Looking for Hitch: A Frenzied Strategy for Research

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A Shot in the DarkResearching Film Noir
The Big Combo Dir. Joseph L. Lewis, 1955
Gary Handman ghandman_at_library.berkeley.edu 3-8666
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A Shot in the DarkResearching Film Noir
The Killers Dir. Robert Siodmak, 1946
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The point of all this...

• Describe the types and sources of information
  available related to film studies and other media
  research
• 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.

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Writing About Film
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Sources for Film TV Scholarship and Research

• Journals, Magazines, Newspapers
• Reviews
• Critical/ScholarlyArticles
• Books
• Web Sites (more about this later)
• Other online databases

Scarlet Street, Dir. Fritz Lang, 1945
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Journal ArticlesReviews? Critical Writing?
Whats the Diff?

• Reviews
• Found in popular periodicals, film periodicals,
  and (less often) in more scholarly journals
• Assessment of aesthetic and content merits of a
  film
• 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 whos doing the writing)

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Journal Articles
Reviews? Critical Writing? Whats the Diff?

• Critical analysis
• Found in books and scholarly or film-related
  journals
• Discuss films in
• broader historical, cultural, political, artistic
  context and/or
• Focus on a specific aspect of a film, film genre,
  or filmmaker
• Tend to be longer, more substantive than reviews
  (with some exceptions and depending on the
  publication and whos doing the writing)
• Often include notes, bibliographies, other
  scholarly apparatus

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• REVIEWS
• Current
• Historical (older)

• Found in
• Popular fan journals and newspapers
• Film studies scholarly journals
• Web sites
• Fan and enthusiast sites
• Commercial sites (e.g., studio sites, video
  distributors)
• Academic sites

Double Indemnity Billy Wilder, 1944
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Critical/Scholarly Articles

• Current
• Historical (scholarly writing about film
  1950s--

• Found in
• Film studies scholarly journals in other
  disciplineseg
• Language Lit
• Womens studies
• Gay/Lesbian studies
• Area studiesetc.
• Web sites (even less occasionallyexcept for
  academic and commercial databases)

Key Largo Dir. John Huston, 1948
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Journal Articles and Reviews
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• Books
• Scholarly/authoritative works
• Pop schlock and fan works

• How Do You Tell em apart?
• Authors credentials/affiliations
• Publisher (e.g. BFI, AFI, University Presses
  vs pop press)
• Scholarly apparatus and sources notes,
  bibliographies, other documentation
• If theyve been widely cited by other scholars

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But how do you locate this stuff?
Pathfinder

• Inventory of what the Library owns
• Books
• Media
• Journals
• Manuscripts, documents, mapsetc. etc. etc. etc.)
  

• Search by
• Author
• Title
• Subject (keywords)

The Locket Dir. John Brahm, 1946
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Articles/Reviews (how do you find this stuff?)
Online Print Indexes and Abstracts

• Film-related (not many exist)
• General news
• Literary and Arts
• Other disciplines e.g. Womens Studies,
  American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Historyetc.

T-Men, 1947
Jumping Off point for Finding Online
Indexes http//www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/filmstudi
es/reviewslist.html
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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 neitheruse Pathfinder to look up the JOURNAL
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(No Transcript)
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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

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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 Robert Siodmak and Edward
Dmytryk. The representation reflect portray
of gender sex and masculinity masculin,
male, men in film noir Truncation varies
from db to db ? emigra emigrant,
emigrants, emigrate, emigration


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The Lady from Shanghai Dir. Orson Welles, 1948
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).
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being driven totally over the edge by your
research? Call me Gary Handman 643-8566 ghandm
an_at_library.berkeley.edu

This Gun for Hire Dir. Frank Tuttle, 1942