Download our Style Guide as a PDF Please ensure manuscripts are in a standard font, 12-point font size and contain minimal formatting. Illustrations should be sent as high resolution, separate files in a standard image format (jpeg, PNG, etc) rather than embedded in manuscripts. Low resolution images may not be used. Please indicate in the manuscript where you would like images to appear. The caption will be the film title in italics. Do not use square brackets in your article or endnotes as this messes with our endnotes system. (Round brackets are fine), [square brackets are not]. General Australian spelling, Macquarie Dictionary Colour rather than color Dialogue rather than dialog Recognisable rather than recognizable Neighbour rather than neighbor Travelled rather than traveled Film titles In italics, followed by director’s name and year of release in parentheses. Example: Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff, 1971) For non-English language films, list the original title first. Followed by the English title in parentheses, if there is one. Example: Il deserto rosso (Red Desert, Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964). Thereafter use the English title. The only exception to this is if the film is commonly known in English by its foreign title, such as La Jetée. Book and newspaper titles In italics. Example: As The Age critic Jake Wilson wrote, Mad Dog Morgan is a classic example of ’70s Ozploitation. Numbers One to ten as words, 11 and above as digits. Dates 23 October 2015 ’60s (not sixties or 60’s) 20th century (not 20th Century, twentieth century, Twentieth Century) Quotes and punctuation For sentences, punctuation inside quote marks. Example: Although Bazin wrote, “the Western is the only genre whose origins are almost identical with those of the cinema itself,” others have disputed this claim. When quoting within the paragraph, use double quotation marks. Use single quotation marks for quotes within these quotes. Example: Truffaut quotes Hitchcock as saying, “In many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I call ‘photographs of people talking.’” For single words or very short phrases, punctuation outside quote marks. Example: She later declared that of all her films, this was her “least favourite”. Dashes En dashes for dashes within sentences, with a space either side. Example: It remains to be seen if more of her work will be discovered – so far only the films made after 1928 are known to exist. Subheadings Title case all subheadings. Additional points Filmmaker, rather than film-maker. Gordon Willis’ cinematography, NOT Gordon Willis’s cinematography. Naming Conventions Western order (given name followed by family name) for persons from the America’s, Europe, India, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. Example: Fabrice Du Welz bridges the gap between Flemish and Walloon cultures, Du Welz’s “Ardennes”-trilogy… Eastern order (family name followed by given name) for persons from China, Japan, North and South Korea. Example: Bong Joon-ho’s auteurism is defined by his rich artistic collaboration with the star-actor Song Kang-ho. Gisaengchung (Parasite, 2019) is Bong and Song’s fourth collaboration. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders It is a mark of respect to refer to an Aboriginal person by their language or cultural group, if you know it. Example: Yolngu man David Gulpilil has been deeply engaged in telling the “big, true” stories of his people. Always capitalise the I in Indigenous and the A in Aboriginal when referring to people. To refer to the entire Indigenous community, or if you don’t know someone’s clan, use terms like First Nations, Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal Australians or Aboriginal people. Blak can be used as an informal designation for First Nations people, the missing c enunciates a point of difference from the African diaspora (the Black community). African diaspora Capitalise the B in Black when referring to the African diaspora. Example: Often called the godfather of Black British photography… Persons employed in the sex industry When referring to persons employed in the sex industry (within a films diegesis or otherwise) their designation is sex worker(s), not prostitute(s). Transgender and Gender diverse Glossary Below is a glossary of terms to use when writing about transgender or gender diverse filmmakers or storylines, from Transgender Victoria’s Terminology Glossary. Trans and gender diverse: An umbrella term used to describe anyone whose gender identity or expression is different from that which was assigned at birth or is expected of them by society. Transgender: Transgender people have gender identities and expressions that differ from their assigned sex at birth (for example, someone who was assigned male at birth and is transgender may be female, genderqueer, non-binary, agender, or any other gender that is not male). Cisgender: A cisgender person is someone who identifies with the gender that was assigned to them at birth. Genderqueer: A gender that falls outside of male and female categories. Non-binary: Non-binary refers to any gender that falls outside of the categories of male and female. They may use first person singular pronouns to signal their non-binary gender, such as they/their/them. Example: Ester Martin bergsmark is a non-binary filmmaker, their film Pojktanten (She Male Snails, 2012) very explicitly rejects gender binaries. Gender affirmation surgery: refers to surgical procedures that align someone’s body with their gender identity. Referencing Formatting your references Articles are to be Word documents or GoogleDocs with conventional endnotes. Do not use square brackets. (Round brackets are fine), [square brackets are not]. Referencing style Senses uses Chicago style endnotes. Please format your references in the manner described above. Example citations are given below. Book Len Lye, Figures of Motion (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1984), p. 31. Book chapter Ying Qian, “Working with Rubble: Montage, Tweets and the Reconstruction of an Activist Documentary” in China’s iGeneration: Cinema and Moving Image Culture for the Twenty-first Century, Matthew D. Johnson, Keith B. Wagner, Kiki Tianqi Yu and Luke Vulpiani, eds. (New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), p. 183. Journal article D.A. Miller, “Hitchcock’s Hidden Pictures,” Critical Inquiry, Issue 37 (Autumn 2010): p. 115. Journal article online Charles Leary, “Performing the Documentary, or Making it to the Other Bank,” Senses of Cinema, Issue 27 (July 2003). Newspaper article Tom Seymour, “Silent Horror: the Director of The Tribe on His Brutal Film About Life in a Deaf School,” The Guardian, 14 May 2015. Personal interviews Dan Torre, Interview with Max Hattler (Melbourne, 21 June 2015)
