Film Studies Research Guide: Books & E-Books

It helps to know that the preferred subject term is in fact "motion pictures", plural. Whereas, simply searching for the name of "Alfred Hitchcock" will produce results, for a more comprehensive search try the keywords Hitchcock motion pictures. Using just the director's last time in this way increases the likelihood of uncovering the existence of content in books about broader concepts, e.g., evil in motion pictures or history of British filmmaking, that have chapters devoted to Hitchcock in this case. Finding books devoted to a particular film requires a similar approach: search the title of the film followed by motion picture, singular, e.g., Birds motion picture.

What about screenplays? Don't assume that any given screenplay has been published commercially and is readily available in the ebook format. Try the more formal subject term motion picture plays along with the title of the film to see what might be available. Otherwise, consider seeing if a screenplay or transcript is readily available on the Web.