Information Services

Film studies

Some useful resources for Film studies are listed below.

Academic Video Online (Alexander St Press/ProQuest)

Access information:

Access on and off-campus

Description:

Academic Video Online is a multidisciplinary collection of videos that touches on the curriculum needs of virtually every department. With over 67,000 titles available now and 400 new titles per month, this collection is unmatched in its breadth. Academic Video Online allows students and researchers alike to analyse unique and valuable content from over 500 producers and distributors around the world.

Userguide: https://proquest.libguides.com/academicvideoonline/home

 

American Film Institute Catalog

Access information. Access on and off campus.
Description. The AFI Catalog, the premier, authoritative resource of American film information, covers the history of American cinema comprehensively from 1893 to 1993, with full or short records for films from 1994-2015. New records are added each year by the AFI's editorial team.
Coverage: 1893 to 2015.
Further information: A user guide to the AFI Catalog can be found here.  The AFI Catalog can also be cross-searched along with  the Film Index International and the FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals via ProQuest's Screen Studies Collection.

 

Art Full Text and Art Abstracts

Access information: Available on and off-campus from EBSCOhost.
Description: Indexes 223 leading domestic and international periodicals pertaining to the art world. Covers advertising art, antiques, archaeology, architecture, art, design, films, museology and photography.
Coverage: 1984 to present.
Note: This resource will be replaced by Art & Architecture Source from 26th May 2017.

 

Access information: Access on and off-campus. Not working? Try clearing your cookies. Alternatively, use the Alternative login (with the VPN service if off campus) and choose Web of Science Core Collection from "All Databases" drop down menu.
Description: Part of Web of Science Core Collection. A multidisciplinary index containing details of every substantive item in 1,200 arts and humanities journals, as well as references to books included in book reviews, and live performances, films, records, and television and radio broadcasts. Contains over 2 million references.
Coverage: 1906 - present.

 

BFI Player Subscription

Access information:

Access on and off-campus. Individual registration is required - see instructions below.

Description:

BFI Player is a video-on-demand service from the British Film Institute, streaming acclaimed, landmark and archive films. BFI Player’s focus is on British and European independent films, as well as international releases. The availability of films is dependent on rights agreements with licensors.

Instructions for registering for access to our BFI Player institutional subscription: 

  1. Go to https://player.bfi.org.uk/academic/subscribe and create an account using your UoE email address and a password of your choice OR sign in if you already have one by selecting 'Already have an account? Sign in'.
  2. Select University of Edinburgh from the dropdown list and click "Link institution". 
  3. Authenticate subscription using your university credentials.  

Please note: if you already had a BFI Player account linked to our pilot University of Edinburgh institutional subscription before 1st October 2023, you will need to relink your account using the instructions above when you first login after 1st October 2023.  Once your account is relinked, you will then be able to sign in to BFI Player as normal via http://player.bfi.org.uk/ 

Note: BFI Player is unavailable outside the UK. Content can change throughout the pilot and films could be removed. Rental section & festival events are unavailable with the Library subscription. For any licensing queries, please contact IS Helpline at https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/contact-helpline 
Title list:

March title list

https://www.docs.is.ed.ac.uk/docs/Libraries/Main/E-Resources/Videos/BFI_Titles_March_2024.xlsx

Any titles with less than 6 months remaining are highlighted (in orange)

Subscription ends:

30/09/2024

 

Bloomsbury Screen Studies

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

Bloomsbury Screen Studies offers a broad range of content to support moving-image studies. It comprises award-winning screenplays, presented in industry-standard studio format, from ‘Orlando’ to ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’. It also includes critical and contextual books on film from the late nineteenth century to the present, and an interactive timeline of cinema history. It is an essential resource for academics and students engaged in research and learning around film history, theory and practice.

 

Box of Broadcasts

Access Information: Access on and off campus
Description: BoB (Box of Broadcasts) enables all staff and students in subscribing institutions to choose and record any broadcast programme from 60+ TV and radio channels. The recorded programmes are then kept indefinitely (no expiry) and added to a growing media archive (currently at over 1 million programmes), with all content shared by users across all subscribing institutions.
Additional information: Please note that it not possible to access content in BoB when you are outside the UK, under the terms and conditions of the ERA licence.

 

British Film Institue: InView

BFI InView is no longer available. Please see BFI Player on this page.

 

British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC)

Access Information: Access on and off campus. Some resources on BUFVC require sign in - click sign in, enter "University of Edinburgh" in the search box and if prompted sign in with your University Login.
Description:

BUFVC provides a range of services to promote the production, study and use of film and related media for education and research. Services and projects include:

  • Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching (TRILT);
  • News on Screen - a resource for the study of news reels and cinemagazines (1910-1983) complete with Pathe film clips where they exist;
  • the subject-based Moving Image Gateway.
Coverage: International.

 

Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

An archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to the 21st century. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Issues have been scanned in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of articles, covers, ads and reviews.

The Library has access to:

  • EIMA1: Music, Radio and The Stage
  • EIMA2: Cinema, Film and Television (Part 1)
  • EIMA3: Cinema, Film and Television (Part 2)
  • EIMA4: Rock, Folk and Hip-hop
  • EIMA5: Video Gaming

NB: The Library has perpetual access to EIMA 1 and 2 but only subscription access to EMIA 3-5 - the Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.

 

FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals

Access information. Access on and off campus.
Description. The FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database contains over 800,000 article citations from more than 345 periodicals. It offers in-depth coverage of the world's foremost academic and popular film journals, dating from 1972 onward. Each entry consists of a full bibliographic description, an abstract, and comprehensive headings (biographical names, film titles, and general subjects). Over 70 Journals are available in full text.
Further information: A userguide for FIAF can be found here. The FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals can also be cross-search along with the AFI Catalog and Film Index International via ProQuest's Screen Studies Collection.
 

Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text

Access information. Access on and off campus.
Description. A resource for researchers of film and television, providing the most comprehensive, balanced collection of full-text and bibliographic coverage from scholarly and popular sources, and spanning the entire spectrum of film and television studies. Updated on a weekly basis, this database provides full text for hundreds of journals and books and cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts and selected coverage for hundreds of publications. Variety movie reviews from 1914 to present and a vast image collection from the MPTV Image Archive are also included.
 

Film Index International

Access information. Access on and off campus.
Description.

Film Index International by ProQuest is the definitive online resource focusing on entertainment films and personalities. Produced in collaboration with the British Film Institute (BFI) it is based on the Summary of Film and Television (SIFT) database collated by the BFI over the past 70 years.

Film Index International provides in-depth indexing of over 125,000 films from the first silent movies to the latest blockbusters and biographical information for more than 900,000 personalities. Film Index International includes records on films from over 170 countries and has extensive coverage of international film awards and prizes. Its rich content also includes searchable plot summaries, full cast and crew lists as well as references to periodical articles on film and film-makers.

Further information: A user guide to Film Index International can be found here.  Film Index International can also be cross-search along with the AFI Catalog and the FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals via ProQuest's Screen Studies Collection.
 

Film Scripts Online Series: American Film Scripts Online

Access information. Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description.  The Film Scripts Online Series makes available, for the first time, accurate and authorized versions of copyrighted screenplays. Now film scholars can compare the writer’s vision with the producer’s and director’s interpretations from page to screen.  The Film Scripts Online Series contains 1,500 film scripts—an exploration of culture and cinema through the decades. This highly structured archive offers a bibliographic and biographical database of directors and writers, along with the full text of the movies themselves. From the earliest silent films through to the present, the cultural attitudes and lifestyles are reflected in the medium.  Students, instructors, and researchers use the Film Scripts Online Series for studying popular culture, film, diversity and gender issues, language and linguistics, writing, American history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and other disciplines. American Film Scripts Online: Volume I contains more than 1,000 scripts of American cinema's greatest classic films. This collection contains detailed, fielded information on the scenes, characters and people related to the scripts. In addition, the database includes facsimilie images for more than 500 of these screenplays. Most of the scripts have never been published before, and nowhere else are they available online. 

 

Access information: Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2023.
Description:

Volume II expands beyond classic and feature films with 500 new screenplays from StudioCanal, Ealing Studios, Newmarket Press, Warner Brothers, and others. Film origins go beyond American classic cinema to include more international and contemporary films. Users will find screenplays from well-known filmmakers, such as John Schlesinger’s Billy Liar, Bill Forsyth’s Comfort and Joy, Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron, Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter, David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, Carol Reed’s The Third Man, David Lean’s Hobson’s Choice, Richard Fleischer’s The Jazz Singer, Alexander Mackendrick’s The Ladykillers, Nicholas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, Robert Hamer’s Kind Hearts and Coronets, Mike Figgis's Leaving Las Vegas, Sidney Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express, Bruce Beresford’s Tender Mercies, and Charles Crichton’s The Lavender Hill Mob. In addition, Film Scripts Online: Volume II features the British Film Institute’s Film Classics monographs. This series of critical works provides deep analysis of the most well-known classics in cinematic history. Each volume offers an opportunity to learn about the production and reception history of the films, why they are considered "classics," and an inside look into the author's personal response to the final film. Titles include critical assessments of Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Throne of Blood, Dr. Strangelove, Solaris, 8 ½, Bringing Up Baby, and many others.

In addition, Film Scripts Online: Volume II features the British Film Institute’s Film Classics monographs. This series of critical works provides deep analysis of the most well-known classics in cinematic history. Each volume offers an opportunity to learn about the production and reception history of the films, why they are considered "classics," and an inside look into the author's personal response to the final film. Titles include critical assessments of Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Throne of Blood, Dr. Strangelove, Solaris, 8 ½, Bringing Up Baby, and many others.

 

Gale Research Complete

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

Gale Research Complete is a database cross-search platform which incorporates Gale Academic OneFile, General OneFile, Gale eBooks, Gale OneFile News, Gale Literature, and Archives Unbound in Gale Primary Sources. All these databases are individually listed in Databases A-Z. The resources within Gale Research Complete offer high quality, authoritative primary source and reference content from over 28,000 periodicals, 4000 Gale eBook volumes, 1.5 million items of literary criticism and full text literary works, and more than 13 million pages of rare primary sources from the world's great libraries. The resources address the needs of users at all academic levels, from the first year student to the experienced researcher, and cover every research area and discipline including history, literature, business and science and medicine.

 

 

Kanopy Videos

Access information:

Access on and off-campus.

Description:

Kanopy is an online streaming service for films and documentaries. Content includes popular documentaries, Oscar winners and nominees, classic films, and independent films. Edinburgh University users can have full access to several dozen films which the Library has purchased for teaching. These films will be displayed after you login in and can be accessed from any device including computer, IOS and Android devices. Individual films available to us are also findable by title and author (as director) search in DiscoverEd.

  You can use the "Browse" button to view the catalogue of all the films which we haven't purchased yet. Requests for films for teaching purchases must be made via the Resource Lists service.

 

Access information: Available on and off campus
Description:

Developed cooperatively with scholars worldwide, Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides. Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, this cutting-edge resource guides researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects.

Each subject area has an Editor in Chief, Editorial Board, and team of peer reviewers overseeing the development and updating of articles ensuring balanced perspective with scholarly accuracy and a robust updating program to keep researchers informed of advances in their field.

At the time of launch, each subject area includes approximately 50 articles; with an additional 50 to 75 articles added each year. New article topics are selected to ensure each subject area offers full and balanced coverage as determined by the Editor in Chief and Editorial Board, scholarly feedback, and research demand.

Coverage: The following modules are available to the University of Edinburgh - African American Studies, African Studies, American Literature, Anthropology, Biblical Studies, British and Irish Literature, Buddhism, Chinese Studies, Cinema & Media Studies, Classics, Criminology, Education, Hindu Studies, International Law, International Relations, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American, Linguistics, Literary and Critical Theory, Medieval Studies,  Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Renaissance & Reformation, Social Work, Sociology, Victorian Literature.  See http://oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/obo/page/subject-list for individual module title lists.

 

Access information: Freely available
Description: Almost 2,000 key titles from the film collection acquired by the US Library of Congress from the collection's founder, Rick Prelinger. The ephemeral (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films from between 1927-1987 are public domain and made available under creative commons licence for free downloading and reuse. All subjects.

 

Screen Studies Collection by ProQuest

Access information: Available on and off campus.
Description: A comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed and expansive filmographies. This collection includes the specialist index FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute; AFI Catalog and Film Index International. Please see individual databse entries for more detailed descriptions of each database.

 

Access information: Available from British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC). Choose University of Edinburgh from drop-down menu.
Description: Comprehensive online listings service for UK television and radio designed for educational users . Carries complete schedules for around 300 UK channels, including regional variations as well as Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Irish and Asian-language stations or programmes.
  The information is archived and continuously improved, so the database is a tool to help teachers and students identify both forthcoming and already broadcast audio-visual material to support their work.

 

Access information: Available from British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC). Choose University of Edinburgh from drop-down menu.
Description: Fully searchable database of the programmes listed in television listing magazine TVTimes.
Coverage: September 1955 to March 1985.

 

Related Links

Subject guide: Film studies