I’ve seen a lot of credits showing up in movies that have nothing to do with what’s gone on on the screen. “Caterer”, “Accountant”, “Transportation”, and “First Aid” all showed up in various movies seen this past weekend. Why?
It can’t be advertising. It’s not like I’m going to cater my party based on who catered “X-Men”. And my first aid choice will be 911, not two guys I’d seen at the tail end of a flick. Even movie folks can’t be expected to be sitting around at the end of a film to see who catered the Ron Howard movie so they can choose the same.
The audience doesn’t care–most don’t read this stuff. Why the lengthy credits?
It’s ego. The caterer can point at the screen and say, “that’s me.” I suspect the movie companies originally granted credits as a way to pay lower prices. (“If you bring the price down an extra 5%, we’ll put your name on the credits.”) Now, though, it’s so common that it probably doesn’t work as a negotiating tool.
The best comment on movie credits:
Gonzo: Does anyone read these?
Kermit: Sure. They all have families.
In satirical movies, it pays to watch the credits for jokes.
I’ve seen recently that the credits will joke with the “No animals were harmed…” statement, saying “No aliens were harmed”, “…florists…”, “…white people…”, “…dinosaurs…”, “…girls…”, “…heterosexuals…”, “…lobsters…”, “…jawas…”, “…corpses…”. The joke’s starting to get old.
It costs nothing for the movie to put the caterers name in the credits and, as someone said, there is probably some discount involed to get the name in the credits. The caterer wants the name in the credits for promotional purposes. It helps to get the next movie.
I mean this seems so ridiculous. I’m a businessman, sort of anyway, and I wouldn’t give anyone a discount for posting my name or business where hardly anyone would see it and no one would respond. And if I’m a caterer promoting my works, I don’t need a credit in a movie to prove I brought food to cast and crew. What’s someone going to do, rent the movie to check my references? More likely, they’d call up my references just like everyone else.
I also don’t think ego would make that big of a difference to a caterer either. Selling food is difficult enough to make a decent profit on without letting ego knock off 10%. I mean, after all, most of the films are shot in California, and people have to be kind of used to celebrity. Maybe if they were on location here in Virginia, then someone might get a kick out of seeing their business name on screen…but I still think it’s very weird.
And what about the accountant and the first aid people. What’s their big bonus in this? I even wonder about the “Assistant to Mr. Hanks” and such listed. They were not in the movie. There’s no work of theirs in the movie. They can’t get any advertising bonus (Get me the same aide Mr. Von Damme had! Price is no object!..?)and should be over the ego of seeing their names. After all, they hang out with celebs all day.
Well, I always look for the catering company name in credits simply because many times the name is very clever. I know that seems very sad and weird but I like to hear about cool names for companies AND I have always wanted to start my own catering company. So, there you go, it’s for people like me.
Why not put the caterer in? As someone who’s produced for TV, I usually feel very indebted to ALL participants who have contributed to a project. I’m delighted to included everyone in the credits – caterers, assistants, whoever.
My feeling is that credits are not for the audience anyway, so if you think they’re silly, no matter. They are for the cast, crew and other participants – and for posterity. If, a century from now, some old coot tells his grandkid that he was second assistant best boy on some production, the kid should be able to go back and see grandpa’s name.
There’s no real harm, and a small bit of good, in the practice.
A friend of mine is planning on making a film, and most of the sponsors names will be in the credits. Sponsors will provide free services if they get a promotional name in the credits.
However, to the OP, it is now policy to put everyone involved, no matter how small a role they played, into the credits. I mean, I’m a storyboard artist, I get in the credits - is anyone gonna read the credits to see who storyboarded the movie so they can get me? Course not!
But if I put a movie on my resume, and they then checked the credits of the movie, then maybe it legitimises my claim at least. That’s something.
I have been led to believe that most of what appears in the credits of a motion picture is dictated by the various unions involved. I can’t speak to the issue of caterers specifically, but I do know that the writers’ guild has very strict rules about when “and” and “&” are used to join names, etc.
I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that film caterer’s unions have agreements dictating that they be listed in the credits. But then, I’m both damn cynical and anti-union, so you have to take that into consideration.
You obviously have never seen any of the “making of” documentaries that come out on big productions. Shot on location with huge crews, these catering services often feed hundreds of production workers and cast at a time. When you are shooting a 16 to 20 hour day, I’d say a good caterer would often become a very important part of the production crew.
These are also often businesses that specialize in this type of caterering. Much the way that prop warehouses and other fringe business operate as part of the industry. It has been the habit for quite awhile now for most all individuals and companies involved on a film to recieve credit.
i think the choice of caterer would be more relevant for a john candy or chris farley (hmmmmm) movie than, say, a jim carrey or james woods movie. john belushi maybe? are there any fat actors left that i can use for this bit? how about john goodman.
OK, my first explanation was of the put-the-cart-before-the-horse variety. Let’s say you are a production company and want to get food cheap. You ask for quotes and the cheapest comes from a company that wants it’s name in the credits. You agree as long as they meet certain standards. The caterer gets credit, which is a bigger thing than many people here think because you have an operation that, in a major motion picture, involves hundreds, if not over a thousand at peak, people some of whom start at 5am and some of whom stay past midnight.
If you were starting up would you knock a couple of points off to get your name in the credits—yes. At least if you ever wanted to get into the serious Hollywood catering business you would.
And don’t think for a second ego doesn’t play a part. Not only do you have to get your name in there, you have to get it in there as many times as possible. Look at The Nutty Professor II-The Clumps. There is a producer, 2 co-producers an associate producer and FIVE executive producers. Did Eddie Murphy or Jerry Lewis really do anything that warrants putting their name as executive producer? My guess is no. Imagine Entertainment owned the rights and Imagine Entertainment and Universal put up the money. Murphy gets an executive producer credit basically for agreeing to do the sequel I guess. Jerry Lewis’ case is even fuzzier. Also, the associate producer is the daughter of one of the executive producers.
The “little people” see all this name in the credits stuff and want in too. You’re nobody in Hollywood if you haven’t gotten you name in the credits lately.
I’m annoyed that the makers of the movies–who often make millions of dollars in profits–get a discount from the caterer while my popcorn and coke cost me $7.00–Grr!
The part I don’t get is, who reads the credits looking for the caterer’s or accountant’s or first aid guy’s name? Even if getting credited in Hollywood makes you a somebody, who’s really going to know? And where does it stop? What about the guy who fixed the air conditioner? What about the maker of the piano in scene 35?
I notice this doesn’t happen in older movies. The credits were fairly short by today’s standards, and anyone listed actually had work you could judge by watching the movie.
For all I know people hated the food they ate while making “The Perfect Storm”. You can’t make any realistic assessment of the credited catering work while watching the movie. Ditto for the first aid credit in “X-Men”, unless they were responsible for the Wolverine’s self-healing.
This really seems to cheapen the rest of the names in the credits.