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?
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.