The credits that are given at the end of a movie aren’t there because there is any standard film industry rule or any city or state or national or international law requiring them. They exist mostly because there is a contract between each of person working on the film and the company producing the film stating that the names of all the actors/directors/screenwriters/editors/cinematographers/producers/miscellaneous crew members have to be listed in the credits. It’s often as important to such people as the salary (or cut of the profit) that those people get. The money someone may be paid on a small independent film may be just barely enough for them to get by on during the time of production of the film. If that small independent film becomes well known though, the credit that a member of the cast or crew gets may be important for future jobs that they get.
Furthermore, as I understand it, although the Internet Movie Database is generally very good about transferring the credits of a movie to their database, there is no official status to that database. It’s just an online database operated by people who are generally very careful in their data collection. There’s no law or industry rule that says that the makers of a film have to send their credits to the IMDb. The people working at the IMDb don’t feel required to do extra research beyond reading the credits in creating the entry for a film. Yes, sometimes there is information there that’s not in the credits (particularly if the film is old), but the IMDb isn’t required by anyone to search for it.
This can be a major problem for people who live in popular locations. Ask any New Yorker about scene accuracy. Or any Angelino who winced when Mel Gibson started chasing a bad guy on foot in Reseda, turned a corner and was on Hollywood Blvd.
I totally disagree with the OP, and if I ever owned property that was in a movie I would demand that the location be undisclosed as part of the contract.
Reminds me of the house that was used for Walter White’s house in Breaking Bad. While I’m sure the credits never listed its location, fans of course were able to figure it out, and the people who live there (an elderly couple) has had to ask the public to stop throwing pizzas on their roof since the show aired (seriously).
Way back when, many scenes were filmed in sound stages in Hollywood. Even car driving scenes. I should think it would “ruin it” for movie watchers to know it was all a put-on.
As mentioned above credits only reflect what some contract demands are in them. Cities get mentioned because the city gives tax breaks and filming permits in order to convince more movies to film there.
As a person who’s crewed plenty of films without a credit, I endorse Wendell Wagner’s post.
It takes so many people to create a big budget feature that to list them all in the credits would be impractical. As an example, many times you’ll see the name of the Key Grip, but much less often will you see the name of the Best Boy or of the rest of the Grips, even though they work long hours every day of production.
So those of us with more specialized assignments, who might come in and work for a week or two, or people who are further from the camera, like drivers? Very rarely.
Occasionally I’ve sat all the way through the credits. (Particularly for the Marvel movies, where there is often a scene at the very, very end.) In these films in particular, it’s amazing how many people are involved. The credits will mention special visual effects by [company] and then go on to list like a hundred names. And then there will be ten or twelve other effects companies listed as well.
True, and as Wendell points out, this happens as a function of the contract that’s negotiated between the production company and the vendor. In my experience negotiating these issues, the production company’s default position is to refuse granting a screen credit (as mentioned, it costs money to put those names up there), but if the vendor has enough leverage to get all those names into the credits, it’ll happen.
Smaller vendors often don’t have that luxury; and in the case of the company I worked for, unless we were hired for the duration of the shoot, we knew better than to ask.
Why would you think that? Because I can only think of one occasion when this was even mentioned. It no more ruins a movie than the realization that it’s just actors playing a role and not real people.
Or realizing it’s just light projected on a screen.
The owners of the house used in The Goonies put sheets up to cover their home to make it unrecognizable. They’re frustrated by all the movie fans who will just walk onto their property peeping through their windows or posing for photos next to the house.
Bob Denver’s contract for Gilligan said his credit placement was up to him. When they did not move everyone’s credit before the show, he said for them to move his name to closing credits. As you might expect they responded by moving all the main cast credits before the show.
The owners of the house used in the Conjuring are suing the studio for failing to keep the location of the house secret. Apparently, they are besieged by the curious coming by at all hours of the day and night, including “ghost hunters” skulking around the property at 3am.
