First and foremost, the film was NOT dedicated to the guy who died. How could they not acknowledge him?
I don’t know his name off hand. I should. But I know they do. I’ll post it as soon as I find it.
Secondly, Mr. Rilch did not get credit! None of the juicers (electricians) did! They credited the gaffers and best boys for first and second unit and for the rigging crew, and that was it. Why? They listed a lot of PAs and stunt people, which seems to indicate that they took care not to leave out any of those people. Why, then, did they not acknowledge the entire electric crew?
Mr. Rilch laughed and said, “Well, the checks cashed the same!”, but I can tell he’s stung. It just doesn’t make sense! They listed the entire grip crew: not just the key and best, but all the hammers. Sometimes it’s the other way around: every electrician is listed, but only the keys from the grip crew. That’s also wrong. If you did your job and didn’t get fired, you get credit. Heck, I heard an anecdote about a guy who was fired, and still got credit, on the grounds that the gaffer fired him because they didn’t get along, not because he’d screwed up.
WTF? Who draws up the credits for a movie, anyway. I actually don’t know. I should find out.
Does the IATSE logo count as a credit? If it was there, and Mr. Rilch is a member, then he technically was credited. (I know a name credit is better, but, hey…)
I was wondering if Tom Holcombe was going to get a dedication. I’m not the least bit surprised that he didn’t.
You know, it’s bad publicity to tell the world that you negligently killed a guy for no other reason than you were in a big fucking hurry. And you can never expect a production department to put principle ahead of dollars.
Don’t feel bad, my people have worked on over 200 features, and we can count our credits on one hand.
No, you can’t expect it, but I know of one incident where a crew member’s life was valued more than the production. On Titanic, there was an incident where the set started to submerge when it wasn’t supposed to. One of the ACs ran back for the camera, but was yanked off the set by another crew member. Afterwards, Cameron ripped him a new one: “Fuck the camera! Nobody dies on my set!” So there’s at least one instance of a director having principle. And at least one good thing that can be said about James Cameron.
As far as dollars, though, I hope his family was compensated.
:::Rilchiam opens the file to check Mr. Rilch’s insurance policy:::
Well, I can state from personal experience that credits are largely a political thing. I think Mr. Rilch has the right attitude since there’s little point getting too worked up about something you can’t do anything about (although I appreciate your indignation; my wife was also in a WTF?!? mode). It’s a shame everybody can’t get credited, but if you look at movies pre-1970, it was pretty well understood that filmmaking was often an extremely anonymous vocation.
Sorry to hear about the non-recognition of the fatality. Are you sure it wasn’t at the very, very end?
So I don’t understand what’s so important about the credits. If you watch a movie from the 1950’s you don’t see people like the caterer credited. How come you see so many people in the credits these days?
MGibson, I think it was just a gradual thing over time, where you’d see more and more cast members, and then more and more crew members, until it reached the levels where they’re at today. Unions have something to do with it, as does the fact that some contract stipulations require it as well, especially since the studio system involves a lot more use of outside vendors and contractors (labs, effects and sound recording houses, local/regional film offices, what have you). Every film is different and depending on how big a film promises to be, the amount of jockeying for position to get named (even in the most peripheral capacity) is very strong. It’s also nice to be publicly recognized for the work that you do, which is why some skilled craftsmen/technicians always hold out hope, even when they work amongst a sea of colleagues in largescale productions.
The crane fell over, decapitating a man. Since falling over is not generally associated with normal operation of cranes, there was negligence involved, and safety guidelines which were ignored.
I won’t get into who is at fault, other than to say that the people who are charged with the responsibility of making sure that no one gets hurt must have had a bad day.
My experience, though, is that because time is money, there are many scenarios where we simply cross our fingers and hope that no one gets hurt, and that the pressure to do so starts at the top.
True. But this is 2K2. It’s just frustrating because this could have been another listing for Mr. Rilch in the IMDB. Well, he has the call sheets, if anyone ever says, “Oh, yeah, you were on Spiderman! For one day, I bet!”
**
Well, I can check again. But we were looking out for it, and none of us saw it.
Hahahaha…wheh, that’s funny. Thanks for the laugh, dunne. And you even said it with a straight face. Like you actually believe that all you need to do to prove negligence is that something unexpected happened.
"Negligence: (Law) The omission of the care usual under the circumstances, being convertible with the Roman culpa.
I would never presume to claim that I could prove negligence in court. But if you exercise the care usual under the circumstances, then the crane doesn’t fall over. There was no tornado or other unforeseeable happenstance.
Moreover, if what I’m told is true, then the conditions of this accident (of course it was an accident) constitute gross negligence.
Rilchiam, I’m told that you can present the IMDB with proof that your hubby worked on Spiderman (pay stubs should do nicely, I imagine), and they will grant him a credit on their website.