Credits, How Many Times Should You Give Yourself Credit in Your Own Movie?

[Alex]

What makes the issue of "Credit Taking" so confusing in the year 2003 for me is that emerging technology is changing how smaller budgeted movies are made.

Over the years, whenever I saw a low budget movie that repeated one name over and over in the credits, I felt like I was watching someone's vanity bumper sticker on celluloid.

"But the times they are a changing".

As an editor, I've done demo reel work for a very talented Producer/Writer who has written "Coming this Friday" type of ...promos for years.

This writer/producer has won national awards for his promotional writing, and this writer has written a couple of absolutely classic promos that should be used in creative writing classes.

Recently, this writer had a choice to keep their job and relocate with the company, or stay and find new work.

This writer/producer chose to stay put and find new work. Well, this writer's field is not that large, so it's been much more of challenge then this person expected it to be to find new work.

One of the biggest issues that has clouded the employment field has been the emergence of the Predator. A Predator is a writer/producer/editor. Bean Counters and Heads of departments love Predators because it so much easier to manage and figure out a budget for a department. Instead of usually needing a team of 2-4 people to do a spot, spots can now be done using 1-3 people.

All in one! [img]tongue.gif[/img] , Predators are a bean counters dream come true. The problem is Predators ARE NOT as good when compared to having the best editor work with the best writer.

I guarantee it!

This producer/writer is being forced to learn how to edit. I find that to be a tragedy because it keeps this person away from doing what they do best, which is writing.

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If you could be involved in a critically renowned movie, would you rather be involved in one where you had multiple credits among the list of director, writer, producer, cinematographer, editor, composer, set designer, make-up artist or wardrobe designer, or would you rather be involved in a critically renowned movie where you had only one credit?

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Do you think the "credit rules" change as you make more and more movies, or does your opinion about credits relate no matter where you are on your career path?

[Generic Skinhead]

In answer to the topic headline: once.

[belovedmonster]

maybe its becos im a vain person anyways but i dont think its at all vain to give yourself credit more than once... but simply from a stylistic piont of view i dont want to sit there and watch the same guys name come up loads of times for ages... you have got to be sensible with this. For starters i wouldnt bother with every job you did... if you were the cameraman aswell as doing the sound aswell as... whatever... we dont need to know this. Written, Directed, Edited... those should be the main ones to put down, and could do so in one go..."Directed, Written and Edited by Joe Bloggs", thats going to make it obvious you were the artistic brain behind the movie without needing to state every tiny job you did and its also only going to take a few seconds of the screen time and wont bore people.

Maybe this is just me but i see credits as one of these things that would be film makers that are never going to get anywhere get caught up in. I think credits very much should be used to pay people thier due respect and if someone else contributed in a way then yes they should be acknowledged, and yes... if you are entering your movie into festivals where maybe people might see the movie and want to hire you, yes you need to make sure its evident who made the movie... but at the end of the day, do credits really matter when you are making practice movies to learn the craft? I dont even bother with them unless it HAVE to. Like i say it seems like something would be film makers do, in my opinion as part of the "lets play film maker" game.. in the same way they make themselves a production logo and create adverts for the movie... like anyone cares about that **** ? Ill admit ive thought about making a production company logo just cos it would make me feel more professional and like a proper grown up film maker but at the end of the day i think i would rather spend my time on something more worthwile, like reading a book on staging or something.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 25, 2003 05:12 PM: Message edited by: belovedmonster ]</font>

[Alex]

Sounds pretty spot on to me.

[MatJimMood]

i agree with belovedmonster
i've done away with listing all the different roles and who did what and just put 'made by' and listed the people involved alphabetically. i got annoyed seeing people put too much time into deciding who gets what credit and what the production name should be, with the end result appearing slightly pretenious when the film was rubbish.

with the whole thing alex was talking about, i think that collaboration is without doubt a lot more productive. at this stage though where most of us are teaching ourselves, learning all round filmmaking is very valuable. obviously though, when these films start to become more serious, collaboration with other filmmakers to allow yourself to focus on your job is important.

[Yammeryammeryammer]

Hm. This is interesting. My credits never roll more than 1:15, minus special thanks. But still we do give credit where credit is due. Writer, Editor, Producer, Director, and DP get their due no matter what combination of people, unless of course they are the same person and no one else. If something else is done, like stunts and things, I usually like to credit them individually, and then cast. If someone made a contribution that doesn't fall into a main billing they usually get a special thanks or something, along with location providers. As far as it being better to collaborate rather than do a lot of it yourself, I tend to group writing, directing and editing together because I write things into the script that dictate largely how the scenes are directed and edited, so why not just do it yourself if you have the means? At the same time if there is someone better suited for a job, why not delegate to their strength? And as far as production names/logos are concerned, I didn't even think of that as being pretentious. Our production company has just been named as a joke from our first movie cause we thought it would be funny. And then by habit, we just slapped that on the front of everything from concerts we taped to features for consistency and as a reminder of older stuff.

[Alex]

This thread is getting a tad confusing now. Definitely credit anyone who worked on your movie, I'm a firm believer in that.

I know of a film that took 10 years to make, and one of the partners put their own name in the credits over 10 times! hmmm, I guess that's only one credit per year... [img]tongue.gif[/img] .

[untamed_aggression]

I don't have a problem with multiple credits, but there should be a limit.

Erm... wish I could've thought of something to back that argument up, but I'm drawing a blank. I'll get back to you.

[The Cavity]

Here's a solution: FAKE NAMES. Great fun for all.
Excellent Website: http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm

(Best of all, most of them are incredibly obscure)

[The Cavity]

Imagine the possibilities:

Director of Photography - Chauncey Schenkelberg
Edited by - Oswaldo Macchiarella
Production Designer - Hyman Popper (I swear to God...)
Production Assistant - James Raynor (Jeez, what a stupid name [img]wink.gif[/img] )