Researching
Locating foreign language versions of American film titles
The average person conducting a fairly in-depth Google search on a well-known classic film like “Stagecoach” (1939) will come across a film directory or two that shows the searched film title in another language, like French or German. While this information might seem intriguing, maybe even useful in a game of film trivia, online foreign language film directories serve as a valuable tool for the film researcher. Websites such as Moviecovers.com (French), Filmstarts.de (German), Moviepilot.de (German), and Spielfilm.de (German) are a few examples of western European based film directories that contain many American films translated into the languages of those countries. Being familiar with a film title in another language permits the researcher to scour many digitized newspapers and…
Using foreign newspaper archives as research tools for writing about film
While an online newspaper database can be a goldmine for film research, foreign newspaper archives can provide both research information and photo images not easily found elsewhere. Newspapers.com contain a few foreign newspapers from countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Ireland – primarily English-language newspapers – but what it does not contain are newspapers from nations such as France, Spain or Germany. Databases such as International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON), Biblioteca Virtual de Prensa Histórica (Spain), Biblioteca Digital das Artes do Espetáculo (Brazil), and Biblioteca Nacional de España are just a handful of online newspaper archives useful for film research. In particular, the ones in Spain and Brazil are especially helpful in researching information about American-made western films…
Using pressbooks as a source for film research and writing
While publicity materials such as pressbooks (also referred to as presskits) are useful tools in writing about films, finding a digital copy online might be a challenge, depending upon the movie written about and the popularity of press materials for the film in question. Some film archives will have a portion of their collections digitalized and easily accessible online like the William K. Everson Archive at NYU, while others may require an in-person visit, such as the film archives at UCLA. Long regarded as the most important marketing tool for a newly released movie, pressbooks are not only valuable as historical film memorabilia, but can be very useful for a number of research and writing projects. For example, a pressbook can be used as…
Using film scripts as research material for silent film reviews
The writer of silent film reviews can look to press releases and reviews appearing in Hollywood trade publications as original source material, but for a more in-depth film review containing details about the story and dialogue, a film script can fill in many of the holes when a copy of the actual film print is not readily available for viewing.In this case, the silent film being reviewed is “Idaho Red” (1929), which is also a lost film. Some information about “Idaho Red” does exist, but again it is in the form of general plot information easily available, such as through Lantern Media History or Newspapers.com. For a more in-depth film review, a university library collection containing film scripts is the best…
Saving and Labeling Newspaper Clippings for Research Purposes
A writer is researching on Newspapers.com, happily searching and clipping away (the website has an awesome clipping feature), accumulating information for a project. What is the best way to keep these clippings (usually saved in PDF format from Newspapers.com) organized in your computer without losing pertinent information? If a newspaper clipping is going to be referred to in the article the writer is working on, the title of that newspaper story must be referred to, along with the byline if any, the name of the newspaper, the location (city and state) of the newspaper, and date it appeared in.Once the desired newspaper item is clipped from Newspapers.com, the next thing to do is to name it before the website saves…