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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Yea, agreed. Let’s do this. Anyone a lawmaker here ?
No need, construction crews have been writing their names on the inside of walls, in bricks, and sharpied under the stairs for a millenia or more
Source: My name in dozens of buildings
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 ironic that you mentioned game credits as an example… The video game industry (particularly in Japan) actually has a pretty sordid history with credits. Many Japanese game companies in the 80’s outright refused to credit the makers, fearing that their workers would be poached. There’s a very strong “you should be completely loyal to your company” culture in Japan, and companies didn’t want to give their employees any kinds of wiggle room to consider jumping ship. There was also a negative stigma associated with working in video games; it wasn’t a “good” job at the time, and the general consensus was that video games were just for nerdy kids. So there was some shame associated with being in the video game industry. As a result, many of the makers used pseudonyms when they were credited.
But going into the 90’s and 00’s, that stigma began to evaporate as video games became more widely accepted, and began to hit the global markets. However, game makers then had an uphill battle to actually get the game companies to properly credit them. The practice of not crediting (or using pseudonyms) had become normalized, so game companies initially resisted proper credits.
Flashback to trying to find a friend’s name in RDR2
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 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.
Any answer that doesn’t make this the main point is off the mark.
It’s not about maintaining a career, you dunce.
It’s about crediting them for their contribution to the project.
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 …
Most of the various guilds and unions in the entertainment industry have rules regarding proper crediting.
What’s funny is not everyone gets credits anymore. 3rd party vendors have limits on how many names can go in the credits now.
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
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?
It pads out the runtime, making theaters take longer to get the next showing in. That is the reason why everyone doesn’t get a credit. That said studios still seem to squeeze a few credits on screen that are not required.
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
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
