Movies have huge credit rolls that tell you everyone involved from the director down to the person who made the cups of tea. But why? I can understand why actors, who need exposure to maintain a career, would want this. But is it important for the person who drove the truck full of props around to be credited for their future prospects?
You don’t see a plaque when you walk into a building listing everyone who laid a brick as part of the construction. I assume there’s a historical reason why the entertainment industry, and only the entertainment industry does this.
Edit: To all those that took my geniune question about what historically lead to this, and turned it into accusations of me being some sort of thoughtless “asshole”, what is even the point of someone trying to contribute to these online communities if you are just going to be made to feel horrible?
In short, proof.
They’re working project to project. Each one is basically a new company. Each one a new employment. It’s their resume.
My opinion, best answer
Not quite so much - credits aren’t exhausive or truly accurate, theyre “best efforts”. Employment is word-of-mouth. If you wanted the B-camera grip from a particular film, you’d know someone who’d know someone who’d know who that was, regardless of what credits might claim.
I agree with you, but my brain was like… there really is no way to verify employment when company no longer exists. That is just an interesting point to me. I suppose it could be relevant for people who work for more than just Hollywood. But inside Hollywood, I have heard that it is like you say, a lot of word of mouth. Probably enables all sorts of middlemen that trade in that kind of info.
No middlemen. It’s up to the department heads and UPM to keep track of people.
I can’t disagree. Nothing is absolute. Word of mouth is always valuable and no matter what credits you’ve got under your belt if you’ve been blackballed you’re never going to work again but still I feel my point stands.
2 things can be true.
Any answer that doesn’t make this the main point is off the mark.
You don’t see a plaque when you walk into a building listing everyone who laid a brick as part of the construction.
We totally should do this though. Imagine how cute it’d be to have a construction worker be able to visit a building they helped build with their family or friends and point at their name engraved somewhere with a happy grin.
No one has such a tangible impact on shaping our world as people who create, they should be credited no matter the medium.
Yea, agreed. Let’s do this. Anyone a lawmaker here ?
When my company used to move or make new branches, we would sign the wall if we were on the project.
I think my name is on 2 walls
I assume there’s a historical reason why the entertainment industry
Yep. From what I’ve read it started out as “This studio made the film”. But then you got celebrities who were part of the studio. The studio used credits to engage the audience and remind them why they are there “Studio presents Movie starring Celebrity”.
Eventually other people behind the camera wanted acknowledgement so directors and producers got in. Writers and others who were unionized wanted to be included. And eventually it became to industry standard. So that’s now just how it’s done. It’s probably also easy proof that you worked on a project.
Is it important to note the person who drove the props? I don’t know. I don’t think it was a question they were asking when they decided the standard. It was in the contract, they were making credits anyways, it wasnt worth fighting over.
Also to note here. The credits used to be at the start of a film. Since it was at the beginning there were typically less people credited becaue there was less time. (You obviously didn’t want to make people wait too long to see the film but long enough they could get into the theater with their snacks). Once it moved to the end, there was no reason to not include everyone.
This is also why we got the post credit teaser or scene which was a directors way to force the audience to see the whole credits
In the beginning the studios even tried to hide who the actors were, crediting them under character names owned by the studio. Some of the biggest stars of the day started United Artists offering artists more freedom and recognition, and the studios eventually realized that by letting the actors be known as people, their celebrity (and sometimes even scandal) would actually generate interest in movies.
Most of the various guilds and unions in the entertainment industry have rules regarding proper crediting.
Maybe we should have everyone who worked on a large engineering project listed on a big plaque at the entrance to the the end product. Might help some tradies take more pride in their work …
Same reason that open source programmers want credit where credit is due. Plus those credits, though it might not matter to 99℅ of the audience, still helps open up future job opportunities with other movie productions…
It’s called blame
What’s funny is not everyone gets credits anymore. 3rd party vendors have limits on how many names can go in the credits now.
Unions.
The easiest way to prove this is to see who on a film DOESN’T get a credit. It’s going to be non-union positions to go uncredited. For as many credits as you see there are hundreds of unlisted ones. Just about anytime you see a company credited for vfx and you see only 10 names, an easy 20 were left off.
It cost money to add credits to a movie. Studios don’t do much more than they have to.
I got a credit once. It was cool and made my mom happy.
Congratulations man!
Hell, I’m proud of you too.
Thanks kind stranger. That was nearly 20 years ago for me, but still neat.
Well, to be clear - not everyone gets a credit. I was recently an extra in a movie and even though I have a still image from it with me in the background and an A-list celebrity in the foreground, that’s the only proof I’ll ever have of it. Movies take a LOT of people to make, and it’s important to give credit to everyone involved.
It’s also the same at plays where they bring out / point out the crew to take a bow - They’re just as essential to making the art, so it’s important to give them credit too.
Because they can.
Plaques for construction don’t have the room that movie credits have.
Edit: To all those that took my geniune question about what historically lead to this, and turned it into accusations of me being some sort of thoughtless “asshole”, […]
I only see one comment doing that. Am I missing something?
Either way, this was a great question and I enjoyed reading it and the answers it got, so thanks for posting it!
if there is one, more might come
Because (good) people who lead projects want to give credit where it is due, to the people who did the things.
Games do this too. But game credits are often shorter than film credits since fewer people typically work on a given game production.
Flashback to trying to find a friend’s name in RDR2
In addition to the other points here, having your credit on a movie or show is a good way to get ahead in industry. It’s a verifiable resume builder. It’s a dick move when you don’t get included.
It’s not about maintaining a career, you dunce.
It’s about crediting them for their contribution to the project.
I can’t imagine complaining about people getting credit for their work.
I’m not complaining, I’m wondering why no other industry feels it’s necessary to do this.
Every other industry does have a version of crediting. From services providing name tags to the reception staff and waiters, to engineering companies with “about us” sections on their webpages showcasing projects and the engineers who designed them.
Musicians often have sections in their live shows introducing the instrument players of the band even if it was a solo event. Music albums used to come with a booklet that, along with the lyrics and nice art, included the credits of all musicians. Theaters will hand out a pamphlet with a review of what the play is about and a list of credits for the production team.
Hospitals and clinics are required to display the names of medical staff somewhere in a billboard. Private practices have to show the name of doctors on the doors. In some countries restaurants have to showcase the kitchen staff names and the number of their sanitary permits to handle food.
Every industry has their ways, this is just the way this industry decided to do it.
Video games also do this. I’m sure there are other examples.
Which makes it even more disgusting when people fight to have others removed their credit. There was a writer who basically wrote the first Guardians of the Galaxy but James Gunn wanted sole writing credit after he was hired as the director, so she sued and won before it’s release, and got the credit she deserved in the film.
That’s a gross mischaracterisation. Credit arbitration is automatic whenever more than one writer or team are involved, or when a writer is also the director. There was no-one “suing” anyone.
While these are simply allegations, and Perlman herself was seemingly not interviewed for the book
Like I said, crefit arbitration is automatic. Gunn wouldnt have the ability to remove someone’s writjng credit.
