The Business of Film (Film S-208)
Charles Lyons
History, Biography & Scholarship: Articles
There are two basic strategies for finding article-length research on the film business in journals and magazines:
- search business journal indexes for articles on the film industry; or
- search film journal indexes for articles on business aspects.
Short biographies sometimes appear in these sorts of journals as well, but often there will be an article in one of the biographical resources (see below).
Business Journal Indexes
This database includes many full-text articles,
and uses "Motion picture industry" as a subject heading
(also called a "descriptor"). It covers many news sources
such as the Wall Street Journal, but also business journals
and magazines such as Business Week, Maclean's, MediaWeek,
Adweek, Amusement Business, and Marketing Magazine.
It also includes various scholarly journals, like Business History,
Journal of Economic History, and Journalism & Mass
Communication Quarterly.
This database has several subject headings
(descriptors) for the film business, including "Motion picture
industry," "Motion picture distributors," "Motion
pictures/Production and direction," and "Motion picture
industry/Acquisitions and mergers." It does not hold a huge
number of records for these topics, but it carries enough to be
worth checking anyway.
Factiva mainly covers newspapers and business
journals, but it also covers a few scholarly journals such as Historical
Journal of Film, Radio & Television and Journal of Film
& Video. (These journals are included in the film studies
indexes, but you may be able to get the article in full text through
Factiva.) You can search selected sources, and there are broad topic
headings. See News Reports for
explanations on how to use Factiva.
This database mainly covers newspapers and
business journals, but it also covers a few scholarly journals such
as Camera Obscura. It does not hold much on these topics,
but it can be worth checking anyway. See News
Reports for explanations on how to use Lexis-Nexis.
See also the Social Science Library's list of resources, which includes Business, Finance & Administration.
Film Journal Indexes
The FIAF database is a highly comprehensive
index of film studies journals. The online version includes a number
of specialized bibliographies (silents, Latin American cinema),
and information about film archives and collections. It does not
generally include full-text articles online: you will need to write
down the citation and locate the journal in the SML stacks.
Film Literature Index. 1973- (Albany, NY: Filmdex, 1974-)
SML, Reference Z5784 M9 F55 (LC)
SML, Reference Z5784 M9 F55 (LC)
An important index for research in Film Studies
that exists only in print format. Indexes over 300 international
film periodicals. Film title, personal name, and subject indexes
are included. Film Literature Index also includes critical
articles on television and video (section two).
IIPA draws its current content from more
than 130 international periodicals and also indexes articles and
obituaries appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post.
IIPA covers nearly all aspects of the world of performing arts,
including film, theater, and opera. Most IIPA records in the current
file (1998 forward) contain an abstract.
See also the much longer list on the Web page for Finding Scholarly Articles on Film History and Criticism.
Biographical Resources
A comprehensive database of biographical
information throughout history and across all disciplines and subject
areas. It combines more than 245,000 biographies from sources such
as Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television,
and International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers.
A bibliographic database that cites biographical
material appearing in more than 3,000 periodicals, some 2,500 current
books (annually) of individual and collective biography, and incidental
biographical material in otherwise non-biographical books.
An index to nearly 12 million biographical
sketches in more than 2700 volumes and editions of current and retrospective
reference books.
The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. Ed.
Nicholas Thomas, James Vinson, consulting editor, 2nd ed., 5 vols.
(Chicago: St. James Press, 1990-1994).
SML, Reference PN1994 +I58 1990
This 5 volume set includes concise, yet detailed,
essays on Films, Directors, Actors and Actresses, and Production
people. Each article includes a bibliography of further references.
See also the much longer list of resources on the Web page for Biographical Resources.
