How do I cite a film Harvard style,that was filmed in several locations?
November 13, 2013 2:11 PM   Subscribe

My reference requirements are getting increasingly obscure and I can't figure this out. So much for leaving referencing behind in my Uni days.. it was always the referencing part that pushed me over the edge! Thanks for reading
posted by tanktop to Education (9 answers total)
 
If it's a film, like a feature film, the location of the company that produced it or released it would be what's cited, not the locations of the filming.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:18 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]


According to my copy of the Blue Book (old -- 15th ed):

Cite films in large and small capitals and television or radio broadcasts in italics by exact date, if available. Include the name of the company or network that produced or aired the film or broadcast:

CASABLANCA (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 1942).

L.A. Law: Justice Swerved (NBC television broadcast, Mar. 29, 1990).
posted by janey47 at 2:26 PM on November 13, 2013


You're overthinking it. You would typically not use the location in a film reference. All you need is title, year, director and distributor and location of distribution. So you might have:

Lucas, G. (1977). Star Wars [Film]. Hollywood: 20th Century Fox.

or you could have the film title first:

Star Wars. (1977) [Film]. Hollywood: 20th Century Fox.
posted by biffa at 2:33 PM on November 13, 2013


Response by poster: Wow - such quick responses :) - my first thread here. It's a documentary that was filmed in Prague, New York, London and a few other places...
posted by tanktop at 2:52 PM on November 13, 2013


I'm an editor and I've (informally) helped friends clean up references in film papers and chapters of books and I've never seen anyone include *where* the film was shot in the citation. It's always been title, company, maybe director, and year.
posted by rtha at 3:42 PM on November 13, 2013


Star Wars was also filmed in a bunch of places, including Tunisia. But you'd at most include the city of the company that released it.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 3:50 PM on November 13, 2013


Think of what will be useful to someone trying to find the film. It's not where it was filmed. At most, it's the headquarters of the company that produced or released it -- although really, location info was more helpful for books back in the day because you could write to the publisher and ask if they had any of that book in their archives, whereas with some obscure film you're very unlikely to find an extant production company and less likely (as an individual scholar) to be in a position to offer to buy their one remaining print of it.
posted by unreadyhero at 9:48 PM on November 13, 2013


Response by poster: Thanks for your responses, ok so I don't need to worry about where it takes place. I think I've honed in on that because I couldn't see in the credits (nor the Directors site or anyone else's reference to the film) what the production company is, what it's called or where it's based, though the Directors are from Prague.

The few references I've seen to it just refer back to the Directors site which seems to just talk about him and be a bit arty. I am little embarrassed making such a possible mountain out of a molehill but I want to be as accurate as I can. I am tempted to disclose the film... to make my post make more sense... but it links to my work and I like the concept of being anonymous here.
posted by tanktop at 2:36 AM on November 14, 2013


Response by poster: Turns out there isn't a production company (just heard from the Director). Not going gaga. Sod it, I'll cobble something up with that. Thanks for suggestions.
posted by tanktop at 6:42 AM on November 14, 2013


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