From Aaron Currier came this…
So I'm sure with the end credits on shows (and movies as well), just about everyone is contractually obligated to have their names on the credits, rightfully so I think. But what about the speed? When they are designed to just flash by in an instant making someone need to pause to see their name, or even the older shows when they speed the credits up fast, am I right to assume that the producers are only legally/contractually obligated to have the names in the credits but don't have to legally make sure the credits are legible? You would imagine that they would have to make the credits actually readable since the whole point of credits is to, well, give people credit which hard to do when flashing by fast. Obviously they are in the clear as long as they have the credits, not mattering how fast they run them, fulfilling what little legal obligation they have.
No, not everyone has a contractual credit. Some credits are contractual but some are just customary…and on most shows, it's not "just about everyone" who gets credit at all. I've never worked on a show where everyone who could have received screen credit got screen credit. Often, you have the situation where, for example, four people are handling wardrobe or three are doing makeup and/or hair…and only the head of each department gets credited.
Those who are guaranteed credit either negotiate for it or their union does. Not everyone on any show is in a union and some unions don't demand credit…or credit for everyone. Also keep in mind that not everyone who works on a show works full-time. Let's say you have an episode of a show where there's a big party scene full of beautiful people. For that filming date, they might bring in a few extra makeup people just for the morning. Those people will not get credit.
Not even everyone seen on camera gets credit. Extras don't. Dancers rarely do. Most musicians don't. Some actors with two or three lines don't.
There may be writers who contributed to the script but didn't contribute enough to warrant credit under Writers Guild rules. The Guild has a whole manual full of rules to determine this kind of thing and if you're interested, you can download it from this page. There are movies where ten or twenty writers had input but only three or less received credit. My name has not been on some of the things I've done — sometimes by my choice, sometimes because my contribution wasn't large enough.
A contractual credit for anyone might include specifications of prominence. The director must have a single title card that displays his or her name and no one else's. The writing credit must be the same size and prominence as the director credit. The Directors Guild contract says, I believe, that if the credits are at the front of the show or movie, the director's must come last. If they're at the end of the movie, the director's must come first. If the director credit comes last, the writing credit must come just before that; vice-versa if it's at the end. There are also rules for when a voiceover can be heard during a writing or directing credit and when it cannot.
This is all very complicated but it is governed by rules. As far as I know though, there are no rules that anyone's credit must be onscreen for X seconds; only that it cannot be onscreen for less than everyone else's. And I'm talking here about contractual credits. The producers can do just about anything they like with credits that aren't contractual. Most credits for animation, by the way, are non-contractual.
As for why credits now run as swiftly as they do and are so small: I am reminded of a producer I met with maybe ten years ago. We were discussing a writing job that I wound up not doing. When we first met about it, he said to me, "I want my writers to imagine that every single person watching the show is sitting there with the remote control in their hands, ready to switch channels if they feel even momentarily bored." That is not an uncommon worry.
Networks came to the conclusion — and I have no idea how much evidence there was for this — that they were losing too many viewers to other channels during station breaks and credit rolls. So the policy is that if my show airs directly after yours, they want to not give the viewers time to even think about changing stations when your show is over. They began compressing the credits and doing tricks like popping up a little box showing a preview of my show while yours was still finishing. They want to get viewers watching my show a.s.a.p.
It has been suggested that all the networks get together and agree that they will all slow down credits so no one has an advantage. It might be very hard to get them all to agree to this…and frankly, they aren't just worried about viewers switching to another channel. They're worried viewers will go play videogames, or play some show they have recorded on their DVRs or watch something that's streaming or whatever. We live in a time when viewers have never had so many options.
Perhaps if the Writers Guild and the Directors Guild and the Screen Actors Guild and a few others all demanded it, something might change…but I'm skeptical they'd even rally around the issue. I don't hear a lot of dissatisfaction with the way credits are compressed these days.
