Cinema in Context



How To Do

Which films were screened by the Netherlands Film League (Filmliga) in Utrecht between 1927 and 1933?


This question connects to a previous question: Where could one attend private screenings organised by the Netherlands Film League? The question can be answered in three steps. First we will look up the programmes, then we will import them into a database, and finally we will bring in the film titles. As an extra option, you can process the found data in a pivot table. For this exercise you will have to log into Cinema Context. Everyone who has an UvAnetID from the University of Amsterdam can use it to log in. Others will have to send a login request to k.dibbets@xs4all.nl.

Method

Step 1

First we will search for the film programmes. Cinema Context has marked the programmes organised by the Film League with the keyword ‘Filmliga’. This word cannot be found via the search page of other collections.

  • Open Cinema Context in a new window.
  • Click on Programmes at the top of the page.
  • Enter ‘Filmliga’ in the first search field, and leave the pull-down menu set to All fields.
  • Enter ‘Utrecht’ in the second search field and select City from the pull-down menu.
  • Click on . Cinema Context will list 48 programmes that match your search query.
  • Click on add all to my data.
  • In the saved data window, click on download contents (if the window is not visible, click on My data at the top of the page). Save the file with the results in a folder that is easily accessible. Do not close Cinema Context.

Step 2

In order to answer this question, the file HowToDoInAccess.xslt must be present on your computer. If you have not installed this file yet, follow the method indicated in Where do I find the transformation file and what is it for?, and then continue to B. If you have installed this file already, then start at A.

A

  • Launch MS Access.
  • Select File > New from the upper left corner.
  • On the right-hand side of the screen, create a Blank database.
  • Store the database in a folder that is easily accessible.
  • Click on File > Get External Data > Import.
  • Select XML from the pull-down menu Files of type and then choose the file you had saved before (the saved data set) with the found data.
  • Click on Options > Transform.
  • Select HowToDoInAccess, click OK to confirm, and then OK once more to import the data. Continue to section B.

B

The database window now lists the names of six tables. You can replace the icons with a list of names by clicking on View > List in the top of the toolbar.

  • Double-click tblJoinProgrammeFilm in the database window. The table will open.
  • Select the column title_id by clicking the column head once. The entire column will turn black.
  • Go to the toolbar at the top of the screen and click Edit > Copy. All the film title identifiers are now stored to memory.

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Step 3

We will now look up the relevant film titles in Cinema Context and import them into MS Access.

  • Return to the Cinema Context website and click on Films at the top of the page.
  • Click on login to log in. This will give you extra facilities to search with a list of identifiers.
  • Click on Create download in the upper right. A new page with a large search field will appear.
  • Paste all ID’s into the large search field and click Create new data set.

The saved data set window will show the film titles you have found. This does give you the answer to the question, but a long list like this is not always practical. This can be improved. You can inspect and analyse the list in a database. This can be done using the following method.

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Step 4 (optional)

We will import the film titles into the database.

  • Click on download contents in the window of the new saved data set. Save the file with the results in a folder that is easily accessible.
  • Return to your database. If the table is still open, close it by clicking on the table cross in the upper right corner (close the file, but not the database!).
  • Click File > Get External Data > Import in the upper left.
  • Select XML from the pull-down menu Files of type, and choose the file you had saved with the film titles.
  • Click Options > Transform.
  • Select xHowToDoInAccess, click OK to confirm, and then OK once more to import the data. The database window will now also show the names of various film tables. If you only see icons displayed, then click on View > List at the top of the toolbar.
  • Double-click the table tblTitle. Besides film titles, you will also see data about year, country of origin, length, etc. You can sort the columns and adjust their width.

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Step 5 (optional)

You can take it another step further and count the number of films per country and per year in a cross pivot table. MS Access has a very practical tool for this: the interactive pivot table.

  • Close the table by clicking on the table’s close button (not that of the database!) in the upper right.
  • Click on Queries under Objects in the database window on the left.
  • Click on Query under Objects on the left and then double-click on the right. A window named Show Table will open and will display the list of tables.
  • Select the table tblTitle, click Add, and then click Close. The table is now in the upper half of the query module.
  • Select the field film_title in the table and drag it to the first column in the lower half of the module.
  • Repeat this for the fields film_year, film_country, and film_w_categories. The result will look as follows:



  • Click on View > PivotTable View in the toolbar. The wizard will open and will show the PivotTable Field List with our four fields on the right.
  • Click on the plus sign in front of film_year in the PivotTable Field List. Select the eponymous subfield and drag it to the pivot table marked Drop Row Fields here on the left.
  • Click on the plus sign in front of film_country. Select the eponymous subfield and drag it to the pivot table marked Drop Column Fields Here at the top of the screen.
  • Click on the plus sign in front of film_title. Select the eponymous subfield and drag it to the empty pivot table marked Drop Totals or Detail Fields Here.
  • In the pivot table, right-click on film_title > AutoCalc > Count.
  • Right-click on film_title > Hide details. Make the columns narrower by dragging the vertical line to the left.

The cross pivot table offers an overview of the number of films per country and per year. Replace film_year by film_w_categories to count the number of films per genre (fiction, non-fiction).

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