Database Highlight #52: We've got the Film Script for That
Sick of beach reads? Try something different with Film Scripts Online. This week’s database highlight contains over 1,000 film scripts including golden age classics, award winners, and modern masterpieces. Keyword search or browse by genre, award, people, and more. This is a great database for movie buffs and movie scholars. Pair Film Scripts Online with Kanopy and have a movie night.
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. – from the vendor
Internet Movie Database is the go to database for quick movie information. Settle a bet on when a movie was made, who starred, view a clip, and find the MPAA rating. Yes, it’s a busy webpage that appears to be caught in the early 2000s (so much scrolling) and yes, it’s covered in annoying ads but if you want to recall the last name of that one guy in that one movie, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better open site.
Action Steps
- Using Film Scripts Online, find a script using a keyword or browsing. Note how you can cite, email, share, embed, print, and add to playlist. What script did you pick?
- Look up the last movie you saw in IMDB. Who received top billing?
Pens for all commenters!
And that's 52 weeks of database highlights. A full year! It's been fun and I hope this raised the profile of the databases. After 52 weeks though, I think it might be time for a change. Coming in August, a new way to learn about eresources.
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Comments
I looked up a couple of films using a keyword, but none of those were in the database, so I browsed by the genre science fiction and chose Back to the Future.
The last movie I went to see was Ant-Man and the Wasp. Three of the actors who received top billing were Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and Michael Pena.
Logging in to say this is a very interesting database. Also, The Darkest Hour with Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill.
I looked up "The Wizard of Oz" (the shooting script) on Film Scripts Online. I was able to go to different sections of the script by the type of camera shot - close up, long shot, fade in, fade out, etc. There are also bookmarks that will take you to different locations in the script where the phrase "the wizard of oz" appears.
The last movie I saw was "Dunkirk" (2017). The stars that received top billing were Fionn Whitehead and Barry Keoghan.
I looked up Casablanca and loved reading the script, since I know the movie so well. It was fun to read about the kinds of shots they took and the descriptions of scenes. I love the source citations with the different options of APA, MLA6 and MLA7,etc.
The last movie I saw was "The Shape of Water" with stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, and Octavia Spencer.
Both are great databases!
I found "Footloose" and "Tremors" two of my favorites via Film Scripts Online.
IMDB is great for looking up who stars in a certain movie or for when a customer only knows the actor's name and not the movie name. I used it just this morning to find the name of the actress in "Girl Flu." (Great movie)
That's one of my favorite too.
And for anyone wanting to check out Girl Flue - it's on Kanopy! https://www.kanopy.com/product/girl-flu