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APA 6th Style:  Film, TV, video & music

UON Library guide for APA 6th

Film, TV & AV media

Citing film, TV, music and other AV sources

Select a tab to view the general rules and examples for various AV sources

 

YouTube, Kanopy, ClickView, Netflix and other streaming video

For streaming video resources see the Web resources page.

 

Podcasts

For podcasts see the Web Resources page.

Film and video (Physical media)

 

Physical media = DVD, Blu-Ray, CD-ROM, etc.

For streaming video resources see the Web resources page.

 

The general reference format for film and video content is:

Example of an AV Reference List Entry

 

 

 

Notes:

  • After the title of the work, include the type of media in square brackets (eg. CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-Ray).
  • If the creators of the work are unknown, move the title to the author position then include the year of production.
  • Need to use the title of the film in your sentence? Add the whole title in italics and using the normal capitalisation to your sentence (e.g. The Rocky Horror Picture Show). You may shorten the title if needed when you are referring to the film multiple times (e.g. Rocky Horror).

 

In-Text Citation:

(Producer Surname & Director Surname, Year)

Example:

... is apparent in the director's cut of Blade Runner (Deeley & Scott, 2006), where Decker's voiceover ...

 

Reference list examples:

TV shows

 

The general format for a reference for a TV show (or content taken from one) is:

 

 

 

Reference list example:

   

Recorded music

 

List the following bibliographic details, in order:

  1. Writer/s or Composer/s of the piece(s) of music [surname, initials]
  2. Copyright Year in parentheses ( ) [followed by a full stop]
  3. Title of the piece of music or song* etc [Recorded by name of performer/s] only stated if different from the Writer/Composer [followed by a full stop]
  4. On Title of the album in italics
  5. [Medium of the recording] [followed by a full stop], eg. [Cassette], [Vinyl record], [MP3 file]
  6. Location [followed by a colon] - where the recording was made.
    City, Country if not in America. Eg. Paris, France:
    But, for US locations.
    City, State abbreviation: New York, NY:
  7. Label [followed by a full stop] eg. Sony Music. EMI. Deutsche Grammophon.

*3. It is necessary to state the title of both the album and the individual track even where they are both exactly the same.

Eg. Symphony 1, C major, op. 21. On Symphony 1, C major, op. 21

See Example 3 below.

Nb: The booklet included with a CD is called the "liner notes". This information can be cited as follows;

      lang, k. d. (2008). Shadow and the frame [Liner notes]. On Watershed [CD]. New York, NY: Nonesuch Records.

 

Writers/Composers and Recording Artists (i.e. Performers)

Where the recording artist is different from the composer (or writer) the name of the recording artist is then included in the full citation in the Reference List. [Eg. 1]. However, if the composer (or writer) is also the performer then the name is not repeated. [Eg. 2]

'In-text' citations include as relevant SIDE, BAND or TRACK numbers:

"Vor dem fenster" (Brahms, 2007, track 23)
SIDE numbers are inapplicable to CD's as they are single-sided only.

Example 1. Recording artist is different from the composer.

Music CD recording showing both 'in-text' and Reference List formatting in the APA 6th ed style.

 

Example 2. Recording artist is the same as the composer.

CD music recording with same performer and composer; in-text and Reference List example.

 

Title of the piece and Title of the Album

Example 3. Title of the piece of music, song etc is exactly the same as the title of the album.
That is the- On title

Example of in-text and reference list citation for a music CD where the Title of the piece of music (or song) etc is exactly the same as the title of the album.

Quoting from film, TV and AV media

 

Need to quote from a film, TV show, or video content?

APA allows the use of a 'timestamp' for both direct quoting and paraphrasing from these sources.

Check the time that the quote starts on the video and use that in place of a page number, e.g. (Moorhouse, 2015, 1:13:20). Here the 1:13:20 refers to 1 hour 13 minutes 20 seconds into the film, where the quote we want starts.

Hours/minutes/seconds follows the pattern H:MM:SS

Minutes/seconds follows the pattern MM:SS

Where you are only using seconds (e.g. for a short clip), use a zero at the fornt, e.g. 0:39 for 39 seconds.

See the entry on the official APA Style Blog for more information.

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Subjects: Referencing