Do I need to cite a movie if I'm explaining scenes throughout my paper?
Answer
Yes, cite any movie you are discussing in your paper.
- If using exact lines from the film, treat these in-text as a quotation.
- If explaining what happened in the movie or other ideas from the film (in other words, paraphrasing), then this is an in-text paraphrase.
- See below for examples of in-text quotations and in-text paraphrases.
Visit the APA Help guide to see an example.
- Click on References and In-text Citation Examples
- Select Other and see Film/TV.
Film / Motion Picture
Richter, J. (Producer), & Hausmann, J. (Director). (1985). Cezanne: The man and the mountain [Motion picture]. United States: Home Vision.
In-text
Paraphrase: (Richter & Hausmann, 1985). Quotation: (Richter & Hausmann, 1985, Timestamp)
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If you are concerned about citing a lot from the same source, you may want to take a look at Section 6.11 One Work by One Author (p. 174) of the APA Manual, 6th edition. It provides examples where author's name appears multiple times in a single paragraph.
The fact that there is a rule suggests that, even though it may seem like it is excessive, it is still necessary to have the in-text citations.