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?
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
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 …
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.
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
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
What’s funny is not everyone gets credits anymore. 3rd party vendors have limits on how many names can go in the credits now.
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.
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.
