When you’re writing nonfiction, it’s important to cite the sources of your information. Back in the day, it used to only be acceptable to include citations for books and journals, but not any more! Today’s Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) citation references include not only books and journals but websites, magazines, social media, and even film sources.
While you sometimes might want to include a quote or information that you came across in a fictionalized movie, there are also plenty of nonfiction films, such as documentaries or biopics, that you may want to include in your bibliography. When that’s the case, you can use the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) to find out all the details and fully cite your source appropriate to Chicago, MLA, or APA style – although this blog is going to focus mostly on Chicago.
Now: please note, the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style was just released earlier in August 2024, but this blog will continue to elaborate on the specifics of the 17th edition, as that is still the mostly commonly used across many commercial publishers. Subscribe to the SRD Editing Services blog to be among the first to know about the 18th edition updates!
Related blog: Creative Writing Tips: How to Watch Movies to Improve Your Storytelling. Check it out!
Film vs. Online Video
No matter what style guide you’re using, when you’re citing video, you will want to check whether the format of the video matters. For Chicago citation style, website videos – such as TedTalks, YouTube videos, or videos posted to social media – are cited differently than films that are released in offline formats first.
For website citations, you’ll include some of the same information, such as the title of the video and the year it was published, but you’ll indicate to your reader that the source is specifically a video by including the word “video” in square brackets. Check the full details on Chicago citation style for websites for examples.
CMS Citation for Film
When it comes to citing a film, you can think of what qualifies as a “film” by whether it is a production that requires a professional crew, a script, a studio or shots done on location, and other standards of film production that predate the internet and its distribution of film materials.
So, for example, you may watch a movie on the web browser on your computer through a site like Netflix or Hulu, but if it’s a fully produced movie that you could also have gone to see in a theater or purchased a DVD copy, you wouldn’t cite it as a website video.
Similar to an online video, the CMS citation for a film will include the title, the year it was released, and some of the production information, but the citation for a film will ask for a bit more than a website citation.
Here’s what the Chicago manual has to say about including identifying information.
14.265: Video and film recordings
“Citations of video and film recordings…will vary according to the nature of the material….Any facts relevant to identifying the item should be included. Indexed scenes are treated like chapters and cited by title or by number. Ancillary material…is cited by author and title.”
For both Notes/Bibliography style and Author-Date style, the Bibliography element will be the same. If you are referencing the whole movie, don’t include the “scene title;” that is only necessary to include if you are directing your reader toward a particular scene in the film.
“Scene Title in Title Case,” Title of Movie or Film, directed by FirstName LastName (Year; Location of studio headquarters: Film Studio Name, version date), Media or timestamp.
Example:
“Crop Duster Attack,” North by Northwest, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1959; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2000), DVD.
For the Note in Notes/Bibliography style citation, include the director’s name, the title of the film, and, where applicable, a timestamp of the moment to which you’re referring. This is similar to how the Chicago citation for books would include a page number or page range in the note. For shortened notes, include only the director’s last name, a shortened version of the title, and the timestamp.
For an Author-Date style CMS citation, throughout the text, include only the director’s last name and the date of the film’s publication in the parentheses.
If you have the DVD, the case may include most of the information you need, but if you don’t have the DVD case or it doesn’t have the details, IMDB is the place to go.
Special Cases for CMS Citation of Films
Of course, there are occasional situations where more or different information may be required. If a film doesn’t have a named director, for example, you could include a producer or lead actor’s name. If the film has been translated from a foreign language or distributed by different companies in different countries or for various editions, you may have to include some details about the translator or which version of the movie you’re citing, especially if you’re drawing attention to differences between the versions. (This is similar to how a Chicago citation for a book that has been translated or reprinted is cited as well.)
Ask Your Editor for Details on CMS Citation
So that’s a quick overview and the basics of CMS citation for films. When you’re writing fiction (especially historical fiction), you don’t need to include sources for material, although you can include information in an author’s note if you’d like. But when your book is nonfiction and you’ve taken the time to do the research, include the sources in a full bibliography. When you’re not sure how to cite, make sure to ask an experienced editor!
Talk to an editor about CMS citations
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