How do I cite a movie scene or quotation in the body of my paper?

Answer

First, read the assignment carefully or ask your teacher if they have specific suggestions or requirements for in-text citations to videos.

Otherwise, if you have included a quotation or referred to a particular scene, you would put the time-stamp that is displayed in your media player in parentheses after your reference. Your goal is to help your reader find whatever it is that you're writing about. First your reader would find the movie in your list of references, and then they could find the exact spot within the movie.

For the MLA, include the specific time-stamp (in the case of a quotation) or include the time-stamp range (if you refer to a scene or section). Include the hours, minutes and seconds. Separate the numbers with colons without any spaces. Your sentence punctuation would go after and outside the parentheses.

Example: (Blade Runner, 00:15:33-00:18:45).

For the APA, include only the time-stamp, not a range. Even if you are referring to a scene, all that's required is the start time.

Example: (Scott, 2010, 3:12).