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Below, you will find step-by-step instructions for citing videos in the APA citation style.
Here is the basic format for citing a film or DVD in APA format:
Director, F. M. (Director). (Year). Title of film: Subtitle [Film or DVD]. Studio.
Let's break the citation down.
The directors' names are listed as their last name, first initial, and middle initial (if they have one.) So a director named George Lucas would be listed as:
Lucas, G.
If you have multiple directors, you will need to list them all. Put them in the order that they appear in the film. Separate them with a comma, and put an ampersand (&) before the last one. Type (Director) or (Directors) after the directors' names. Type and ampersand (&) between the producers and directors. So a film directed by J. J. Abrams would look like this:
Abrams, J. J. (Director).
Sometimes the director may not be clearly written on the DVD case. In those cases, research the film to determine who they are. The information is usually in the first few minutes of the film, or the closing credits. As a last resort, look the information up on the internet. Students have had good luck finding the information on IMDB and Amazon.com in the past.
If no director is listed, put the producers in your citation. The same formatting rules apply -- you just put (Producer) instead of (Director). If you cannot find the producer either, other people such as a host or an executive producer can be listed instead, as a last resort.
The year is simply the date of release. It is usually listed on the back of the DVD case, and might be on the disc itself. If there are multiple years to choose from, use the most recent one.
Type in the entire title of the film, along with the subtitle if there is one. However, whenever you type in the title, you should only capitalize the first letter of the title, the first letter of the subtitle (the part that follows after the colon), and any proper nouns (the names of individual people, places, and organizations.) Italicize the entire title. So, "The Empire Strikes Back," would have its title written like this:
Star wars: Episode v - the Empire strikes back
After the title, type either [Film] or [DVD]. If the film is fiction, use [Film]. If it is non-fiction, for example a documentary, type [educational DVD]. It is optional, but if you want to you may put both, like this: [Film; DVD]. Here are some examples of standard citations:
Star wars: Episode v - the Empire strikes back [Film]
The making of the Empire strikes back [educational DVD]
The studio is usually listed on both sides of the DVD case, the disc itself, and in the opening and closing credits. List the name of the studio in a brief format, leaving off abbreviations like "Co.," "Inc.," etc. So, for example, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation would be listed as:
Twentieth Century Fox
The Empire Strikes Back was directed by Irvin Kershner. It was released in 1980 by 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. This is what the citation would look like:
Kershner, I. (Director). (1980). Star wars: The Empire strikes back [Film]. Twentieth Century Fox.
Here is the basic format for citing an online video in APA format:
Creator, F. M. (Year). Title of film: Subtitle [Video]. Website Name. Web Link
Let's break the citation down.
In this case, the "creator" is whoever is responsible for the creation of the video. If available, use the director of the video. A director named George Lucas would be listed as:
Lucas, G.
If you have multiple directors, you will need to list them all. Put them in the order that they appear in the film. Separate them with a comma, and put an ampersand (&) before the last one. Type (Director) or (Directors) after the directors' names. Type an ampersand (&) between the directors. So a video directed by J. J. Abrams would look like this:
Abrams, J. J. (Director).
Sometimes the director may not be clearly written in the video description. In those cases, research the film to determine who they are. The information is usually in the first few minutes of the film, or the closing credits. As a last resort, look the information up on the internet. Students have had good luck finding the information on IMDB and Amazon.com in the past. If you don't find a producer or director, use the name of whoever appears most responsible for creating the video and put their title after their name in parentheses.
The year is simply the date of release. It is usually listed in the description for the video. If not, it will be in the closing credits. If there are multiple years to choose from, use the most recent one.
Type in the entire title of the film, along with the subtitle if there is one. However, whenever you type in the title, you should only capitalize the first letter of the title, the first letter of the subtitle (the part that follows after the colon), and any proper nouns (the names of individual people, places, and organizations.) Italicize the entire title. So a film from an online database, for example "Gardening in Spring: How to Plant Flowers," would have its title written like this:
Gardening in spring: How to plant flowers
After the title, type [Video]. Here is how it should look:
Gardening in spring: How to plant flowers [Video]
After the video title, type in the name of the website or database where you found the video. For example a video from Netflix would have listed:
Netflix.
At the end of the citation, paste the web link where you found the video.
The streaming film entitled "Hiking In Winter" was directed by Mark Jones. It was released in 2018, and published on the Films on Demand database. This is what the citation would look like:
Jones, M. (Director). (2018). Hiking in winter [Video]. Films on Demand. https://fod.infobase.com/nd_Home.aspx
Here is the basic format for citing a YouTube video in APA format:
Creator. (Year, month, day). Title of video: Subtitle [Video]. YouTube. Web link
Let's break the citation down.
In the case of YouTube videos, the creator is whoever uploaded the video. You will usually use the channel name for the citation. If the creator is a person, his or her citation will be listed as his or her last name, first initial, and middle initial. So an author named John Smith would be listed as:
Smith, J.
If you cannot find the author's real name, type their screen name in its place.
The date is simply the date of release. Type in it "year, month, day" format. For example, a video released on January 1, 2019 would be cited as:
(2019, January 1)
Type in the entire title of the video, along with the subtitle if there is one. However, whenever you type in the title, you should only capitalize the first letter of the title, the first letter of the subtitle (the part that follows after the colon), and any proper nouns (the names of individual people, places, and organizations.) Italicize the entire title. So a film from YouTube, for example "Gardening in Spring: How to Plant Flowers," would have its title written like this:
Gardening in spring: How to plant flowers
After the title, type [Video]. Here is how it should look:
Gardening in spring: How to plant flowers [Video]
After the [Video] part of the citation, type the word "YouTube."
At the very end of the citation, paste the link from YouTube, like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY.
The YouTube entitled "Hiking In Winter" was created by John Smith. It was released on February 15, 2018. This is what the citation would look like:
Smith, J.. (2018, February 15). Hiking in winter [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY
