This occurred to me watching a first-run movie at home last night. The credits were tiny. You couldn’t read them unless you were a sniper or had X-Ray vision. Now I understand that if the movie is meant to be seen on the big screen. In that case, large credits look huge. I remember one Sylvester Stallone movie where his credit literally filled the entire screen. I saw it at a WGA screening and the entire audience laughed. Talk about shameless ego.
But nowadays, if your hero doesn’t wear a cape then chances are your movie is going to be seen in living rooms. And people don’t have 400 foot screens. So why not make the credits a little bigger?
Watching the new season of DEXTER, the credits were quite large. You could actually read names. And I thought, why not? It's a TV show.
The problem with most TV series now is because of no opening titles and ever-expanding writing staffs, the credits run underneath the programming. So you don’t want them so large as to distract from the action. In that case I say, at least use legible fonts. Tiny credits in a weird font — the viewer has no chance of reading it. (That said, there were a couple of shows I worked on where I wished the credits were smaller.)
Color is also important. Yellow credits read better than white and most colors. There’s usually not that much yellow in set dressing and wardrobe because it doesn’t favor skin tones. So yellow credits tend to stand out.
On MASH the credits were done in a stencil font but were quite large. All of the actors’ credits were in the opening titles and we had a very small staff so only four or five credits during the body of the show.
I’m a person who pays attention to credits. Always have. TV, movies, contributing cartoonists in magazines, support staff in podcasts, etc. I used to assume I was the only one but lots of people it seems take notice. Other than my relatives, who’s going to give a shit about my writing credit? But apparently, folks do. Some folks. Okay, one or two. But still. That’s more than just me.
And don’t get me started with the network practice of squeezing end credits. To me that’s criminal and I don’t know how the unions allow that. What it shows of course, is that networks could care less who actually makes their shows, dedicated craftsmen who work long hours. God forbid a network should devote 20 precious seconds to give them the recognition they more than deserve.
Bottom line: Credits should be bigger… except for Sylvester Stallone.
from By Ken Levine
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