How many credits should you give yourself in your own film?

ajedproduction

ajedproduction

I wrote, directed, produced and edited my recent short film. However my actress told me that you should only credit yourself twice(maximum) in your own film? Is that true? Why?

I'm willing to just credit myself as Writer and Director, then for producer I can just list my production company. I still wanna credit myself for editor though.

What do you think?
 
Rather than writing

Written by................Brendan Cherry
Directed by...............Brendan Cherry
Cinematography by..Brendan Cherry ETC

^Which looks stupid

I write

Written, directed and cinematography by
Brendan Cherry

I have not heard not to credit yourself more than twice before. But I would be careful how many times your name is mentioned, like in my first example
 
holy_grail_c-0-1080-0-0.jpg
 
A Film By: ajedproduction

With the talents of:

Then list everyone else by character or craft/job. If anyone bothers to read the credits and
actually gives a damn who wrote it, or directed, or DPed they'll figure it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpBkc2jK-6w


If we were credited for every job we did on a film I would be one of the most credited on almost every film I've worked on.

Sound Designer: Bob Kessler
Supervising Sound Editor: Bob Kessler
Sound ReRecording Mixer: Bob Kessler
Dialog Editor: Bob Kessler
ADR Mixer: Bob Kessler
ADR Editor: Bob Kessler
Foley Supervisor: Bob Kessler
Foley Performed By: Bob Kessler
Foley Editor: Bob Kessler
Sound Effects Editor: Bob Kessler
Sound Effects Field Team: Bob Kessler
Music Editor: Bob Kessler
Music Supervisor: Bob Kessler
Audio Data Wrangler: Bob Kessler
Audio Technical Systems Support: Bob Kessler
Audio Systems Maintenance: Bob Kessler
Sound Librarian: Bob Kessler

Audio Post Facilities: Alcove Audio Productions


Gets rather redundant after a while, doesn't it? So I am usually credited with Audio Post by Bob Kessler
 
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You can give multiple credits but it does look weird if one person gets a lot of credits. If its your own film without others you can credit "Film by x" and leave it at that.

You can also split up the credits with opening and closing credits to split it up with your Producer and Director credits at the start and the editor and writer at the ending credits.
 
I personally find it kind of ridiculous to see the same name over and over for multiple credits - just find some way to combine it all into one. Either Alcove's suggested "a film by" or MileCreation's "written, directed, etc by" is fine, although I'd only go for the latter if you're going to list 3-4 things max.
 
ItDonnedOnMe said:
MileCreation's "written, directed, etc by" is fine, although I'd only go for the latter if you're going to list 3-4 things max.
Click to expand...

Expanding on what I previously said, I would normally only write about 4-5 as you've said. I mean I may have been the sound recordist, but that's not important, what's important is that I directed/wrote/filmed/edited it.
 
If people are going to say "who?" upon reading your name, once is enough, preferably on the back end. If a filmmaker spills his ego on everyone at the start of the film, they're doomed.
 
OMG Alcove... you found one of the films that I use to chain watch at the public library in the 8mm projectors (that and hardware wars)... freaking awesome, thanks for that.

Credit yourself with the jobs you did. If your intention is to use your work as a calling card, your name needs to be in the credits for the jobs you're looking to do. Condensing is fine, but make sure your myriad of tasks are in there.
 
ajedproduction said:
However my actress told me that you should only credit yourself twice(maximum) in your own film? Is that true? Why?
Click to expand...
Your actress has a good head on her shoulders and her advice is good.

As others have said, no one watching a short cares about who did each
job. I always think is looks silly to see the same name over and over
and over. If you think that looks good and you want to read your name
several times you should do the credits YOUR way.
 
The first short I made in artschool was a real masterpiece when it came to repeating names in credits. It became irony instead of crediting. I even made a piece of music of almost 2 minutes to use for the opening credits. And offcourse it got repeated in the end credits. The actual short was 5 or 6 minutes, with credits almost 10 minutes.
 
My last couple of features I wrote, produced, directed, lit, shot, gripped, designed, edited, created special effects, did all the sound editing+design+mixing...actually every job except boom-op, AD, UPM, music, makeup and wardrobe.

My name appears exactly once in the end credits (no opening credits). FWIW.
 
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