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Doing Reference in the Dark: A Radically Attenuated Crash Course in Film & Mass Communications

Doing Reference in the Dark: A Radically Attenuated Crash Course in Film & Mass Communications Basics. Film and TV Are:. Everywhere and Unavoidable Big Business (& Big Business=Big Hype=Questionable Info)

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Doing Reference in the Dark: A Radically Attenuated Crash Course in Film & Mass Communications

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  1. Doing Reference in the Dark: A Radically Attenuated Crash Course in Film & Mass Communications Basics

  2. Film and TV Are: • Everywhere and Unavoidable • Big Business (& Big Business=Big Hype=Questionable Info) • The Focus of Endless Interdisciplinary Inquiry: (as aesthetic form, social/cultural text and artifact, psycho-sexual projection, gender construction, etc. etc. etc. etc.) • The Focus of Endless Popular Inquiry, Fixation & Fetish Film and TV Reference Resources Are: • A big slug of the web: the bad, the weird, and the useful • Fan sites • Studio and other commercial sites • Academic sites, including ejournals (in the minority) • A booming part of the pop publishing industry (the bad, the weird, and the useful) • An increasingly large part of the trade list of academic publishers • Too numerous and varied to cover adequately here

  3. So…How to Spend Our Time Today? • Big Box Office Questions… • Criticism and analysis • Reviews • Credits & other production info • Transcripts

  4. The Big Box Office Questions "How do I find a review of Blade Runner." (What they usually mean: "How do I find critical analysis of Blade Runner") • http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/reviewtable4.html a table of basic online and print review/criticism sources with links • 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).

  5. "How do I find a review of Blade Runner." (What they usually really mean: "How do I find critical analysis of Blade Runner") • --Faves for citations to critical analysis in historical/cultural context: MLA; Art Abstracts/AA Retrospective; America History & Life • --Also worth scoping out: Periodicals Contents Index(particularly for older titles); SSCI and A&HCI; Essay & Gen Lit Index • --MAGS/NEWS: include both national news magazines/newspaper and (MAGS) central film studies journals, including Cineaste (some full-text), American Film, Film Comment, Film Criticism, Film Quarterly, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Journal of Film and Video, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Literature/Film Quarterly, Sight and Sound, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Variety.

  6. "How do I find a review of Blade Runner." (What they usually really mean: "How do I find critical analysis of Blade Runner") • --Other full-text: PROJECT MUSEincludes full-text of articles in Wide Angle; Camera Obscura (feminist film studies). Substantive film studies e-journals with full-text articles: Bright Lights; Senses of Cinema (indexed in MLA) (see http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/FilmRefMenu.html#journal for links to these and others) • --Film Literature Index (FLI) (print) • (1973 --): best single source of international film studies literature • --Film Index International (British Film Institute) (library CD-ROM network): Links to selected reviews (with emphasis on Brit stuff) from entries for individual movies. • --FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals (CD-ROM stand-alone in MRC) -- similar in coverage to FLI.1982- • --Check Pathfinder for separately published monographs, screenplays, etc.

  7. The Big Box Office Questions "How do I find a review of "The Matrix.” (What they may mean: "How do I find a short, current [preferably online] review") • --Movie Review Query Engine (http://www.mrqe.com/): Includes full-text of R. Ebert (Chicago Sun Times), selected NYT, Washington Post, and others too weird or off-the-wall to mention. • --MAGS/NEWS: see description in 1 above • --ProQuest: picks up pop publications not covered • elsewhere online (e.g. Premiere)(some full-text). Includes some full-text from Variety • --Lexis/Nexis (News/Arts & Sports/Source: Book, Movie, Music & Play Reviews): some-full text (e.g. LA Times, SF Chronicle, Boston Globe, some NYT • --Also worth scoping out: Ethnic Newswatch, Alternative Press Index Online, Women's Resources International (for non-mainstream cultural perspectives)

  8. The Big Box Office Questions "How do I find a review of "The Matrix". (What they may mean: "How do I find a short, current [preferably online] review") PRINT (what’s that…!!!???) • Magill's Cinema Annual • Synoptic info (including critical reception) supplied by Magill's editorial staff. Also includes useful boxoffice info, brief list of review citations. • Film Review Annual • Excerpts from reviews from a wide variety of (mostly) pop sources.

  9. The Big Box Office Questions "How do I find a review of Gone With the Wind?" (What they usually mean: "How do I find out about the reception of Gone With the Wind at the time of its release [1939] ") • --Readers Guide (older volumes: under Motion Pictures -- Reviews,or even earlier:Moving Picture Plays) • --NYT Index or NYT Film Review Index (Main/Ref; MRC) (for early film, see also • Historical Newspapers Online -- incl NYT 1851-1922: Hellllllllo D.W. Griffith!) • --New York Times Film Reviews (6 vol. 1913/1968-1995/96) (print) Reproductions of reviews (Main Ref) • -- Film Review Index (Patricia and Stephen Hanson, eds.) (print) 1882-1985. Best retrospective review coverage. (MRC and Main Stacks)

  10. The Big Box Office Questions • I'm doing a research paper on the image of the disabled (African Americans, the apocalypse, God, gays and lesbians, alcoholism…etc. etc. etc.) in the movies. • --Use Film Index International (on library CD network) or American Film Institute (on library web) to identify movies by theme or genre • --Pathfinder/CDL: [Whatever] in Motion Pictures(watch in particular for topical guides,e.g. Norden, Martin F. The Cinema of Isolation: A History of Physical Disability in the Movies. • --Consult indexes and other resources discussed in 1-2 above. NB: widely varying subject terminology for each index: e.g., disabled, film (MLA); Disabled persons -- Portrayals, depictions, etc. (MAGS); Handicapped in motion pictures (Pathfinder)

  11. The Big Box Office Questions • I'm doing a research paper on the image of the disabled (African Americans, the apocalypse, God, gays and lesbians, alcoholism…etc. etc. etc.) in the movies. • --MRC Videographies / Bibliographies • Organized topically, by genre, themes, language/Country

  12. The Big Box Office Questions I’m writing about a movie and I need to know who starred in it (or directed it, or produced it). I need to know what other movies the director, star, producer made. • --American Film Institute (AFI Index) (library web) US film 1893 to 1970 (except 1951 to 1960). • --British Film Institute (BFI) Film Index International (library CD-ROM • network) • --sound era only • --no animation • --The Motion Picture Guide (thru 1999) (CD-ROM and print in MRC) • --Internet Movie Database (web: http://us.imdb.com/): unlike above, info is supplied by users--so be wary

  13. The Big Box Office Questions "How do I find a review of a documentary I saw last month on PBS Frontline?or in MRC for my African American Studies Class? • --Good luck! Reviews of documentary works (other than stuff by Ken Burns and other big names) are very few far between. • --Try: Media Review Digest (via Library/Indexes); MAGS/NEWS; Film Literature Index (the TV section) • --Spotty coverage in subject literature: use appropriate indexes: for e.g. America History and Life; Anthropological Literature (RLG) (for ethnography)

  14. Big Box Office Questions • I'm doing a paper on the network news coverage of [event X] • Vanderbilt Index: http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/ • An index to network news with some abstracts • Lexis/Nexis • Transcripts: News/Transcripts • Use MAGS/NEWS (or other general periodical indexes): try topic with subject heading media coverage (e.g. Oklahoma City media coverage) How to do I watch the above? • --You're mainly out of luck unless you fly to Vanderbilt or are willing to pay fairly steep prices for rental of desired materials from the archives. • --Some selected news coverage in MRC (e.g., OJ trial; Rodney King coverage; ABC Nightline programs).

  15. Big Box Office Questions • I'm doing a paper on sitcoms. I need reviews of “Frasier” and other current programs. • Good luck! • Industry info and gossip re specific programs, and network maneuvering is relatively ez to find (“e.g.'Frasier' exec leaving show” [Variety]): • ProQuest (includes Variety; Broadcasting & Cable; TV Guide -- some full-text) • MAGS/NEWS • Lexis/Nexis • Reviews and Analysis more difficult: try above

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