UK Short film database ADVANCED HELP PAGE last update 9/11/03

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The database started in 1997 while the web site belonged to the original Film Centre, a company hiring film equipment in the UK . Initially a contact list and notes about clients projects, it became apparent it could be made to work the other way around: to find sales agents for particular films or even the crew who worked on them simply by searching for a film title or description.
The database is no longer just shorts, more features, ads and music promos are creeping in, mainly because they extend the crew search. Some non-UK shorts have been added, usually out of interest because they were festival winners or particularly important/outstanding films or directors.

This page looks at some of the undocumented features and those not included on the direct links on other pages.
This is simpler than it looks... the green text is the search you put in the browser after http://www.filmcentre.co.uk. and are the ".asp" search queries that return the pages of the database you see. Each ".asp" returns a particular set of entries in the database (eg "film-name" or "director") in a set format. The query is set by various parameters (or strings as they are called) listed after the ".asp" eg str=x.
In some browsers (like Internet Explorer) it is easier to use this page in non-frames mode, so click here.
If you use Mozilla Firefox simply open pages in a new tab.

This uses search_short2.asp?str=# it looks only at the film titles and returns all short films starting with #. Known errors: none, but the above links to 0-9 don't work so use search_short2.asp?str=1, search_short2.asp?str=2 etc
A second string can be added to qualify the film as musicPromo, Tv, Short, Feature, Advert. Eg search_short2.asp?str=3&str2=F will return only feature films starting with 3.

Title only. Known errors: None search.asp?str=xxx (where xxx is the text being searched for). The difference between this and search_short2.asp is that all entries are looked at regardless of running time or type.

word/phrase in film sysnopsis and other description fields ("reference" & "festival awards"), search_word.asp?str2=xx (xx is a word or phrase in the search) NOV 2004

s_crew_frame.asp?str3=xx known errors: names with ' in them may not be returned

search_act.asp?str4=xx (xx is a word or phrase in the actors field) known errors: names with ' in them may not be returned

search by year: 2002, 2001 , 2000 , 1999 ,... 1889.. etc uses http://www.filmcentre.co.uk/search_00.asp?str=xx (where xx is a date) Crew-Contacts this Index page is a html page not currently driven by the database. Known Errors: Because it is not actually a list of job types taken directly from the database there may be errors and miss-matches, particularly as new entries are made to the database. This page will eventually be replaced with an .asp query of all jobs in the database. Commas in people's surnames still mess up the search string... so in many cases it has been left out of surnames (search acordingly!). actors this query is currently disabled. Sorry we couldn't cope with the amount of (unpaid !) work it was causing. Hopefully it will be reinstated soon. festivals this is a link to a separate database via filmfest.asp?str=xx (str parameters = country codes eg UK). It is not currently linked to the awards or the list of festivals and sponsors in the film database. The film database has a field "fest" which lists all festivals and sponsors in the "awards" field. It is not curently accessible on-line

About other search queries:

• Genre searches eg Music general search_genre.asp?str=genre (searches film type "genre" for a word eg. music, drama, animation, vis-art, vis-inst, web-soap, thriller, trailler, sci-fi, rom-com, fantasy, comedy, demo, abstract, mocumentary, etc).
  Known ommissions: there is no avaliable list of all the descriptions in the "genre" field, though there is a prompt list in a table "genre" it is not accesible via asp).
• Programme type with name searches eg Music promos / Documentaries / features / TV / Adverts / Shorts /. search_short2.asp?str=a&str2=P (str parameters = a,b,c etc the 1st letter of the film name, str2 = film type code eg Promo, Tv, Short, Feature, Advert)
  eg the feature films list uses the same query: search_short2.asp?str=a&str2=F
• format search eg b/w / anamorphic lenses used / super16 / super35 / 70 / Imax / DigiBeta / BetaSP / Hi-def / CineAlta / miniDV / DVcam / Kodak / Fuji / Agfa / blowups / XL1 / VX1000 / PD150 . search_format.asp?str=xxx where xxx is any of the above examples (and more) . Known errors & ommissions: there is no avaliable list of all the descriptions in the "format" field, though there is a prompt list in a table "format" it is not accesible via asp).
• Films by country Au / Be / Ca / Cz / De / Fi / Fr / Ge / Ir / Is / It / Hu / Jp / NZ / Ma / NI / NL / Ph / Po / Ru / Ro / SA / Sl / Sp / Sw / US / Zb / web based / non UK search_uk.asp?str=&str2=xx (xx is the country code, (web based is "www") str= is not used). Errors and ommissions: entries don't conform to any known code list, but will be fixed sometime...
• Show only films with associated pictures search_pic.asp lists all films with a picture, there are no parameters
• Interesting intro to database, famous shorts/directors and "feature makers" shorts.
  search_intro.asp?str=intro searches a field called reference for the word "intro".
• The field called reference may also have info about festivals where a film has been shown (it's where we put any confirmation note as to where a film was seen), eg replacing the word intro with "raindance" will list a number of films shown at Raindance, however the contents of the reference field often appears rather abitary and random as it isn't derived from any individual festival list.
  a good example is search_intro.asp?str=supershorts05 (Supershorts festival screenings 2005) or search_intro.asp?str=raindance
  
• Award winners by festival and year is search_award.asp?str=short this returns a large list of shorts awards eg
  / Oscar / BIFA / BAFTA / RTS / Rushes / TAPS / DepicT / Sundance / Slamdance / Raindance / RTS / Cannes / Reykjavik / Portobello / Berlin / Villeurbanne / Greenwhich / Venice / uppsala / NYFF / Milan / Bilbao....
  the search can be limited to particular festivals or awards for Cinematography / sound / edit / director etc these examples will be fixed to show how.... just as soon as I get time!
  eg search_award.asp?str=oscar / search_award.asp?str=cannes
• UK Lottery funded films uses search_award.asp?str=xx and actually only searches the second description field, usually reserved for non script info like funding, locations etc. for the word "lottery". It doesn't search the award field (well since when did lottery funding garantee an award...) search_award.asp?str=lottery.
  In the example other funding search_word.asp?str2=funding%3A&submit=description (%3A is just a colon, so the search string is for "funding:")
• production companies http://www.filmcentre.co.uk/search_all_co.asp?str=# (str parameters = a,b,c etc the 1st letter, if there are no parameters companies 0-9 are listed).
• advanced searching This Page!
  

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