Translation students often cite examples from films to illustrate cultural differences, subtitle mistranslations, or numerous other items. In general, film citation format follows that of Television and Radio Programs; if the film was viewed on television, they will be largely the same.

However, there are also differences: TV programs will have been "broadcast," whereas most films are cited either from a cinema screening or, more likely these days, from a DVD edition. With DVD editions there is often much additional material which may be used in research papers. The following gives examples of different film citations, including citation procedures for the special features of DVD films.

Basic Film Citations

A film citation usually begins with the title of the film, and includes the director, the distributor, and the year of release, in that order. These four levels of detail must be in any film citation. As with TV and Radio Programs, additional detail which is relevant to your paper, such as the names of the writer(s), performer(s), producer, etc., may be added. If so, it is added between the title and the distributor. For example:

• American Graffiti. Dir. George Lucas. Universal Pictures, 1973. (or)
• American Graffiti. Written by George Lucas, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck. Dir. George Lucas. Perf. Richard Dreyfuss, Ronny Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charlie Martin Smith, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Cindy Williams and Wolfman Jack. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Universal Pictures, 1973.

If the film was produced in another language, and subtitled or dubbed into English, then the original (foreign language) name of the film should be included in brackets following the English title, as follows:

• Life is Beautiful [La vita è bella]. Screenplay by Vincenzo Cerami and Roberto Benigni. Dir. Roberto Benigni. Perf. Roberto Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi. Miramax, 1998.

Citing a Particular Individual in a Film

As with TV and Radio citations, one can also cite a specific person's role in a film, with that person's name then coming first. For example:

• Benigni, Roberto, perf. Life is Beautiful [La vita è bella]. Screenplay by Vincenzo Cerami and Roberto Benigni. Dir. Roberto Benigni. Miramax, 1998. (or)
• Lucas, George, dir. American Graffiti. Universal Pictures, 1973.

Citing the Videocassette (VHS) or DVD Release of a Film

If you have viewed the film from a VHS or DVD (or videodisc, etc.) release, rather than the original cinematic release, then both the particular medium (VHS, DVD, etc.) and its release date should be added to the original cinema release date (where there was an original cinematic release date — it is possible the films will not have ever been released for general cinema distribution). The original release date and medium information comes before the name of the distributor for the VHS or DVD edition, as follows:

• It's a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and Thomas Mitchell. 1946. Videocassette. Republic, 1996.
• American Graffiti. Dir. George Lucas. 1973. DVD. Columbia Tristar Home Video, 2000.
• Don Carlo. By Giuseppe Verdi. Dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Perf. Luciano Pavarotti and Samual Ramey. La Scala Orch. and Chorus. Cond. Riccardo Muti. Videocassette. EMI, 1994.
  [this was a recording of a live performance, so there was no previous release date]

Citing Particular Scenes and Special Features in a DVD Edition

Increasingly, students are citing films from their DVD versions, rather than VHS or cinema versions. The DVD versions offer several advantages over the other media. One particular advantage is the ability to cite more precisely the location in the film for the material you are citing by employing the DVD's "scene (chapter) divisions."

Consider the basic citation for the DVD version of Girl With a Pearl Earring, based on a novel by Tracy Chevalier and adapted for the screen by Olivia Hetreed. Directed by Peter Webber, produced by Andy Paterson, and starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson, the film was originally distributed for cinematic viewing in 2003 by Pathé Distribution Limited, and subsequently released on DVD (in Europe) in 2004 by 20th Century Fox:

• Girl With a Pearl Earring. Dir. Peter Webber. 2003. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2004. (or)
• Girl With a Pearl Earring. Screenplay by Olivia Hetreed. Dir. Peter Webber. Produced by Andy Paterson. Perf. Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. 2003. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2004.

But with only the above data, if one were citing, for example, a particular section of dialogue in the film and the reader of the paper wanted to view this for herself and rented the DVD, where in the 95 minutes of running time would she find the language?

Using the DVD's "scene selections," one can specify the location more precisely. The film is divided into 20 scenes, ranging from 1. The New Maid to 20. Credits. In between are, among others, 7. Camera Obscura and 13. First Sitting. Thus, with a DVD version, if one were discussing Vermeer's possible use of a camera obscura in his painting, as represented by the film, one could add the scene to the citation (as well as mentioning it in the text of the paper). The viewer of the DVD film could then go directly to this scene, rather than having to view the entire film, hoping to find the right scene.

The paper's text, for example, might say "in the film, Johannes Vermeer demonstrates to Griet how a camera obscura helped him visualize the color and light contrasts and depth of field of the subjects he was painting (Girl, Scene 7). This would point to the Works Cited entry as follows, with the scene added to the end of the citation, similar to how specific page numbers in a print source would be added:

• Girl With a Pearl Earring. Screenplay by Olivia Hetreed. Dir. Peter Webber. Produced by Andy Paterson. Perf. Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. 2003. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2004. Scene 7.

The above assumes that only Scene 7 was cited in the paper. If several scenes were used, each might be mentioned, or if there were numerous references to different scenes, then the particular scenes would only need to be mentioned in the in-text citation (again equivalent to how page numbers would be used in a print version).

Examples From Student Papers of In-text DVD Scene Citation

Further examples of in-text citations for DVD scenes can be found in the following FAST student papers.

Jenny Perttola's US-7 paper Emma Becomes Cher: How a 19th Century Classic Novel Turned into a 20th Century Popular Film compares Jane Austen's novel Emma with the film Clueless, a modernized Hollywood adaptation of the plot. Jenny had used a DVD version of Clueless as her source. Notice the in-text citation to Scene 1 of the film as follows [and also the location of a citation to an 'indented long quotation' outside the closing punctuation]:

Narrator (Cher): 'So, okay, you're probably going, "Is this like a Noxzema commercial or what?" But seriously, I actually have a way-normal life for a teenage girl. I mean I get up, I brush my teeth, and I pick out my school clothes.' (Clueless, Scene 1)

Several sections later in the paper, when discussing Dionne, successive sentences have citations to different scenes from the DVD. Notice how the first is (Clueless, Scene 4), whereas the following citation in the same paragraph is only (Scene 5), since it is clear from context that both scenes were from the Clueless DVD.

Rosamaaria Perttola's US-7 paper Images of Popularity in Selected High School Movies: Myth vs Reality? gives further examples of using only 'short' in-text citations such as (Scene 8) or (Scene 1) by establishing the film's identity prior to the cited passage.

Citing Special Features in a DVD Film

Most 'new' DVD films have a variety of special features, including commentaries by the director and/or producer, interviews with the leading performers, deleted scenes, 'anatomy of a scene' features, etc. Such features would be cited separately from the film itself.

For example, the DVD version of Girl With a Pearl Earring has two full-length commentaries on the film, one with the director and producer of the film, Peter Webber and Andy Paterson, which mainly discusses technical and production details; the other with the author of the original novel, Tracy Chevalier, and the woman who adapted the novel for the screen, Olivia Hetreed. This commentary focuses on the many ways in which the book version differed from the screen version, and why different solutions were considered necessary for the film.

The commentary is especially interesting when the two authors discuss how each needed to "let go" of their own version in order for the film to succeed. First Chevalier turned over the novel to Hetreed, who cut a great deal of detail, added some information, and rearranged much of the rest in order for the story to work in a different medium. Then Hetreed herself had to "let go" of her version as the performers, sound and light technicians, weather, and other factors required script modifications. In all of this the story and its language was constantly changing. A further point on which Chevalier and Hetreed marveled was how the "weight" given by the performers to the pronunciation of certain words, or the gestures and facial expressions which accompanied them, had an influence on their meaning. In all, there was much that would concern any paper which treated aspects of film production.

If one were citing this commentary, then, it might be:

• Chevalier, Tracy, and Olivia Hetreed, commentary. Girl With a Pearl Earring. Dir. Peter Webber. Produced by Andy Paterson. Perf. Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. 2003. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2004.

One could also add the scenes for which particular comments were made, since the scenes can be viewed with either of the commentaries turned on in place of the original soundtrack.

Since it is easy to distinguish Chevalier's and Hetreed's voices, it would also be possible to cite only one of them, if only one of their views was relevant to your paper. In this case it might be:

• Chevalier, Tracy, commentary. Girl With a Pearl Earring. Screenplay by Olivia Hetreed. Dir. Peter Webber. Produced by Andy Paterson. Perf. Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. 2003. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2004. Scene 7.

Other features in DVD films would be cited in ways similar to the above. One simply needs to add to the basic data required of any film citation (Title, Director, Distributor, Year of Release) the particular details of who or what your citation emphasizes (a director, performer, screenwriter, particular scene, etc.), plus the additional detail needed when the film has appeared in a DVD edition subsequent to the original cinematic release (adding "DVD" plus the "DVD release year" in addition to the original cinema-release year).