58a093eb-933229925.png1567004438

5 years ago

MykolaYeriomin

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243.6K Points

5 years ago

Being a film fan I am very much familiar with Aveleyman, but I have mixed opinion of it nowadays: it's a great and valuable reference material to check when it comes to identifying actors on one hand, but on the other some of the uploaders have an odd idea of how to do it and are spamming filmographies with several screenshots of same actors in the same role. Some cases also look like they were heavily photoshopped for little to no reason (and it's seemingly not a fault of botched restoration, just a screenshot preference of uploader), which is also a hard thing for me to digest...

When it comes to Soviet and Post-Soviet movies Kino-Teatr.ru does a similar job more or less well and is a great tool if you want to make any sense of credited and uncredited cast in such.

jay_spirit

938 Messages

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28.3K Points

I like that they have multiple shots of the same actor, especially the ones in smaller roles. Until I see certain actors at multiple angles and in different costumes, I'm still not sure I'm thinking of the right person.

The trouble is that Aveleyman is such a primitive site that it has no option but to present them all in a long column on the same page. A more up-to-date website could give you the option of clicking on a character to see more images of him.

5 years ago

jay_spirit

Identifying every actor in a cast (See: Aveleyman)

bderoes

jay_spirit

bderoes

jay_spirit

eboy

jay_spirit

MykolaYeriomin

jay_spirit

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