Film History

The key is to find articles written when the film was being produced or when it was released. Many of our standard resources are great for finding articles from the 1990s to the present, so I'm going to suggest some specialized resources or individual websites.

Advice

• You can keyword search the whole collection. Type in your film title "in quotes."
• Once you see the results, you can limit your results to the relevant date range -- top left corner. I would go for a year before (perhaps even earlier for animation) and a year after the release date, to capture articles during production, and/or if the review didn't come out until the following year.
• If you get a lot of results, add more keywords to find articles about a particular actor or actress in the film or some production detail you are interested in.
• The thumbnail next to the snippet of text is usually the image of the article. This helps give you a sense how much text there is, though it is possible that the article begins with a page of images, then the text.
• Quickest way to view is to choose "Download This Page & Item Details" then choose the size.
• If it is a multipage article, then you're stuck with page by page -- limit your search to that one title (Variety, Film Daily, etc.) and hone the date to retrieve all the thumbnails. If you choose the Read in Context, it takes you to a huge file and you usually have to go hunting for your article again.

Advice

• Link is for the search for "snow white and the seven dwarfs." Erase and type in your film.
• Use the limiters on the left and change the date range to a year or so before and after the film release. I have already limited to English, eliminated the scholarly articles, and expanded to articles that we do not have full text.
• Some of the full text articles are in Free E-Journals. You'll have to use that source's search or browse function to find the article. Try keyword searching the title. Note the date of the article and volume/issue/page numbers if you have to browse issues.
• If we don't have the full text, we may have it in paper or microfilm and we'll scan it for you, or you request the article via Interlibrary Loan. Just click on the full record, and click on the link under Can't Find It? and fill out the online form.

Advice

• Again, change the date range! While there aren't many scholarly journals in Readers' Guide, you can limit to Magazine if you do get too many.
• Type in your film, and change the Select a Field (Optional) to TX All Text Fields -- this is to pick up any full text articles that mention your film. You might luck out and find an article in the Saturday Evening Post or Time Magazine.
• Some of the records overlap with what is in the EWU Library Catalog, but enough are unique to make it worth searching.
• Most of the results aren't full text in EBSCOhost -- use the Check for Full Text button to see if we have it elsewhere, if we have it in paper/microfilm, or to Interlibrary Loan it. Just use the request it link that appears in the EWU Library Catalog record.

If you find a New York Times film review, but it won't show you the full text, follow these directions to have the library scan a copy of the review for you.

1. From the nytimes.com website, write down the full date of the review.
2. Click New York Times Film Reviews to go to the EWU Library Catalog record for this print reference set.
3. Click on Request a scan of a chapter or excerpt. It will prompt you to log in with your SSO if you haven't already.
4. Put the date of the film review in the Date field and in the Page Numbers field in the form. (The reviews are chronological in the set, so that will act as the page numbers for the library staff.)
5. For Title of the Article, type in the name of your film.
6. Date needed by is also required, but it shouldn't take more than a day or two during the week. (The library isn't open weekends to process requests like this.)