Q. When citing lines of dialogue in films and movies in the notes and bibliography system specifically, is it enough to cite only the name of the film in the footnote for a shortened citation? Or would it be in the author’s interest to include a time stamp (HH:MM:SS)? It seems that this would better reflect the citation style of articles in books wherein the shortened citation also includes a page reference. Thank you.
A. When you are trying to decide what to include in a citation, it’s less important to think about whether the styling is going to look like other citations than about what information is helpful to readers. Page numbers are included in citations because it’s difficult to locate a passage without them. Time stamps are similarly helpful: they save a reader literally hours of searching through a movie looking for the quoted material. So yes, include a time stamp when you cite a specific frame or bit of dialogue from a movie.