How do I cite a clip of a film on a website?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

Whenever you cite a republished excerpt, you should document the work in which the excerpt appears, not the original source.

Thus, to cite a scene that has been excerpted from a film and republished on a website, follow the MLA format template and include the title or description of the scene as the title of the source and relevant details about the website that republished the excerpt. If the website includes a transcript of the scene as well as the film clip, as this example does, indicate in your prose or in the final optional-element slot if you are citing the clip or the transcript:

“Marc Antony Addresses Roman Citizenry on the Death of Julius Caesar.” American Rhetoric: Movie Speeches, 2001– , www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechjuliuscaesarantony.html. Film clip.

If in your paper you discuss the performance by Marlon Brando as the character Marc Antony in the featured scene, you can provide this information in your entry as a middle optional element:

“Marc Antony Addresses Roman Citizenry on the Death of Julius Caesar.” Performance by Marlon Brando. American Rhetoric: Movie Speeches, 2001– , www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechjuliuscaesarantony.html. Film clip.