APA Film Citation Generator: How to Cite a Film APA

Films are visual works of art that simulate human experiences and communicate stories, ideas, and perceptions. Thus, films are essential sources of information for different academic papers.

Citations are important in academic writing, and students must learn how to cite using different formatting styles. The APA format is one of the citation styles used to reference films in academic papers. Using the APA format simplifies the citation process and makes the references clear and simple. Your readers will easily locate the movie sources for verification purposes.

This article is a guide to help you learn how to write citations for films using APA format.

The APA is a writing style for formatting academic documents like books or scholarly journals. It is a common citation style in various fields like social sciences and behavioral courses. When it comes to films, you can also use APA format to cite your movie sources. Thus, an APA film citation uses the American Psychological Association formatting style.

You must follow the required standards to cite a film in APA style. Besides, you can use a free APA citation movie generator to cite your films with little effort. Enter the required details into the citation form, and you will get your results within minutes. Here are the details you need to fill out:

• Film source
• Subject
• Title of the film
• Director – First and last name
• Place of origin
• Publisher
• Year published
• Film format

Once you enter all the details, you can press the button to generate your citation. Therefore, when citing a film, you must consider the order of the details as outlined below:

General APA format: Last name, First Name Initial. (Director). (Year). Movie title [Film]. Production Company.

Example of a reference entry: Peterson, M. (Director). (2005). Unbreakable [Film]. Universal Productions.

Remember that you must be careful when inserting commas, periods, usual brackets, and square brackets. Also, make sure you write the movie titles in italics without brackets or quotation marks for APA format.

One mistake might affect the entire APA movie citation and the quality of your paper.

As a student, you might get assignments or research papers that require you to cite movies. You might need to incorporate quotes, themes, or ideas expressed in a particular film into your research paper.

So, why should you cite films? Here are a few reasons why you need to cite a movie.

• Maintain academic integrity. Citing your film sources will help in preventing plagiarism claims. The scholarly community values academic integrity and will punish students who plagiarize their work.
• Attribute others’ works. Citations are vital in providing proper attribution to the original owner of the film.
• Offer credibility to your work. Adding proper citations increases your credibility and professionalism. Your readers will know that you conducted adequate research because they can easily verify your film sources.
• Help locate research sources. Accurate citations help you keep track of your information sources and allow easy identification when you want to advance your research further.

You can use in-text citations in the APA style by following the author-date format. Use the same format in an APA movie citation. In-text citations entail inserting the citation within the research paper to highlight the information source briefly to guide readers to the main reference list for detailed information.

To cite a film in-text, you must include the director’s last name and the film’s release date. If you want to refer to a particular quote or scene in the film, you must include a timestamp to guide the readers to locate the relevant section. However, it is essential to remember that the in-text citation must correspond to the reference entry.

Examples:

In-text APA format paraphrase:

(Director’s last name, Year)

(Johnson, 1999)

In-text APA format direct quote:

(Director’s last name, Year, Timestamp)

(Smith, 2007, 15.05)

Documentaries are films that provide accurate facts and information about a particular subject. As a student, you might encounter an assignment that requires an APA citation of a documentary.

Thus, you need to identify the director’s name, the documentary title, the year of release, and the studio’s name or URL.

Example:

Director’s name (Last name, initial). (Director). Documentary Title [Film]. Producer/studio or URL

Example of the reference entry

Johnstone, P. (Director). 2000). London is falling [Film]. Rolling Motions Inc.

Some films have multiple producers, and you need to know how to cite the film in APA format. If you want to cite multiple producers in an in-text citation, you should list the names of the producers as they show on the film. Insert the last name of the director and the year the film was released.

Examples of APA format in-text citation

(Names of multiple producers, & Director’s last name, Year)

(Smith, Peterson, Hilson, & Cort, 2004)

Examples of APA format reference entry

Multiple producers’ Last names, First Name Initials. (Director). (Year). Movie title [Film]. Production Company.

Smith, P., Peterson. R., Hilson, M., (Producers) & Cort, S (Director). (2004). The Last Dance [Film]. Great Motion Pictures.

Cite a Movie APA 7^th Edition: YouTube Video & Subscription Website

According to the APA 7^th edition, you can cite movies using different formats. You might watch a movie at the theatres, on YouTube, or Netflix. Thus, the format for citing a film you have watched on TV differs from one on YouTube.

Let us explore the formats:

Example of APA format Youtube

When you want to cite a YouTube video, the author is the person who posted the video.

Author’s Last name, first name initial. [Username that posted the video]. (Year, month, day video was posted). Video Title. Website name. URL

Example of a reference entry:

Smith, B. [TheOriginalGuy]. (2010, June 10). The Diaspora stories.[Video]. YouTube. http://youtu.be/0ALLiueAo.

Example of an in-text paraphrase:

(Creator’s Last Name, Year)

(Smith, 2010)

Example of APA format Subscription media (Netflix, Hulu)

When you watch a movie on a subscription media website like Netflix, you must follow the right APA format during citation.

APA format:

Producer’s last name, First name initial. Second Initial (if provided). (Producer). (Year of Release), Movie Title [Video]. Website name. URL

Example of a reference entry:

Allan, K. (Producer). (2012).The magic stone [Video]. Netflix. http://www.netflix.com

When you have multiple producers, you should use the word producers instead of producer.

Example of an in-text quote:

(Producer’s Last name, Year, Timestamp)

(Allan, 2012, 12:30)

It is imperative to note that the time stamp in the citation acts as a page number or paragraph number. Readers use the time stamp to locate the exact scene in the movie. So, you must include the time stamp in the in-text citation.

Conclusion

Knowing how to cite a movie APA is important for college or university students. You might get research papers where you must cite films, documentaries, or YouTube videos. So, it is vital to understand the different formatting styles to simplify the citation process. Ensure you master the commas, periods, parentheses, and box brackets. Once you master the basics, citing a film in APA will be as easy as citing a book or an article.

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