1. A method for searching a database of digital media assets, comprising using a processor to perform the steps of: designating a database of digital media assets, wherein the database of digital media assets has been indexed according to a set of general indexers to determine general metadata for each of the digital media assets; receiving a search query; defining specialized search conditions by identifying one or more elements of the search query corresponding to one or more specialized indexers; defining general search conditions by identifying elements of the search query corresponding to the general indexers; identifying a subset of the digital media assets by applying the general search conditions to the general metadata; indexing the subset of the digital media assets using the one or more identified specialized indexers to determine specialized metadata for each of the digital media assets in the subset of the digital media assets; and ranking the subset of the digital media assets by applying the specialized search conditions to the specialized metadata.