Get Out Your Handkerchiefs:
Researching Film Melodrama
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs:
Researching Film Melodrama
Gary Handman
ghandman@library.berkeley.edu
3-8666
1. Describe the types of writing and research
about film
2. Introduce selected sources for finding books
and journal articles in film studies & related
fields
3. Discuss how to select article databases (and
determine what’s in them)
4. Discuss how to develop search strategies
5. Practice using these skills (if there’s time)
Writing About Film…
Scholarly/
In-depth
Current
Pop and fan
Industry
Historical
Film Scholarship & Film Criticism
Movies = 100+ Years
Film Scholarship = 50 years
William Dickson (Edison labs)
invents The Kinetoscope
1889
1950’s
1960’s
Film Studies
Film Scholarship
1895
Writing
film&=Louis
fan and
industry
perspectives from the beginning
Brothersabout
Auguste
Lumiere
stage
1st public film screening, Paris
Sources for Film & Scholarship and Research
•Periodicals (aka magazines,
journals, serials…)
•Newspapers
•Reviews
•Critical/Scholarly Articles
•Books
•From schlocky to scholarly
•Biography, genre writing,
individual films, individual
directors
•Web Sites (more about this
later…)
•Other online databases
Periodical Articles:
Reviews? Critical Writing?
What’s the diff?
Reviews:
•Assessment of aesthetic and content merits of a
film
Found in popular periodicals, film periodicals, and
(less often) in more scholarly journals (not to
mention EVERYWHERE on the Web)
In pop periodicals: Current and Historical (older)
Usually cover current releases, more pop theatrical
releases
Tend to be relatively short and relatively
superficial (with some exceptions and depending on
the publication and who’s doing the writing)
An important source for determining audience and
critical reception at time movie was released.
Periodical Articles:
Reviews? Critical Writing? What’s the Diff?
Critical analysis:
Discuss films in:
broader historical, cultural, political, artistic
context and/or
Focus on a specific aspect of a film, film
genre, or filmmaker
Found in books and scholarly or film-related
journals
Tend to be longer, more substantive than reviews
(with some exceptions and depending on the
publication and who’s doing the writing)
Often include notes, bibliographies, other
scholarly apparatus
Books
•Scholarly/authoritative works
•Pop schlock and fan works
How Do You Tell em’ apart?
• Author’s credentials/affiliations
• Publisher (e.g. BFI, AFI, University
Presses vs pop press)
• Scholarly apparatus and sources:
notes, bibliographies, other
documentation
• If they’ve been widely cited by other
scholars
…But how do you locate this stuff?
Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)
The Information Universe
Library Catalog(s)
Journal/Newspaper
Indexes (article databases)
Library Catalog(s)
oPathfinder: UCB Library holdings only
oMELVYL (CDL cat): All 9 UC Campuses
•An inventory of what the library owns
•Search by Author, Title, Subject
•Whole books and print and electronic
journals, NOT what’s inside of those
publications
The Information Universe: Books
Look it Up in Pathfinder or MELVYL by Author, Title, or Subject :
Cavell, Stanley, 1926-.
Contesting tears : the Hollywood
melodrama of the unknown woman /
Chicago : University of Chicago Press
1996.
UCB Main
1996
Call #
Get da Book in da Stax
PN1995.9.W6.C38
The Information Universe: Finding Articles
Article Databases
(Indexes/Abstracts)
•
Allow subject/author searching in
a group of journals in a particular
discipline or topical area.
•
Produced by different commercial
publishers; often look/act
differently from one another.
Articles/Reviews
(how do you find this
stuff?)
Article databases
(aka Indexes)
Film-related (not many exist)
General news
Literary and Arts
Other disciplines: e.g. Women’s
Studies, American Studies, Ethnic
Studies, History…etc.
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
If neither…use Pathfinder
to look up the JOURNAL
Choosing an Articles database (index)
•Look at the listings of article databases
available via the library www.lib.berkeley.edu:
includes listings by SUBJECT, NAME, etc.
•General Databases are often good places to
start (particularly for newsy/topical issues)
•Film Studies web site:
www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/filmstudies
All databases are not created equal (or by the same company)…
Gary’s Desert Island
Index/Article Database List
GH Desert Island
Index/Article Database List
•MLA Bibliography
•Academic Search Complete
•FIAF Index
•Art Index / Art Index Retro
The Information Universe (Now)
Online is Cool
But Remember: Not everything is online!!!!!:
•Article Databases: Generally only go back 1020 yrs online (some exceptions – e.g. Historical
Newspapers)
•Not every publication is indexed
•Fairly small (but rapidly growing) subset of the
books and journal universe is currently available
in full-text
The Information Universe
Remember Also:
•Not every topic has lots written about it,
either in books or journal lit.
--Research on very current topics
--Research on radically specific topics
--Research on topics off the beaten
academic track or off the pop culture
radar
The Information Universe
What to do if nothing is turning up:
•Tweak your topic: Broaden it / select a
different angle
•Rethink your search strategy (new keywords,
new concepts, etc.)
•Bail out completely and choose another topic
How to Begin? Before you click: THINK
•Formulate a concise, concrete statement of the
research problem
•Formulate your search in terms of
keywords and key phrases:
The impact of television advertising
and television violence on school
performance and pre-adolesecent
social interaction.
How to Begin? Before you click: THINK
•Think of synonyms for key words/phrases
Academic achievement
Grades
…etc.
Commercials
Ads
…etc.
Children
Youth
Adolescents
…etc.
The impact of television advertising
and television violence on school
performance and pre-adolesecent
social interaction.
Media
TV…etc
Socialization, relationships,
peer interaction…etc.
A few cautionary words about research on the Net
The Net
Google
Rocks!
LibraryLand
Gooooogle Scholar???
Common Search Features:
•Basic and Advanced Search Screens
•Trunction: “wild card” that allows you to scoop up
broader results:* # or ? Depending on db
--e.g.: Advertis* will give you:
advertise,
advertising,
advertisers,
advertisements
•Search by keyword or by phrase
•Search specific fields (e.g., SUBJECT, TITLE)
•Use of AND, OR, NOT
<Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson>
< Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen>
< Bob Dylan not Bruce Springsteen >
Common Search Features:
--Save list of good stuff
--Mail Articles/Citations to yourself
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).
Connecting from off-campus
…being driven over the
edge
by your research?
Call me:
Gary Handman
643-8566
ghandman@library.berkeley.
edu