Request for "Country of origin" metadata for film items

Hello

I'm suggesting you add a "Country of origin" field in the metadata for film items. It is a requirement when citing in APA style.
  • Yes, this is sorely missing. I'm sure it's requred in several citation styles, but just as importantly, it is crucial information about a film which should be storable in the Zotero database. If anyone is working on adding a Country field, please note that it would have to be a repeating field, because some films have more than one country (some co-productions).
  • Can you provide specific examples of how the field is used and examples of journals or styles that require it, preferably with examples of what precisely they request? I ask not because I don't believe you, but rather to make sure that we understand the needs correctly, so this can be added properly.
  • OK, here are some examples I've pulled together, but of course you'll want to use definitive sources if they exist. First of all some notes on specific "styles", and then a couple of examples from journals.

    APA style:
    Director name (Director), & Producer name (Producer). (Year of release). Title of film [Format]. Country of Origin: Studio or Production or Distribution company.
    Example:
    Gluck, D. H. (Director), & Mass, J. B. (Producer). (1987). Deeper into hypnosis [Motion Picture]. United States: Prentice-Hall.

    Chicago Manual of Style suggests place of publication/distribution rather than country of origin, though I think a generic Place field would do, rather than trying to distinguish Country and Place of publication -- allow user to decide what they want to put in the Place field(s):
    Title. Format. Directed by Director Name. Date of original release; Place of publication of Format: Publisher or Distributor, Publication/Distribution date.
    Example:
    Dial M for Murder. DVD. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 1954; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2004.
    IMO this would be perfectly acceptable:
    Dial M for Murder. DVD. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 1954; USA: Warner Home Video, 2004.

    Harvard style for film distributed on DVD:
    Originator or Director of Film. (Year of release). Title of film. [Medium: Format]. Country of Production: Distribution Company.
    Example:
    Aronofsky, D. (2000). Requiem for a Dream. [35mm/Colour: DVD]. UK: Momentum Pictures.

    MHRA doesn't require Country

    MLA style doesn't require Country of Production

    Submission style for journal Screen says "Where such information is relevant to the argument and does not appear elsewhere in the text, details of production company and/or country of origin may also be included":
    Original language title/English language release title (Director name, Production company, Country of origin, Release date).
    Example:
    A bout de souffle/Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1960).

    Cinema Journal (Society for Cinema and Media Studies) uses the Chicago Manual of Style (above).


    Thinking about it, it might not be necessary to go to the complication of having a repeating field for the Country/Place. Where there is co-production by two countries, the usual way of indicating this is: Argentina/Spain (i.e., with forward slash). It would be easier just to let the user insert multiple countries in this way than build a repeating field.

    If I come across more specific examples, especially of journals, I'll post them here.
  • edited January 17, 2015
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