| Gabriela Sonntag
Instruction Librarian
CSUSM Library
gsg@csusm.edu |
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Films are frequently
classified into a type of film, normally referred to as a
'genre'. Genres can be based on gender, nationality, time
period, or purpose. There can even be genres based on
production (films by women as opposed
to about women.) Here are some tips on finding a
variety of resources.
Sample Genres
There is no official list of genres, but there are commonly
accepted categories used for films. Some films can be placed
into more than one genre and a director may become known for
a particular genre. Some of the more well-known genres are:
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Horror
Documentary
- Silent
- Comedy
- Western
- Action
- Martial Arts
- Epic
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World cinema
- Musical
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Of course,
these can frequently be subdivided even further--Horror
films can be narrowed to slasher, monster,
psychological/suspense, and many more. A very specialized
horror genre is the Dracula category, where one characters'
portrayal is the focus of the genre.
Getting Started
There are several good websites that can get you started
on this genre:
Books
Books at Cal State San Marcos
Find
books by searching the Library
Catalog. Can't
think of terms to describe your topic? Catalogs use specific subject headings to group related
books together. A good strategy
is to:
PN1995.5.
Useful Subject Terms
Can't think of terms to accurately describe your topic?
Library catalogs use specific subject headings to group
related books together. 'Film' and 'adaptation' are such large topics
and can be defined in multiple ways, you will
want to think of ways to narrow it down, by title, director,
genre, etc. Ask a librarian to
help, or here are some
examples to consider:
Books at other libraries
* Books will be delivered to Library for pickup.
** Find a book in this databases, and fill-out an
Interlibrary Loan
delivery request. Book will be delivered to Library for
pickup.
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Journal Articles
The Research
Databases at CSUSM will offer articles on film genres in
general as well as specific films. When looking
for articles on a particular film, the easiest way is to type the title of
the movie into the database. Some databases do not offer
full text of the articles. Use the
 button
to check our other resources for full text.
Communication & Mass Media Complete
Trial database. Provides abstracts and full text for more
than 200 communication journals.
Academic
Search Premier
Full-text. A large, multi-disciplinary database
offering full text for nearly 1,850 scholarly journals,
including more than 1,250 peer-reviewed titles.
MLA
(AKA Bibliography of the Modern Language Association.)
Includes abstracts of articles from critical literary and
language journals.
Lexis
Nexis Academic
Lexis-Nexis Universe provides
access to a wide range of news, business, legal, and
reference information. Includes full-text articles from non-U.S.
publications.
ProQuest Newspapers
Includes coverage of over 300 major U.S. and
international newspapers, such as The New York Times, Los
Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune
Possible journals to browse
include:
After you have found the articles you can search for these online
Communications journals. A good shortcut is to use the Catalog to search by Genre.
Use the term <Electronic
Journals Communication >, for a listing of all journals
available online.
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Web sites with article databases and further
links
- Director's Guild of America:
http://www.dga.org
indieWIRE:
http://www.indiewire.com/
Entertainment Law Resources at:
http://www.marklitwak.com/
American Film Institute:
http://www.afi.com
A music distribution site:
http://www.garageband.com/
Clickz has some excellent
articles in the EXPERTS tab./http://www.clickz.com/experts/
The
Electronic
Journal of Communication is a searchable full text of the journal
published by the Communication
Institute for Online Scholarship
The
NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute in Japan has an English-language
web site that includes research articles on several issues of broadcasting
(not confined to Japan only), e.g. an "Evaluation of Public Broadcasting
by Country: Results of an International Comparative Survey by Japan,
Britain, and the United States." Its research archive goes back
until fall 1997, the first issue of its publication.
On the web site of
The
World Advertising Research Center, you can select "Research"
and then dig deeper for interesting journal articles. The drawback
of this web site is that you have to register in order to view the
articles. You may register for a 7-day trial period which lets you
view all abstracts as well as download 25 articles for free.
Internet Sources
These may not be
as scholarly as published journal reviews, so be aware
of the credentials of the reviewer. Keep in mind when
searching the internet that not all material will be
scholarly and other search terms will be 'cinema' or 'film'
rather than 'movie'.
Film Site:
Film Genres
This site from by Tim Dirks offers quick overviews of a wide
variety of genres.
Introduction to Genre Theory
From England, this site offers a
more scholarly discussion of genre.
IMDb Genre
Browser
A list of genres from the Internet Movie Database
Specialized Sites
Asian Film
Connections
University of Southern California's site on Asian film.
Black Film
Center/Archive
Films by and about African Americans. Films must be viewed
at the Indiana University Archive.
DocumentaryFilms.net
Information on documentary films and those who make them
including a finding aid for the rarer titles.
Folkstreams.net
A site devoted to the
documentary genre, offering viewable documentaries on a wide
variety of topics from the folk historian's view.
Other Sources
Videos in Media Library
Use the Catalog to search by Genre. Use the terms: <Motion
Picture Plays > or the type of film, for example use <Foreign
Films>
: Reviews of films
These
may not be as scholarly as published journal reviews, so be
aware of the credentials of the reviewer.
Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made
As determined by the New York Times reviewers with
plot, and reviews. Reviews are accessible after
registering.
Greatest Films
One individual's lists of the greatest films, but
reviews, plot summaries, and histories of the films make
this valuable along with a "Tips on Viewing Films
Critically". Chronology, glossary, Academy Award winners
and more.
Images: A Journal of Popular Film and Culture
Discussion of films, genres and directors along with
reviews of both theatre-release movies and video.
Internet Movie Database
For basic information about a film, this is one of the
more complete sites. The comments from other visitors
are NOT scholarly, so don't rely on that part the site.
Movie Review
Query Engine
This site collects reviews from a variety of resources
for over 45,000 movies.
Rotten
Tomatoes
A bit light-hearted in its treatment and again
offers viewer comments as well as snips from published
reviews.
Roger Ebert
One of the more well-known popular movie reviewers,
this site assembles his reviews from the Chicago
Sun-Times newspaper.
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Citing Your Sources
As you write your paper, you'll need to cite passages and
ideas from the sources you've found. In order to cite
your resources properly, you need to follow the style
guide used by educators.
When you search ERIC use
the Bibliography Generator found on the
Save, Print, Email
page and then email yourself the list of articles
already in APA style!
For more complex questions see the
listing below.
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Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association. 5th ed.
Washington, DC : American Psychological Association,
2001.
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Below are some web sites that provide examples.
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