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Author Topic: Credit where credit's due? (lengthy end credits) Dick Vaughan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1032 From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-14-2004 02:51 AM                        The increasing length of end credits has now become news in the UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3392435.stm Hollywood's lengthening film credits by Michael Osborn BBC News Online entertainment staff Return of the King weighs in with epic closing credits The Lord of the Rings trilogy has reached its climax by setting a new record for having the longest closing credits in Hollywood history. The Return of the King wraps up with an impressive nine and a half minutes of credits, listing hundreds of names. This is in stark contrast to the dawn of Hollywood, when silent horror flick Nosferatu mentioned just 16 names in a mere ninety seconds. The longer the credits creep for, the more time we have to put our coats on and leave the cinema. But exhaustive on-screen mentions are important to every last person in the film industry. "The power of the unions has put more and more people on the credits who wouldn't have been there before," says Patrick Fay, credits researcher at the British Film Institute. NUMBER OF CREDITED NAMES 1922 Nosferatu - 16 1977 Star Wars - 143 1999 The Matrix - 151 2003 LOTR II - 559 2003 Matrix III - 701 Source: Baseline Hollywood Big name stars often like their vast entourages to be mentioned - Russell Crowe boasted a 17-strong team on the credits of Master and Commander. The Return Of The King lists oddities such as "compositing inferno artist" on its epic credits, while Mr Fay's personal favourite is "cockroach wrangler". While Peter Jackson's film may hold the Hollywood credits record, there may be other contenders out there. "There is a Brazilian fantasy movie which has very long credits. This is a real culture in Brazilian cinema," explains Mr Fay. "On DVD, previous Lord of the Rings films have had additional credits, so they could be even longer when the Return of the King is released," he adds. The end credits to Oscar-winning Titanic rolled for seven minutes While a film credit name-check can be an important career boost to someone in the business, movie-goers rarely take any notice. We are more likely to want to find out the name of a song on a movie soundtrack than to see who the second dolly grip was. "People do not care about credits," continues the BFI's Patrick Fay. "Although The Return Of The King's close is accompanied by some beautiful drawings." BBC News Online's Stephen Dowling, who reviewed The Return Of The King, said he left the cinema as the credits crept onto the screen. "I wanted to see daylight after seeing the film. I'd been in the cinema for three hours." Pixar animations add action to their closing credits Viewers of Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets were coaxed into watching the credits roll, with the promise of an extra scene on the other side. Animated favourites from Pixar like Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc have actually made the closing credits experience an enjoyable one. Aquatic characters in Nemo dart in and out of the credits with amusing and entertaining results. And A Bug's Life showed insects messing up their lines in a string of outtakes. Opening credits Older cinemagoers will remember credits appearing at the beginning of the film. This trend died out because of television - when viewers could be lost to annoying opening name-checks. Once Upon A Time In The West had a staggering 14-minute opening credit sequence in 1968 - paling the Lord of the Rings' benchmark into insigificance. But Patrick Fay does not think Hollywood credits can roll for much longer than 10 minutes - but the "credit creep" could be here to stay.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-14-2004 03:35 AM                     "Teaser subject title" (hint, read the FAQ)  |  IP: Logged Dick Vaughan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1032 From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-14-2004 04:26 AM                        Sorry Mr Miller sir. I consider myself admonished and promise not to do it again Could you please change the Topic title for me to something more appropriate  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-14-2004 04:59 AM                     Just pick something you feel is suitable.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-14-2004 05:22 AM                        Men in Black must be a contender for the longest credit roll - they literally occupy over a reel.  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 01-14-2004 07:01 AM                     A few years ago, I got a feature that was missing the 6-7 minute end credit sequence for the collection. I located, and paid too much money for just the credits to make this film complete. I for one, scan all of the credits looking for friends names. I've found several. I used to keep track of MPAA approval certificate numbers, too.  |  IP: Logged Richard Greco Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1180 From: Plant City, FL Registered: Nov 2003 posted 01-14-2004 08:07 AM                     Scary Movie 3 was extremely long too  |  IP: Logged Dick Vaughan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1032 From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-14-2004 08:10 AM                        D'oh! Take pity it's been a really bad week  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-14-2004 08:15 AM                     I seem to recall "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" holding the record for some time there.  |  IP: Logged Jason Burroughs Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 654 From: Allen, TX Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-14-2004 09:28 AM                     I don't know if its a record or not, but the credits for Independence Day (ID4) were over 10 minutes in legnth.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-14-2004 11:45 AM                     Interesting, but I was talking about the number of names, not the duration of the credit sequence.  |  IP: Logged Michael Coate Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1904 From: Los Angeles, California Registered: Feb 2001 posted 01-14-2004 11:54 AM                     quote: ...says Patrick Fay, credits researcher at the British Film Institute. The name above has been misspelled in the article. I correspond with Patrick Fahy on a regular basis supplying him with bits of data for him to incorporate into the BFI's Sight & Sound magazine. FWIW... For the time they were produced, Superman (1978) and The Blues Brothers (1980) had insanely long credits (opening and closing in the case of Superman). Manny wrote: quote: I was talking about the number of names, not the duration of the credit sequence. Aren't those two things related?!? More names = longer credit roll.  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 01-14-2004 12:03 PM                     Well, they could make the credits go at about 100fps like they do on regular TV.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-14-2004 12:37 PM                        The only thing the audiences are usually interested in are: > The cast > The songs > Where the movie was filmed They could leave the rest off and just put them on the DVD, thereby allowing them to say CONTAINS 10 MINUTES OF FOOTAGE NOT SEEN IN THEATRES! Presto, double the DVD sales with zero production costs.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 01-14-2004 03:02 PM                        Zero production costs! There's good money in the title making business you know. quote: Aren't those two things related?!? More names = longer credit roll. When the number of names to include gets large, more often than not more names does not equal a longer credit roll as they will often do stupid things like put three names per line for a good chunk of the roll. quote: Well, they could make the credits go at about 100fps like they do on regular TV. Not gonna happen. There have been some films that have tried to do this with unavoidable crappy results. There's only so far you can move a line from frame to frame before the text actually jumps up the screen instead of scrolling. The larger the screen the worse it looks (larger jumps). Of course if you could physically make the projector go a 100 fps it'd work just dandy. Although you'd be lucky to be able to read more than half of the lines before they scroll off the screen.  |  IP: Logged

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