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?
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.
It’s not about maintaining a career, you dunce.
It’s about crediting them for their contribution to the project.
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 ?
Because they can.
Plaques for construction don’t have the room that movie credits have.
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.
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 …
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.
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 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.
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.
My opinion, best answer
Any answer that doesn’t make this the main point is off the mark.
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
What’s funny is not everyone gets credits anymore. 3rd party vendors have limits on how many names can go in the credits now.
Most of the various guilds and unions in the entertainment industry have rules regarding proper crediting.
Because they worked. They need to be seen.
Have you seen the video of Tom Cruise (still an asshole but) in COVID where he screams at someone on set who don’t have his mask ? He don’t scream on him about money, he screams because his recklessness could endanger the living hood of everyone on the production
Making a movie is a team effort and everyone that say otherwise is an asshole
He don’t scream on him about money, he screams because his recklessness could endanger the living hood of everyone on the production
Tom Cruise also insists on doing literally insane stunts himself when even a relatively minor I jury could delay production for weeks/months putting everyone out of a job…
He freaked out about a mask, because scientology insisted on masks.
Don’t think someone is a good person just because they did a good thing, they may have had other reasons.
Cruise is a horrible excuse for a human, that doesn’t mean he solely does shitty things.
Tom Cruise also insists on doing literally insane stunts himself when even a relatively minor I jury could delay production for weeks/months putting everyone out of a job…
IIRC, Cruise had to basically create his own insurance agency because nobody else would open up a policy for him, due to exactly this reason.
He freaked out about masks because the HSE were in two minds about shutting down film production, and because of Cruise’s unique insurance setup it was effectively the only film in the world shooting at the time, everyone was waiting to see if it would be practical.
Totally an asshole but his point is still valid
Don’t think someone is a good person just because they did a good thing
Action IS the only thing that matters, the reasons don’t affect others.
Making a movie is a team effort and everyone that say otherwise is an asshole
Sure, but why not in other industries? I assume at some point this became an issue that was resolved by having comprehensive credits, what was the problem it was seeking to solve?
Just a guess, but in other industries, permanent contracts are the norm, you join an employer with some long term perspective, spend multiple years there, so on your CV there is less than 10 employers, short gigs would mean something went wrong
In movies/theatre/concert there is a lot of short term contract. You’re hired to make sure no one enter a set when filming in a street or to do the electrical installation for a concert. That’s 3 days of work and done, even people who stay for the full movie/tour have a job for 6-12 month rather than 6-12 years. Which makes it harder to keep track of all you did.
Sure you have art worker with regular contract, and regular worker who stack short term contract but the standard way of working are differents (which has also impact on unemployment regulations)
Video games do it as well. Painters, photographers. It’s mostly just companies that take credit for all their workers work and just write “Vizio” on the front of the product.
I also assume if someone was in the industry and was looking for someone to do make-up in their next film, they can say man the make-up was great in movieA, check who did their makeup and see if they are available
At a bare minimum it’s a way for the studios to make workers feel more satisfied without paying them any more money. So why wouldn’t they do it?
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
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.
