LibGuides: Screen Studies Collection: Searchable Fields

FIAF Record Types

FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database includes three types of documents:

Article Citations
Books Chapters
Film Records

The list of Search Fields on the right will explain to which of these Record Types each field applies.

More details on each of these Record Types in the Sample Content page

Additional information on these different sources can be found in the About box of the Home page.

See examples on how to search the different types of documents in the Sample Searches page

FII Record Types

Film Index International includes two types of documents:

Film Records - contain detailed film information including the director, full cast and crew lists, year of release and production information. Credits, awards and a synopsis are also included. .
Person Records - Person records include complete biographical information, a list of Awards received, plus a complete list of the films the subject featured in.

The list of Search Fields on the right will explain to which of these Record Types each field applies.

More details on either Record Types in the Sample Content page

Look Ups and Browsable Indexes

Screen Studies Collection offers nine (9) Look ups (i.e., browsable indexes), so you can easily find spelling or format variations of, for example, an author's name or publication subject. You can find the Look up links in the Advanced Search page and they are available for the following searchable fields:

Authors
Cast
Companies/organizations
Countries
Directors
People
Production titles
Publications
Subject headings (all)

For a description of these fields, please see the Searchable Fields table to the right.

Note: Look ups are also available from the Command Line search page (through the Look up terms link located on the right side of the page).

To use and locate a Look up, select the field from the Advanced Search drop-down menu. If a Look up is available, under the search row you will see a link to the Look up (e.g., Look up Authors). Look ups for Directors, People, Companies/organizations, Subject headings (all), are listed in the More search options section of the Advanced Search page.

Select the Look up link and then you will see a browsable and alphabetical index for that field. There are some indexes that will not display an alphabetical list before searching for the term, rather you will have to enter a term first, and then the alphabetical list of matches will display.

Once you locate the index term that you would like to add to your search, mark the item, and then click the Add to search button. The index term will now appear in the advanced search form along with the appropriate pull-down menu selection. You may select multiple items by checking the box next to each, then selecting either the AND or the OR Boolean operator radio button prior to clicking the Search button.

Thesaurus

The FIAF Thesaurus with more than 20,000 subject terms is used to classify the International Index to Film Periodicals. Subject terms are found in the subject field and this field is part of the searchable fields table to the right. Subject terms are also commonly known as descriptors, controlled vocabulary, and sometimes classification terms. Whenever they are also arranged hierarchically, they constitute a Thesaurus.

The thesaurus allows you to find subject terms to narrow or broaden your search and is available from the Advanced and Command Line Search. If you want to run a search on a subject, but you do not know what term to use, use the thesaurus to search the controlled vocabulary. A hierarchical display is available and will give suggestions on the appropriate subject terms to add to your search.

To use the thesaurus, select the Thesaurus link from the Advanced or Command Line Search, then browse or search for subjects containing the word or beginning with the word. Mark the items that you would like to search and then select the appropriate Boolean operator to combine your items. Click the Add to search button and your terms will be placed into the search form. From there, run your search to include the subject terms (adding additional search fields and terms if needed).

Advanced Tip - Search Limiters

IN AFI and FII Film records Use the ABANY limiter to single out the Documents containing a Synopsis. Add ABANY(yes) in one of the Advanced Search boxes, or add it to the search using the link "Search within" in the Results page. Combine it with an AND to the main search to include only Film records with a Synopsis.

AFI Production Genre Definitions

See how to search the field Production Genre in the Searchable Fields box on the right. Here below the list of terms used to index the Production Genre in this field:

Adventure‎
Allegory‎
Anthology‎
Biography‎
Black comedy‎
Children's works‎
Comedy‎
Comedy-drama‎
Documentary‎
Drama‎
Epic‎
Experimental‎
Fantasy‎
Film noir‎
Horror‎
Melodrama‎
Musical‎
Musical comedy‎
Mystery‎
Performance‎
Romance‎
Romantic comedy‎
Satire‎
Science fiction‎
Screwball comedy‎
Swashbuckler‎
Variety‎
Western‎

Searchable Fields

AFI=American Film Catalog FIAF=International Index to Film Periodicals Database FII=Film Index International

Field Name	Label	Search Examples & Explanation
Anywhere		Enter keyword(s) without a field code label to search the entire record On the Advanced Search page, enter search terms or phrases, using “double quotation marks” for two or more word phrases and (parentheses) to nest, and select the “Anywhere” from drop-down menu to the right of the search box.
Abstract	AB	ab(“music track”) The Abstract field contains the film’s Synopsis in AFI and FII. Doesn’t apply to Film records in FIAF. Applies only to the Film records in FII.
Anywhere except full text	ALL	ALL(sound) ALL searches for keywords in the citation and abstract. It is a full record search and will retrieve results with full-text articles, but does not include a search of the text of the articles.
Document Number	AN	AN(1746235410) Searches the ProQuest document ID.
Author	AU	AU.Exact("Parsons, James" OR "Parsons, J") Use to find documents written by a particular author. Applies only to FIAF. Doesn’t apply to the Film records Names may be entered as Last Name, First Name or as First Name Last Name, when not using the Exact search: AU(james parsons). Use the “Look up Authors” list to find the correct spelling and format of an author’s name.
Cast	CAST	Cast.Exact("Pickford, Mary") Cast.Exact("Pacino, Al") Searches the name of the Actor (Cast>Name) In FIAF and FII applies only to the Film records Use the look up list if uncertain of the format of the name
Character	CHR	Chr.Exact("Ruth Wilcox") chr.Exact("Connie Corleone Rizzi") Searches the name of Character (Cast>Role). Doesn’t apply to FIAF. In FII Applies only to the Film records. Use the look up list if uncertain of the format of the name
Country of Publication	CP	CP("Great Britain") CP("United States") In AFI and FII use this field to focus the search on movies produced in a specific Country. In FIAF the field indicates the Country of the Publication and doesn’t apply to the Film records. Use the look up list if uncertain of the format of the name
Crew	CREW	Crew(Morricone) Crew("Forster, E M") Searches the name of a Crew member (Credits >Name) Applies only to AFI and to the Film Records in FII Use the look up list if uncertain of the format of the name
Document Feature	DF	DF(Photograph) Applies only to FIAF. Use to search for features within an article: cartoon, charts, diagrams, graphs, llustrations, maps, photographs, references, tables. (Note: Articles always appear in the viewer starting on the first page of the article, yet the document feature searched for may be on a following page, so use the page navigation in the toolbar to ‘turn’ the pages.) Doesn’t apply to the Film records
Director	DIRECTOR	Director.Exact("IVORY, James") Director.Exact("Coppola, Sofia") Director.Exact("Griffith, David Wark" OR "Griffith, D W") Search the name of the film Director. In FII applies only to the Film records. Use the look up list if uncertain of the format of the name
Document Type	DType	DType(Film) DType(Review) DType(Book) In AFI the Document Type is always Film. In FIAF the DocType Film applies only to the Film records of The Treasures, the DocTypes Book and Chapter apply to the 5 key reference volumes. All the other definitions apply to the Periodicals: article, back matter, correspondence, editorial, feature, front matter, front page/cover story, general information, interview, news, obituary, poem, review, statistics/data report, table of contents, and several more. In FII 2 types of Documents are indexed: Film and Person – this second one includes data on People or Organizations.
Full Text	FT	FT(“Sun Records”) Applies only to FIAF. Search for keywords in the body of the article. Doesn’t apply to the Film records
ISSN	ISSN	ISSN(00286362) Applies only to FIAF. Use this field to search by a publication's assigned International Standard Serial Number (ISSN). Note that not all publications have an ISSN. Doesn’t apply to the Film records.
Issue	ISS	ISS(16) Applies only to FIAF. Use to search the issue number of a resource. Use in combination with a Volume (VO) search for more specificity. Doesn’t apply to the Film records.
Publication Subject	JSU	JSU(“Motion Pictures”) In AFI and FII the Publication Subject is always Motion Pictures. IN FIAF The searchable publication subjects are: Applied Arts, Black Studies, Communications, Communication--Radio, Communications--Television and Cable, Ethnic Interests, Motion Pictures, Theater. Doesn’t apply to the Film records in FIAF.
Language	LA	La(French) La(English) IN AFI and FIAF, search for the Language of the article. In FII and the FIAF Film records the Language is always English
Location (as subject)	LOC	Loc("Sicily Italy") Loc("Spain") In AFI and FII use to search for the location of the film. Can be a country and a region or a town. There can be more than one location in the same film. In FII applies only to the Film records. In FIAF use to search for the Country as subject of the article. Doesn’t apply to the Film records.
Notes	NT	NT(Variety) NT(Married n/5 Vivien n/1 Leigh) NT(Playwright) NT(awards n/5 baftas) NT("fritz lang") AFI: Searches the Document Note text of the record FIAF: searches the Production Details field, which includes the Production Title (Country, Dorector Name, Production year) FII: Use this to search the display fields: Activity, Biographical Note in the Person records; Production details (incl awards) – Credits > Credit - Supplemental data (magazine reviews), in both types of records
Companies/ Organizations	ORG	Org("Paramount Pictures Corp.") Org("Merchant Ivory Productions Ltd") Production company – in FII Applies only to the Film records. Use the look up list if uncertain of the format of the name
Publication Date	PD	PD(Dec 17, 1969) PD(Dec) PD(1991) Use this field to search for dates of publication of articles/books in FIAF, or the dates of World release of Films in all.
Person	PER	Per("Selznick, David O.") Per("Almodovar, Pedro") Per(Ismail Merchant) IN AFI and FII this field includes all the fields with single persons names: Cast, Crew, Director, Producer. IN FIAF this field includes all the fields with individual persons names: Cast, Director, Producer. Applies to all types of records. Use the look up list if uncertain of the format of the name
Pages	PG	PG(6) PG(4-10) Applies only to FIAF. Searches for the specific page or page range. Doesn’t apply to the Film records.
Production genre	PGR	pgr("Drama") Applies only to AFI. Use to search for the Film Production Genre: check the box on the Left for a full list of definitions working with this field
Producer	PRODUCER	Producer(Griffith) Producer("MERCHANT, Ismail") Searches the name of individual producer. In FIAF and FII applies only to the Film records.
Production Title	PTI	PTI(“The Godfather”) PTI(“Mario Puzo's The Godfather”) Locates the occurrence of search words in the title of the film or the entire title. Includes also the Alternative Title. Applies to all types of records. Use the look up list if uncertain of the format of the title
Publication Title	PUB	PUB(Variety) In AFI the Publication Title is always American Film Institute Catalog In FII 2 names are used in this field: Film Index International for the *Film* document type, and Film Index International - People and Institutions for the Person document type In FIAF around 350 publications are indexed. Use this field to focus the search on a specific title. The Pub Title 'Treasures from the Film Archives' applies exclusively to all the Film records Use the look up list if uncertain of the format of the title
Publication Year	PY	PY(1978) PY(1914-1951) Use a single year or series of years (separated by a hyphen) to search for every issue published during that year or that course of years or the films released during that year or that course of years..
Source Type	STYPE	Stype(Artistic & Aesthetic Works) Use this to find specific source types. In AFI the Source Type is always Artistic & Aesthetic Works In FII 2 definitions are used: Artistic & Aesthetic Work, related to the Film document type, and Encyclopedias & Reference Works, related to the Person document type In FIAF the definition Artistic & Aesthetic Works is used only for the Film records from the Treasures. The Source Type Books applies to the chapters of the 5 key reference volumes. For the other types of records the definitions are: Magazines‎, Newspapers‎, Scholarly Journals‎, Trade Journals‎.
Subject headings (all)	SU	SU.Exact("costume films") Applies mostly to AFI and FIAF. Use the subject search field to look for a specific subject. A search for the subject heading “costume”, will find films with the subjects-- costumes, costume film, costume design, etc. To run an exact subject search where only “costume films” is retrieved and not subject terms that contain alternative terms, search using EXACT. Use the look up list if uncertain of the format of the subject terms In FIAF doesn’t apply to the Film records
Title	TI	TI(“The Godfather”) TI(Cabiria) TI(Sir Laurence OLIVIER) Applies to all types of records. Locates the occurrence of search words in the title of the article (FIAF) or the film or locates the title in its entirety (AFI, FIAF, FII – Film records). Searches the name of the individual or organization, in the Person records. Includes also the Alternative Title (AFI, FII – Person Records)
Volume	VO	VO(14) Use to search for the volume of a resource. Use in combination with an Issue (ISS) search for more specificity. Applies only to FIAF, but doesn’t apply to the Film records.
Year	YR	YR(1978) YR(1914-1951) Use a single year or series of years (separated by a hyphen) to search for all the articles published in those years (FIAF) or films released during that year or that course of years (AFI, FIAF, FII).