Note: External sites are not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, the Writers Guild of America. The WGA accepts no responsibility for their accuracy, content, or tone.
If you have a favorite link that you think would be helpful to screenwriters, please send it to: Website Administrator.
Search Engines
- All The Web - A fairly recent entry in the search engine category, this one may be the fastest ever. Comprehensive results are usually returned in less than a second with a broadband connection!
- Alta Vista -Offering compact or detailed searches through 16 million Web pages. It also provides a full-text index of more than 13,000 newsgroups.
- Arfie (Dogpile Search Engine) -This mega-search facility simultaneously looks at about two dozen top Internet search engines, adjusting boolean and proximity operators to each one. And it's really fast!
- Debriefing Meta SearchEngine - This super-search engine forwards your search request to the AltaVista, Yahoo, Infoseek, Excite, Webcrawler, Lycos and Hotbotsearch engines. It then collates the results, ranks them, removes duplicates, and then gives you what it thinks is the most significant domain name for your search. (Note: Java must be enabled in your browserfor Debriefing to work.)
- EuroSeek - A Yahoo-like search engine devoted to Europe. And you can search in about 36 different languages. Very cool for the linguistically-blessed.
- Excite - Excite tracks down information by searching for concepts, not just keywords.
- Google - This search engine indexes more pages on the Internet than any of the others, by a wide margin. And it's fast. Highly recommended, and our current favorite. There's also a Google search engine for images http://images.google.com.
- Google Groups - A complete 20-year Usenet Archive with over 700 million messages.
- Harley Hahn's Master List of Usenet Newsgroups - There is a newsgroup for pretty much every interest under the sun, and this site makes it easy to find and search the one you're looking for. They're listed by listed by category and topic.
- HotBot - This super-search engine from the folks at Wired magazine claims to index more than 55 million web pages. You can also search Usenet News and top news sites.
- Lycos - Comprehensive catalog of the Internet.
- WebCrawler Searching - Internet search tool.
- Yahoo Search - The granddaddy of Internet directories.
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Art, Music & Theater
- All Music Guide - A complete on-line database of recorded music.
- Aria Database - Designed for both singers and fans, this site indexes information on over 1,200 arias from 170 operas, offering some 380 translations, 1,000 aria texts, and 223 MIDI files. Easily searchable, the entries are cross-referenced, and most include links or information on finding recordings and related materials.
- ArtLex - Definitions of more than 2,700 art-related terms from abbozzo to zoomorphic, accompanied by numerous illustrations and pronunciation notes. Includes some great quotations and links to other resources on the Web.
- Billboard Charts - Weekly listings of the Billboard Top 200, Hot 100 Singles, Top R&B Albums, Top Country Albums, and a collection of the #1's on various Billboard charts.
- The Country Music Search Engine - A database of all things related to country music, including websites for individual singers or groups, news links, and sheet music and lyrics. Geared toward current mainstream artists.
- Documentary Films.net - A site full of useful info and links for documentary filmmakers and writers, including a list of national and international festivals.
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco - With over 65,000 works of art, this is currently the largest searchable art image database in the world.
- Also Dances.net - A labor-of-love tribute to one of musical cinema's greatest entertainers, Fred Astaire, this site includes a biography, a comprehensive list of Fred's performances (including detailed information and commentary on each of his movies), and information on co-stars and collaborators. We suggest that out of respect, you put on your top hat and tails before visiting.
- Fuller Up, The Dead Musician Directory - Named for the gasoline-swallowing event that took the life of young rocker Bobby Fuller, the creator says this is A Site About Dead Musicians And How They Got That Way. Even if it doesn't help you write your script, it might help you win a bar bet.
- John Coltrane - Dedicated to one of the leading saxophonists of the 20th century, this site offers a comprehensive discography, a short biography, and an audio sampler of Trane's music. (Requires Flash plug-in).
- MOMA - On-line site of the famous New York Museum of Modern Art.
- National Museum of Women in the Arts - Billed as "the only museum dedicated exclusively to recognizing the contributions of women artists."
- Pianopedia - Pianopedia is a search engine performing queries over a large database of classical piano works using flexible combinations of criteria (e.g. composer, composer nationality, title, duration, date composed). It serves as a detailed reference source for the classical piano repertoire.
- Red Hot Jazz Archive - This resource for the early history of American jazz features comprehensive lists of musicians and bands active between 1895 and 1929, many with names of band members and full-length sound files (RealAudio player required).
- RIAA Gold & Platinum Database - The Recording Industry Association of America presents this database of gold, platinum, multi-platinum, and diamond record sales, searchable by title, artist, label, format, award, and dates.
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Children
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Directories
- American Society of Association Executives - This directory service takes you directly to many of the associations currently operating on the Web.
- BigBook - An impressive Yellow Pages directory that lets you search by category, complete with location maps.
- Bigfoot - Huge directory of e-mail addresses and white pages.
- InfoSpace - This huge collection of online directories includes Internet Yellow and White pages, classifieds, public listings, local city information, and complete Federal, State, County and City government listings for the United States.
- Liszt - Often, people interested in the field you're writing about are the best source for research information. This site lists over 70,000 mailing lists devoted to specific and general topics.
- Switchboard - U.S. residential and business listing White Pages.
- WhoWhere? - White Pages service for locating people and organizations on the Net.
- Yahoo People Search - Look up phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
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Film & TV
- The Big Cartoon Database - This ambitious and enormously useful site includes production credits and synopses for thousands of film and television cartoons. An awesome effort!
- BoxOffice Guru - An unbelievably comprehensive and constantly updated collection of film box office stats, including opening/total grosses for over 1600 pix released since 1989; current and past opening weekends; monthly averages; a release schedule for the coming four months, and some very pithy commentary by Gitesh Pandya, whose site this is. Gitesh deserves a medal.
- Cinematter - A searchable database of scheduled movie releases "from now until the end of time" (currently through 2005). Includes capsule reviews mentioning the stars and director but, sad to say, no writers.
- The Costume Gallery's Research Library - A rich resource dedicated to the art and history of costuming.
- Cybercinema - From the English Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (the birthplace of HAL, remember?), this site chronicles the history of computers and artificial intelligence in film. The gallery section presents numerous still sequences, the sound clips area features every HAL quote you can think of, and the filmography is comprehensive.
- Cyberspace Film School - Official website of the Hollywood Film Institute. Mostly for budding talent, the site includes some useful info on how to produce a film, find an agent, contact a star, direct your first feature or sell your script.
- Early Motion Pictures (1897-1916) - Five early motion picture collections from the U.S. Library of Congress.
- Entertainment News Daily - The latest goings-on in film, TV and music.
- Episode Guides - This site contains episode lists for over 1,550 TV shows. Each list contains titles and airdates. For over 375 shows there is a more detailed episode guide containing guest stars and plot summaries.
- Film Festivals Server - Comprehensive worldwide festival coverage.
- Greatest Films - This extensive website contains plot summaries (with actual film dialogue), review commentary with emphasis on story content and historical background, film history per decade, posters, trivia quizzes, famous scenes, Academy Award historical info, and all manner of "best films" lists. A real find for the true movie buff.
- Harvest Moon Publishing - Harvest Moon offers a catalog of film and TV scripts published in association with the Writers Guild Foundation. Scripts are published with the approval of the credited writers and presented in their authentic production format. A portion of all sales goes to the Writers Guild Foundation, a non-profit organization.
- Hollywood Cybercenter - Links to Studios, Networks, Production Companies, Film Schools.
- InBaseline - Links Your Writing Credits. Everywhere. The company behind The Studio System puts the power of updating your online film and television credits back in the hands of the person who matters most… you. With a client base including every major studio, network, production company and agency, your credits and other details reach the industry’s most influential professionals. Baseline’s data is also seen daily by millions of people visiting popular entertainment Web sites in including Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! Television, New York Times, Variety.com, E!Online, Hollywood.com, and many more.
- Inside Film Magazine Online - This site features listings of film festivals all over the world, as well as articles which focus on independent film and filmmakers.
- The Internet Movie Database - First and foremost, this site contains the best searchable online database of information about films. Over 180,000 of them! But the IMDB doesn't stop there. This vast resource also includes current and near-future movie releases, recent box office numbers, movie quotes, daily entertainment news, and much more. Indispensable.
- LittleGoldenGuy.com - A deep, comprehensive database of Oscar information spanning the entire history of the event, this site offers a flexible and user-friendly interface to help you sift for all kinds of facts and stats about the Academy Awards. Could provide the winning edge in trivia bets as the ceremonies draw near.
- The Silent Artists Index - Bios of featured stars, supporting players and character performers who worked in films back when silence was golden. From "The Silents Majority", the on-line journal of silent film.
- The Trailer Park - Billing itself as "the most comprehensive movie trailer and clip directory on the Internet", this site provides several hundred links to pages with video clips and trailers, organized by movie company, distribution (US vs. Foreign) and movie title. Includes trailers and clips from recent and classic releases as well as several upcoming movies. (Note that these clips will play best on high-speed connections).
- TV Guide Online's Movie Guide - Which movies are new and notable on TV, in theaters, and on video/DVD.
- TV Party - A large, easy to digest collection of facts and photos of some of the great and not-so-great television shows of days gone by. Remember "Jukebox Jury"? "The Goldbergs"? "Get Christy Love"? The site even includes short video clips (in RealPlayer format) from some of your favorites.
- The Worst Movies on Earth - A website that dares to present the most awful attempts at celluloid creation in the history of cinema. Plus a handy listing of the worst upcoming events pertaining to movies. How could you not?
- Yahoo! Movies - From the granddaddy of all search engines, this site features current reviews, upcoming releases, top box office listings,selected items from the Hollywood Reporter and Variety, and a nifty feature that lets you search for the show times of movies in your area.
- Yesterdayland - Dedicated to the preservation of Saturday Morning, this site features info about all of our favorite cartoons and children's shows from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Everything from Howdy Doody to Rude Dog and the Dweebs. Not 100% accurate, but you can add your own comments and set the record straight.
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Government
- Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress - This site lists every Congressperson from 1774 to the present, including such basic info as state represented, political party, years served, and a short biographical paragraph. Searchable by name, state, and/or position, this is a great reference resource.
- The British Monarchy - This official website of the Monarchy in Britain includes historical and present-day information about The Royals and their palaces, as well as photographs from The Royal Collection of art.
- The CIA - Official website of our country's spies. Lots of facts; no secrets, but a good suggested reading list.
- CIA Factbook 2001 - The newest version of the CIA's very useful global guide. Contains facts on every country in the world, including information on each country's geography, population, government,transportation, defense systems and more.
- Congressional Email Directory - If an elected official in any of the fifty states or U.S.territories has an email address, you can find it in this searchable database. Allows search by both name and state/territory.
- DefenseLINK - The World-Wide Web Information Service from the Department of Defense with links to the Office of the Secretary, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Reserve, National Guard and more.
- The Embassy Web - Links to U.S. and other nations' Embassies and Consulates around the world.
- FedStats - On-line access to the full range of public statistics and information produced by over 70 US Federal Government agencies. Stats from crimes to crops are downloadable in ready-made spreadsheet form.
- FedWorld Information Network - a one-stop location to access or order U.S. Government information, created through an agency of the Department of Commerce.
- FirstGov - A new U.S. government directory for locating Federal government information on the Web more quickly. Covers business, education, employment, health, recreation, taxes, Social Security, and lots more.
- Government Information Locator Service (GILS) - GILS records identify public information resources within the Federal Government, describe the information available in those resources, and assist in obtaining the information.
- National First Ladies Library - On-line version of the national archive devoted to U.S.First Ladies and other important women in history.
- The Patent Office (UK) -This offical Web site of the United Kingdom's Patent Office can be browsed by category or searched with keywords. Includes a feature story on widgets. Yes, they do exist, and you'll never guess what they are.
- Rulers - Lists of heads of state and heads of government (and, in certain cases, de facto leaders which don't occupy either of those formal positions) of all currently existing countries and territories. Most listings go back to the year 1700.
- State and Local Government on the Net - Whatever local government information you're seeking, chances are this site can point you in the right direction with its well-organized collection of links to U.S. state, county, and city government Web sites.
- U.S. House Of Representatives - Home Page Provides public access to legislative information as well as information about Members, Committees, and Organizations of the House and to other U.S.government information resources.
- U.S. Senate Home Page - Access to information about members, committees, and publications.
- The White House - Press releases and White House documents.
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