Why do films ....

axisus

JezWynd said:

With the advent of digital effects in pretty much every movie nowadays the credits have become a bit longwinded but as some have already mentioned, they are a part of the participant's CV.

It's not part of their CV to be listed in the film though! No one has ever got a job by saying "Fire up a copy of Avatar, Fast forward all the way to the end, slow down until you get to the very start of the end credits, now fast forward 3 mins 32 seconds and you will see my name third row along scrolling up for about 2 seconds"

Philly_Q

It's not quite the same as someone who makes kettles or works at a caff, because they don't spend several months or even years of their lives making that one special kettle or particularly awesome bacon sarnie.  What's wrong with giving credit where it's due?

Anyway, as someone who always stays to the end of the credits (and yes it can be a test of patience, especially on superhero movies which have been worked on by every digital effects team from New Zealand to Russia to India and all points inbetween) I can safely say that virtually no-one watches them anyway.  The cleaning team is there shovelling spilled popcorn by the time I leave.

@axisus maybe you should just change your policy of sitting through the credits?

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

They didn’t used to. Certainly in the forties and fifties the end credits could be just a single shot. Given the expense of film stock and the problems of projectionists adding a few minutes at the end that most people wouldn’t even watch full end credits must have seemed a daft idea. 

True, but those old films had their credits at the beginning.  Not as extensive as today of course, but most old flms list the assistant directors, cameramen, hairstylists, makeup artists, best boy (whatever the hell that is) etc before the film starts.  Nowadays those less prominent roles would all be listed at the end.

darthed1981

axisus said:

... Insist on listing every Tom dick and Harry that did any work on them. Literally everyone. Nobody actually gives a toss about the info except their mum. When we buy a tv or kettle we don't get a list of all the people at the factory that put them together. Just seems like a massive ego driven friends-of-luvvies fest. 

Am I going to be the only one to say I think people who design everyday products do deserve credit...?  Why not have a QR code on the packaging to a website where you can leave thanks to the guys in the factory?

Possibly because of our horrifically disposable culture chewing up and throwing away products made by poor sods in far eastern mega factories while we take the products utterly for granted...?  

I'd hate to see us go that way about films, a lot of those guys work their butts off and are far from luvvies, you don't need to google far into VFX to find out how screwed over by the studios some of these guys are.

Given as you are perfectly free not to watch the credits, its hardly an imposition!

JezWynd

axisus said:

JezWynd said:

With the advent of digital effects in pretty much every movie nowadays the credits have become a bit longwinded but as some have already mentioned, they are a part of the participant's CV.

It's not part of their CV to be listed in the film though! No one has ever got a job by saying "Fire up a copy of Avatar, Fast forward all the way to the end, slow down until you get to the very start of the end credits, now fast forward 3 mins 32 seconds and you will see my name third row along scrolling up for about 2 seconds"

Yeah, hence my second paragraph suggesting a workaround. Premature ejaculate much?

BigBearKris

axisus said:

... Insist on listing every Tom dick and Harry that did any work on them. Literally everyone. Nobody actually gives a toss about the info except their mum. When we buy a tv or kettle we don't get a list of all the people at the factory that put them together. Just seems like a massive ego driven friends-of-luvvies fest. 

I'm not sure whether I should 'WOW' or 'LOL'.

Strong candidate to The stupidest post of the year so far.

AlexC

Why do some people think everyone who works in the media and the arts - including guitar players I assume - are ego driven maniacs? I worked in a huge office in London for a year and never in my life before or since have I experienced such a seething pit of big-headed, egotistical, back-stabbing, paranoid, hedonistic tossers. 
As for posts that take a cheap shot at homosexuality... well, I think that says more about you than people in media.

57Deluxe

littlegreenman said:

Who knows? The guitar solo's on Dark Side of the Moon could have been "really crap" if the tea boy had used the wrong tea-bags, but he didn't. And so it was great...

Ah, but how can be so sure Tea bags were used - the probability is they weren't as there was less market penetration then!

Quote:] "In the early 1960s, tea bags made up less than 3 per cent of the British market"


https://www.tea.co.uk/the-history-of-the-tea-bag

darthed1981

AlexC said:

Why do some people think everyone who works in the media and the arts - including guitar players I assume - are ego driven maniacs? 

Yeah everyone knows that's singers, not guitar players!

WezV

Philly_Q said:

EricTheWeary said:

They didn’t used to. Certainly in the forties and fifties the end credits could be just a single shot. Given the expense of film stock and the problems of projectionists adding a few minutes at the end that most people wouldn’t even watch full end credits must have seemed a daft idea. 

True, but those old films had their credits at the beginning.  Not as extensive as today of course, but most old flms list the assistant directors, cameramen, hairstylists, makeup artists, best boy (whatever the hell that is) etc before the film starts.  Nowadays those less prominent roles would all be listed at the end.

Yes, I was going to point that out

i put Snow White on for my daughter the other day and she asked why I had started at the end.   Give it a few years and I will see if I get the same question to Memento

Funkfingers

axisus said:

No one has ever got a job by saying "Fire up a copy of Avatar, Fast forward all the way to the end, slow down until you get to the very start of the end credits, now fast forward 3 mins 32 seconds and you will see my name third row along scrolling up for about 2 seconds"

In 2009, a friend of mine was an extra in beach battle scene during the Russell Crowe Robin Hood film. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/7222312/Robin-Hood-filmed-on-National-Trust-land.html Eighteen Eighteen months later, he was offered further film extra work. IIRC, he declined.

That two seconds, in a very small point sized typeface, at the end of the film, is hardly the gateway to a career in cinema but it will be something nice that he can tell his children.

Bridgehouse

SimonC said:

richardhomer said:

I only buy boutique, artisan-built kettles. I insist on knowing the builders’ names....

I didn’t know Terry Morgan made kettles.

He makes Chotpoint and Chefal kettles..

RaymondLin

A lot of moaners here, JesusH Christ, it’s the credits, it’s put at the end of the movie, nobody force you to read it, at that point you are free to leave or eject the disk.

you say nobody gives a toss, but some people obviously give enough of a toss to post about it so....who’s laughing?

And what harm is it doing to you or anyone? Next thing you’ll be moaning about there are such things as texts on the internet because they take up important bandwidth for porn.

Relax, moan less, have a cup of tea instead.

Chalky

RaymondLin said:

A lot of moaners here, JesusH Christ, it’s the credits, it’s put at the end of the movie, nobody force you to read it, at that point you are free to leave or eject the disk.

you say nobody gives a toss, but some people obviously give enough of a toss to post about it so....who’s laughing?

And what harm is it doing to you or anyone? Next thing you’ll be moaning about there are such things as texts on the internet because they take up important bandwidth for porn.

Relax, moan less, have a cup of tea instead.

Er, nobody forced you to read this thread. But you still did and commented against it.

Ironic.

west

isnt it ....

Emp_Fab

Don’tcha think?

darthed1981

Philly_Q said:

EricTheWeary said:

They didn’t used to. Certainly in the forties and fifties the end credits could be just a single shot. Given the expense of film stock and the problems of projectionists adding a few minutes at the end that most people wouldn’t even watch full end credits must have seemed a daft idea. 

True, but those old films had their credits at the beginning.  Not as extensive as today of course, but most old flms list the assistant directors, cameramen, hairstylists, makeup artists, best boy (whatever the hell that is) etc before the film starts.  Nowadays those less prominent roles would all be listed at the end.

They had to stop that simply because of the sheer number of people they were obliged to credit, partly because of new union rules but mostly because films got much more complex, and longer, overall.

In the past, some films were exceptionally complex affairs with thousands of real extras, but these guys never really got credit, and the way shots were done was in many ways simpler.  How did they get that first arrow volley shot for the 1944 Henry V?  I suspect with shooting hundreds of arrows and a bit of false perspective to make them look like they were hitting the "other side".  These days, Chris Nolan would do the same thing but on IMAX film, most everyone else would use CGI.

Modern films use larger crews, and perform stunts much more safely.  They also use an awful lot of CGI and many of those in the credits are involved in this process.  The stars are typically more pampered and their personal teams and entourage are larger and often credited.

Films have become incredibly complex affairs, Paranormal Activity was considered bargain basement and still cost 8 million dollars to make.  It is only recently TV has come close, and in the case of shows like Game of Thrones that's mostly because the key cast are getting paid 8 million dollars each, per season...

It is probably fair to say it also contributes to a lot of flops, last year's "The Mummy" and "Justice League" both underperformed partly because they weren't very good, but also because they just cost too damn much to make.  Justice League in particular looks like Babylon 5 (in terms of it's CGI, I bet they wish it was as good as B5!) but apparently cost as much as $300 million (!!) to make.  I'd have to eat the crown jewels to make a turd that expensive...

sinbaadi

I am quite certain that all the unions of hollywood would be in uproar if a studio decided to not credit everyone for the production of a film because some of the audience want to see "The End" and then the curtains close.

dano

More muddled thinking from the OP

darthed1981

To be fair to the OP and the forum in general, about half the posts here can be summed up as...

https://s26.postimg.org/r22a2l43t/297.jpg

...if we banned posts like that, the forum would be pretty quiet!