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?

  • Echinoderm@aussie.zoneOP
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    1 day ago

    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?

    • Ziggurat@jlai.lu
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      1 day ago

      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)

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      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

    • Beacon@fedia.io
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      1 day ago

      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?

      • worhui@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        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.