ProQuest  

ProQuest is a platform containing over 100 databases. ProQuest contains publications (i.e., newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals and eBook titles) in different subjects areas including film. Remember you might find content in a non-film related resource from your time period, (i.e., newspapers, business or tech magazines).

1) Choosing your Search Terms

• Enter search terms on separate lines e.g., enter title of film on the top line, director's last name below, so as to articulate your search request. Use Boolean Operators to improve your search:

  • Quotations marks (search for specific phrases or names, narrows your search)

    •  "Street Car Named Desire", "Die Hard", "George Romero", "Production Code"

  • AND (narrows your search)

    •  race AND "motion pictures", Hitchcock AND "North by North West", Action AND "Science Fiction"

  • OR (widens your search)

    • film OR movies OR cinema

  • Asterisk * as Wild Card (widens your search)

    • cinematograph* will search for: cinematography, cinematographer, cinematographers, cinematographer's

2) Sort your Results 

• Sort your results (Relevance, Date) 
  • Sort by Date: It may be useful to arrange the results chronologically (oldest first) in order to follow the entire production process of a particular film, from gossip about potential stars to reviews and box-office grosses.

3) Using ProQuest Search Filters

• Narrow your search results using filters on left sidebar:
  • Peer Review (Learn more about Peer Review) 
  • Source Type (e.g., Scholarly Journals, Newspapers, Magazines, Trade Magazines, Books, and more)
  • Publication Year (Custom date allows you search for a specific time period)
  • Publication Title (e.g., Cinema Journal, New York Times, Variety)
  • Document Type (e.g., Feature, Front Page/Cover Story, Article, Literature Review, Interviews, Editorial,  Advertisement, Photograph, Letters to the Editor)

4) Mark relevant records

If you find interesting articles, be sure to mark the records so you can send them via email.  

• Go to the results page and click the check box to the left of the article title  
• When you are ready to email the articles to yourself, scroll to the top of the results list and click on Email link (on right side)
• Email the marked records to yourself 

Another option is to create a free ProQuest MyResearch account.

Use the Newspaper Databases filters to narrow down your search results: 

• Publication Date 
• Document Type: Feature, Front Page/Cover Story, Article, Letters to the Editor, Editorials, Advertisements, Images, Interviews and more 
• Publication Title

Don't forget that by examining newspapers from other regions, you can learn of how other countries viewed the US film industry.