Film, theatre and television: Citing references

Book:

In-text: (Author surname Year: page)
In bibliography: Author Surname, Author Firstname. Year. Title of book (Publisher)

Example:

In Text: (Nieland 2012: 38)
In Bibliography: Nieland, Justus. 2012. David Lynch (University of Illinois Press)

Example of a subsequent edition of a book

Add details of the edition after the title in the format 2nd edn

In Text: (Mayes 2022: 42)
In Bibliography: Mayes, Sean and Sarah Whitfield. 2022. An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre: 1900-1950, 3rd edn (Methuen Drama)

Book with two authors / editors:

In-text: (Author surname and Author Surname Year: page)
In bibliography: Author Surname, Author Firstname and Author Firstname Author Surname. Year. Title of book (Publisher)

Example:

In Text: (Dwyer and Patel 2002: 79)
In Bibliography: Dwyer, Rachel and Divia Patel. 2002. Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film (Reaktion)

Book with three authors / editors:

In-text: (Author surname, Author Surname and Author Surname Year: page)
In bibliography: Author Surname, Author Firstname, Author Firstname Author Surname and Author Firstname Author Surname. Year. Title of book (Publisher)

Example:

In Text: (Cardwell, Bignell and Donaldson 2023: 145)
In Bibliography: Cardwell, Sarah, Jonathan Bignell and Lucy Fife Donaldson (eds). 2023. Epic/Everyday: Moments in Television (Manchester University Press)

Book with four or more authors / editors:

In-text: (Author surname, and others Year: page)
In bibliography: Author Surname, Author Firstname and others. Year. Title of book (Publisher)

Example:

In Text: (Baer and others 2019: 89)
In Bibliography: Baer, Nicholas, and others (eds). 2019. Unwatchable (Rutgers University Press)

In-text: (Author surname Year: page)

In bibliography: Chapter Author Surname, Chapter Author Firstname. Year. 'Title of Chapter', in Title of book, ed. by Editor Name Editor Surname (Publisher), pp. page–page

Example: 

In-text: (Hark 1992: 158)
In bibliography: Hark, Ina Rae. 1992. 'Animals or Romans: Looking at Masculinity in Spartacus', in Screening the Male: Exploring Masculinities in Hollywood Cinema, ed. by Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark (Routledge), pp. 151–172.

Journal article:

In-text: (Author surname Year: page)

In bibliography: Author Surname, Author Firstname. Year. 'Title of Article', Title of Journal, Volume.Part: pp. page–page, doi:doi number

Example:

In-text: (Bucciferro 2021: 179)
In Bibliography: Bucciferro, Claudia. 2021. 'Representations of Gender and Race in Ryan Coogler's Film Black Panther: Disrupting Hollywood Tropes', Critical Studies in Media Communication, 38.2: pp. 169–82, doi:10.1080/15295036.2021.1889012

Example of a journal where there is only a volume number, and no part / issue number:

In-text: (Rushing 2008: 162)
In Bibliography: Rushing, Robert A. 2008. 'Gentlemen Prefer Hercules: Desire, Identification, Beefcake', Camera Obscura, 69: pp. 158–191, doi:10.1215/02705346-2008-011

In-text: (Author surname Year)

In bibliography: Author surname, Author firstname. Year. 'Title of Webpage or Article', Platform or publisher / website name, Day Month of publication <url> [accessed DD Month Year].

Example:

In-text: (Williams 2023)
In Bibliography: Williams, Holly. 2023. 'Noel Coward: The Dark Side of the Quintessential Englishman', BBC Culture, 5 June <https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230602-noel-coward-the-dark-side-of-the-quintessential-englishman> [accessed 4 June 2024]

What if my website doesn't have a named author, or date?
For webpages without a named author, you can use the name of the organisation / company who is responsible for the website instead. For example;

In-text: (Equity 2023)
In Bibliography: Equity. 2023. 'Code of Conduct for Auditions', Equity, 19 July <https://www.equity.org.uk/advice-and-support/casting-and-auditions/code-of-conduct-for-auditions> [accessed 12 March 2024].

To find out the date of a webpage which doesn't list a published / updated date on the page itself, try doing a special type of Google search - follow the instructions in this article

If that also fails, you can use n.d. to indicate 'no date' - put n.d. in place of the year.

Films

Films should be listed separately to other references in a Filmography.

You'll probably be mentioning the name / title of the film in the text of your sentence, and in this circumstance just put the year in brackets;

In-text: (Year)
In bibliography: Director Surname, Director Firstname, dir. Year. Title of the film (Country)

Example:

In-text: (1982)
In bibliography: Scott, Ridley, dir. 1982. Blade Runner (USA)

Television programmes

TV programmes should be listed separately to other references in a teleography.

Episode of TV programme

In-text: 'Episode Title' (Year)
​In telography: 'Episode title'. Year. Programme Title (Channel or Streaming Service, Year–Year), series/season number, episode number.

Example:

In-text: 'A study in pink' (2010) 
In telography:  'A study in pink'. 2010. Sherlock (BBC 1, 2010–17), series 1, episode 1.

Whole TV programme

In-text: Programme title (Year–Year)
In telography: Programme Title. Year–Year (Channel or Streaming Service)

Example:

In-text: Stranger Things (2016–)
In telography: Stranger Things. 2016– (Netflix)

There is no guidance in the MHRA guide for play performances. Below is a suggestion of how to reference a live performance in a consistant way that blends with MHRA author-date style.

These should be listed separately to other references in a performance list.

In-text: Play Title (Director surname, dir. Year)
In bibliography: Director surname, Director firstname, dir. Year. Play Title (Theatre company: Theatre name, Day Month Year–Day Month Year performance ran)

Example: 

In-text:(Lloyd, dir. 2012)
In bibliography: Lloyd, Phyllida, dir. 2012. Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse: Donmar King's Cross, 4 December 2012–9 February 2013)

In-text: (Author or Creator surname Year)
In bibliography: Author or Creator surname, Author or creator firstname. Year. 'Title of video', Platform name, DD Month it was posted, <url> [accessed DD Month Year].

Example:

In-text: (Steppenwolf Theatre Company 2017)
In Bibliography: Steppenwolf Theatre Company. 2017. 'Antoinette Nwandu on PASS OVER', YouTube, 20 April <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW_FHrzzq_c&feature=emb_logo> [accessed 15 March 2024].

Underneath your film / television still, or any kind of image, you need a short caption with the following;

• Figure number, Written FIG. 1, FIG. 2 etc (number images consecutively in the order they appear.)
• Short description including the film / TC programme title (in italics) and Director's name
• Production company  or Studio and year in brackets

Your caption should describe the image - so perhaps describe the scene / actors / characters / lighting depending on what your analysis discusses (but keep it short, you can put your full analysis in your paragraph of text and refer to the Figure number there.) You should also include the full reference to the source of your image in your Filmography, Teleography, or Bibliography.

Example:

Paragraph of text analysing the film drawing specific reference to what you are illustrating with the film still – say what you want to say about it (Figure 1.)

FIG. 1 Vertigo Sea (2015), dir. John Akomfrah, uses footage of nature, human exploitation and
migration in an ecopolitical examination of our relationship with the ocean.

Filmography         

Akomfrah, John, dir. 2015. Vertigo Sea.

Note – my example is not on general release, but if your film is you should include the country of production in your full reference in the Filmography, eg Ford, John dir. 1940. The Grapes of Wrath (USA)

In-text: (Author surname Year: page)

In bibliography: Author Surname, Author Firstname. Year. 'Title of Thesis' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University name) 

Example: 

In-text: (Knox 2005: 89)
In bibliography: Knox, Simone. 2005. 'Text and Theory: Reading Postmodern Critical Discourses and Contemporary Film and Television' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Reading)

If the thesis you consulted is online, you should include a URL and access date in the bibliography entry;

In bibliography: Ghosh, Shweta. 2021. ‘We Make Film: Filmmaking and Creative Expression by People with Disabilities in Contemporary Urban India’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Reading) <https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/105309/> [accessed 18 April 2024]