Film Research: Primarily Primary
Gary Handman
ghandman@library.berkeley.edu
3-8666
Library Film Studies Site:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/filmstudies/index.html
Film Research: Primarily Primary
Gary Handman
ghandman@library.berkeley.edu
3-8666
Library Film Studies Site:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/filmstudies/index.html
1. Describe the primary and secondary
sources available for film studies and
other media research
2. Discuss how to find this stuff in the
library, using print and online resources
3. Introduce a group of basic moves and
features common to many online catalogs
and indexes.
4. Practice using these features in
selected databases.
Where Does Writing About Film “Live”
•Journals, Magazines, Newspapers
•Reviews
•Fan Writing / Gossip
•Industry news
•Scholarly (or at least serious) analysis
and criticism
•Books
•Scholarly
•Pop schlock
•Hybrids (thorough but popular)
•The Web
•Ezines (pop and more substantive)
•Fan sites, blogs, and sundry weirdness
•Studio sites / other commercial sites
•Licensed commercial databases
Film Scholarship & Film Criticism
Movies = 100+ Years
Film Scholarship = 50 years
1889
William K.L. Dickson
(Edison Labs)
invents the “Kinetoscope”
1950’s
1960’s
Film Studies
Film Scholarship
1889
1895
1903
Writing about film = fan, pop, and industry perspectives
Porter
Brothers Auguste & Louis W.S.
Lumiere
stage
untilpublic
1950’s/60’s
1st
film screening, “The
Paris Great Train Robbery”
•Journals, Magazines,
Newspapers:
•From the birth of the movies on…
•Early reviews often utilize critical
apparatus of theatre and other
performing arts (theatre reviewers
frequently become film reviewers)
Post-1950=
•Pre-1950 – “moving picture play”
expanding coverage reviews, gossip, news
in both pop and
•Fanzines (eg: Photoplay, Motion
scholarly press
Picture Herald)
across disciplines
•Industry news (e.g. Variety)
(Literary journals,
ethnic studies,
•Daily newspapers (eg, NY Times)
women’s studies,
•Pop press (e.g.Time,
political science,
Newsweek,The Nation, )
history, etc.)
Early film writing: Journals and Magazine
…How do you locate this
stuff?
•Listing of pre-1980 film journals
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/
filmstudies/
•At UCB, many broken holdings
•Indexing of titles is spotty at
best
…but first, a
digression…
The Information Universe
Library Catalog(s)
Journal/Newspaper
Indexes
(sometimes aka article databases)
Library Catalog(s)
Pathfinder: UCB Library holdings only
N
MELVYL (CDL
O cat): All 9 UC
Campuses
T
E the library owns, from
•An inventory of what
books and journals, to maps, manuscripts,
B
media…
E
•Search by Author,NTitle, Subject (keywords
E
and phrases)
•Whole books & print and electronic journals,
NOT what’s inside of those publications
Early film writing: Journals and Magazine
•Library indexes in all subjects at:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/
•Film Studies indexes at:
•http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/filmstudies/reviewslist.html
•Best bet general retrospective online indexes:
•Readers Guide Retrospective
(pop journals & Film Quarterly back to 1867.
•Historical Newspapers (full-text including ads!)
•NY Times 1851-current,
•LA Times 1881-1923 and 1999-current
•Periodicals Contents Index (PCI) (first issue– indexing)
Monthly Film Bulletin (1934/1935-1991); Sight and
Sound (1932-1991); Film Quarterly (1945present); Film Review (1944-present), et al.
Once You Find a Citation,
How Do You Find the Journal/Article?
•Some indexes provide
holdings info [UC eLinks]
•Some indexes link to
full-text
Metropolis
Fritz Lang, 1927
If neither…use
Pathfinder to look up
the JOURNAL
holdings
Sources for Film &
TV Scholarship
and Research
…Other useful resources for primary source writing
about film
•AFI Catalog (online credit database that includes
selective cites to articles and reviews)
•British Film Institute, Film Index International
(FII) (selective cites to current and retrospective
reviews and articles—emphasis on Brit pubs)
•NYT Encyclopedia of Film – (print vols in MRC &
Main Reference)
•Hanson and Hanson: Film Review Index 1886-1986
Print: PN1995.F54 1986 in MRC and Main Stax
•Critical/Scholarly Articles
•Film Journals
•Subject-based journals (expanding disciplinary
focus)
•Decent indexing available: check out
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/
filmstudies/index.html
•My Faves:
•FIAF Index
•MLA
•Expanded Academic Index
•International Index to the Performing Arts
•Art Abstracts and Art Index Retrospective
•America: History and Life
Other Primary Source
•Catalogs:
•Motion picture catalogs by American
producers and distributors, 18941908
NEWS: MICROFILM.48027
•A Guide to Motion picture catalogs
by American producers and
distributors, 1894-1908
NEWS: PN1993.5.U6 G85 1985
Subject SearchingL How to Begin? Before you
click: THINK
Formulate your search in terms of:
•KEY WORDS and SYNOMYMS:
--Looks for words anywhere in record: title,
subject, abstract and full-text (if avail)
•PHRASES:
--Looks for words in the exact order entered
How to Begin? Before you click: THINK
Formulate your search in terms of
keyword and key phrases:
Sex and Death in the films of Woody Allen.
The representation of gender and masculinity in the films
of Jim Jarmusch.
How to Begin? Before you click: THINK
Formulate your search in terms of
keyword and key phrases:
Sex [women, love, relationships] and Death [dying,
mortality, fate] in the films [cinema, movie*] of Woody
Allen.
The representation [reflect* portray*] of gender [sex*]
and masculinity [masculin*, male, men] in the films [cinema,
movie*] of Jim Jarmusch.
****
Truncation varies from db to db: * # ?
emigra* = emigrant, emigrants, emigrate, emigration
How to Begin? Before you click: THINK
Formulate your search in terms of
keyword and key phrases:
Sex [women, love, relationships] and Death [dying,
mortality, fate] in the films [cinema, movie*] of Woody
Allen.
The representation [reflect* portray*] of gender [sex*]
and masculinity [masculin*, male, men] in the films [cinema,
movie*] of Jim Jarmusch.
****
Truncation varies from db to db: * # ?
emigra* = emigrant, emigrants, emigrate, emigration
Not finding enough?
•Go broader
•Approach from a different angle
•Rethink/retry search words and
phrases
D.W. Griffith
Judith of Bethulia (1914)
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/FilmBibMenu.html
a growing listing of bibliographies on various film topics
and individual films compiled by MRC (includes bibs for
genres, filmmakers, national cinemas, and individual film).
Media Resources Center:
www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC
…being driven totally psycho by your
research?
Call me:
Gary Handman
643-8566
ghandman@library.berkeley.edu