You've stayed through the movie's final credits -- a seemingly endless scrolling of mysterious job titles like best boy, grip, and Foley artist -- and if you're like many people, you have no idea what all these individuals do, or whether they're just strange names there to make the audience laugh. Well, all the jobs are real, and we'll get to them, along with gaffers, wranglers, and second second assistant directors, but first you need to know something about how the movie business operates.
Credits aren't really there for the audience, although they can be interesting to watch. They're really there so the studios and other industry personnel will know who did what on the film. They help with future jobs, with better contracts, with more deals and obviously, with getting more money next time around. Credits are where the agent earns his or her money, because it's the agent who negotiates not only the worker's salary, but her credits, as well.
First, draw a horizontal line. That line is an accountant's way of describing the costs of making a movie. Above the line go the names of all the creative people involved (along with the pay or compensation they're going to get). Who are the creative people? They're the ones with agents. They are the director, the producers, the writers, the stars and featured actors, and (these days) the production designers, composers, casting directors, and cinematographers. Below the line go all the production people -- the crew members -- and the out-of-pocket costs of making the movie, like allocations for location rentals, building sets, purchasing or renting equipment, getting props, recording and editing the sound track, buying film stock and processing it in the laboratory, generating the optical and special effects (now often up to half the total production cost) and the like. The line is not a figure of speech. Every production is described as consisting of "above-the-line" and "below-the-line" costs.
Now the fun begins. Who should be listed first? With a few exceptions, there's a predetermined order.
