The very first credit you see on the screen, just after the lights go down and the theater informs you that this is the feature presentation and you are fortunate enough to hear it in one or another version of @Dolby or @THX sound, is the name of the studio (@Buena @Vista, @Columbia, @Universal, etc.). This is followed by the name of the production company that actually made the film (for example, @Spielberg's @Amblin Entertainment), which is then followed by the name of the investment group that hopes to make a fortune by backing the film (for example, a group of dentists in @Minneapolis might call themselves "Whitecaps IV"), usually credited as "in association with." Then the director's first credit, usually "a film by (your name here)," or "a (your name) film." Then come the stars, and then comes the film's title. Sometimes the stars' and director's credits will be reversed, depending on the each of their deals with the studio. Then (often) come the featured actors, followed by the key production people -- the casting director, music composer, production designer, editor, director of photography and then ...
And then it gets sticky. We come to the writers and producers (the director always gets the final credit). The film "Quiz Show" listed 11 producers in the opening credits, although in fact there were 14, but three had asked to have their names removed. "Daily Variety's" (one of the industry's major trade papers) story reported that "it required several weeks to work out a viable device for listing all the credits -- which would be co-producers, executive producers, æalso produced by' producers and so forth. When one refused to go along with the settlement, the entire 'grid' had to be painstakingly reconstructed." Since no film requires 11 producers, much less 14, we can be pretty sure that we're seeing ego at work. Who are these people? Often they're friends, relatives, personal trainers, or other hangers-on of the star whose names are added on as a part of the star's contract, a kind of big perk for the "little people."
