Transcript Looking for Hitch: A Frenzied Strategy for Research

All Singing All Dancing:
Some Strategies for Researching
Movie Musicals
All Singing All Dancing:
Some Strategies for
Researching Movie
Musicals
Gary Handman
Director
Media Resources Center
Moffitt Library
Writing About Film…
Scholarly
Current
Pop
Historical
Fan
All Singing All Dancing : Some Strategies for
Research
Sources for Film &
TV Scholarship
and Research
•Journals, Magazines, Newspapers
•Reviews
•Critical/ScholarlyArticles
•Books
•Web Sites
•Other online databases
All Singing All Dancing : Some Strategies for
Research
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
All Singing All Dancing : Some Strategies for
Research
REVIEWS
 Current
 Historical
Found in:
•Popular & fan journals and
newspapers (print & online)
•Film studies & scholarly journals
(print & online)
•Web sites
•Fan and enthusiast sites
•Commercial sites (e.g., studio
sites, video distributors)
•Academic sites
Reviews: Current
Use:
•Expanded Academic Index
(fair amount of full-text)
•News Index
•ProQuest (some full-text)
•Lexis/Nexis
•Movie Review Query
Engine (web: full-text)
•Film Review Annual
Reviews: Historical
Use:
• Readers Guide (print)
• NY Times Index (or NYT
Film Reviews 1913-68) (in
MRC) (print)
• Film Review Index, 18821985 (in MRC) (print)
• Film Index International
(CDROM in Main/Moffitt
Only)
• Periodicals Content Index
(online)
Critical/Scholarly Articles
• Current
• Historical
Found in:
•Film studies & scholarly
journals
•Popular & fan journals and
newspapers (but only
occasionally)
•Web sites (even less
occasionally…except for
academic and commercial
databases)
Scholarly/Critical Writing
Use:
• International Film Periodicals Index
(1972—present) (online)
• Expanded Academic Index (1980present) (online)
• Modern Language Assn.
Bibliography (1963-present)
(online)
• Film Index International
(CD-ROM in Main and Moffitt)
• Film Literature Index (Print Index
in Media Center) (1977-present)
•Art Abstracts ( & AA Retrospective)
(1920s-present) (print)
• Periodicals Content Index (PCI)
Once You Find a Citation,
How Do You Find the Article?
Use Pathfinder
Or..
•Some indexes provide
holdings info
•Some indexes link to full-text
The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical
Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 through
1932. (Review) Stephen Banfield.
Historical Journal of Film, Radio and
Television June 1999 v19 i2 p267(2)
View text and retrieval choices (858 words)
Books
Use Pathfinder
Search by
•Title and/or Subject Keyword
•Director Name (as subject)
•Movie Title (as Title and/or
Subject Keyword )
How to Begin searching for books and/or
articles?
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 [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 films
[cinema, movie*] of Jim Jarmusch.
****
Truncation varies from db to db: * # ?
emigra* = emigrant, emigrants, emigrate, emigration
Once you find something that looks good using keywords,
Be sure to check out the “official” subject headings
Pathfinder
EAI
All Singing All Dancing:
Some Strategies for Researching Movie
Musicals
http://www.lib.berkeley.
edu/MRC/FilmBibMenu.html
Bibliographies on various film
topics and individual films
compiled by MRC (includes bibs
for genres, filmmakers,
national cinemas, and individual
film).
The databases I just talked about?
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/reviewtable4.html
…being driven over the edge
by your research?
Call me:
Gary Handman
643-8566
[email protected]