[HPFGU-Movie] Re: Movie 7pt1

[Shaun Hately]

On 24/11/2010 4:22 AM, johnkclark wrote:

> The thing I don't understand is if every second counts why do they waste
> 7 or 8 minutes on a seemingly endless closing credit roll that virtually
> nobody sits through? Without that there would have been more than enough
> time for both those two important scenes and probably a third. Classic
> movies of the past didn't have such ridiculously long credits, and there
> is less need for them now then there was then. If you absolutely must
> know who the third assistant caterer was for the second unit you can
> find it in seconds on the web.

For a start, the length of the credit roll really doesn't have much 
influence on anything else in the movie. A movie like Deathly Hallows 
costs somewhere on the order of $10,000 a second to make. That's why 
every second counts more than anything else. The credit section is much 
cheaper. Eight more minutes of film comes close to $5,000,000.

Classic movies of the past generally didn't have long credits for two 
reasons - the first is that there were a lot less people working on them 
in most cases. The second is that a lot of the people working on them 
weren't given the respect their skills and/or hard work deserved. In 
modern film making when you are often contracted for single films at a 
time, rather than working full time for a studio and assigned to its 
films (as used to be much more standard) your list of credits is the way 
you get future jobs. If the studios didn't have to release a list of 
credits with the movie, many would never bother to release that 
information at all - requiring it to be on the end of the film 
guarantees they must release this information. These people work very 
hard to provide you with pleasure and enjoyment - they deserve to have 
that acknowledged, especially when it means a better chance of continued 
employment.

It also comes down as being a matter of respect - by the stars and the 
producers, directors, etc, acknowledging that the thing that makes them 
a lot of money and makes them famous is a lot of work by a lot of 
people. And here they are. It's a matter of not pretending you did it 
all by yourself.