Credits

Opening Credits

Upon watching many short films, I wish to have brief opening credits. This will not be a title sequence as a complete sequence will take up 2-3 minutes of the short film, making it unconventional as short films typically do not have long openings. Short films are made to get a point across to the audience and therefore begin almost immediately. Typically, opening credits to short films should last up to 1 minute. Additionally, the production of a short film commonly includes a small cast and crew, so the making of a title sequence would be unsuccessful.

While every film production is dissimilar, the most common order of the opening credits to a short film consist of the distribution company name, followed by the production company and the filmmaker's name. Short filmmakers often include their institution logo at the start of their opening credits. The majority of the time the opening credits finish with the title of the film. The way the title is displayed is dependent on the genre of the product. This is in terms of font, sizing, colour and animation. For example,

Closing Credits

On the other hand, the closing credits of a short film should take longer to view than the opening credits and should include companies' names who have work under copyright embedded in the product. Usually, the closing credits last up to 30 seconds, but can last up to 1 minute depending on the scale of the production. This is identifiable in the closing credits of 'The Snowman' (1982).

Credits are displayed in order of importance. The general order of opening credits consists of the following;

• Name of the film studio(s)
• Production company(ies)
• Possessory credits
• Above-title billed actor(s)
• Film title
• Main cast
• Last billed actor(s)
• Casting director(s)
• Composer(s)
• Visual effects supervisor(s)
• Costume designer(s)
• Film editor(s)
• Production designer(s)
• Director(s) of Photography
• Producer(s) and/or Executive Producer(s)
• Screenwriter(s)
• Director(s)

Sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billing_(filmmaking)

If there are no opening credits present at the beginning of the film then this order is reversed in the closing credits.

Composition of Closing Credits

Regularly, a film's closing credits transition from the bottom upwards with the text in a fixed position across the frame.

Some filmmakers believe this technique is very effective in terms of continuing the theme of the film. so they include an unofficial closing sequence, this may be a brief animated sequence showing the roles that are higher in the production hierarchy before displaying the typical closing credits.

Short Film End Credits from August Miller on Vimeo.


Filmmakers can also construct closing credits where unseen footage/outtakes ('bloopers') is positioned around the general transitioning text. This is seen in 'NADIA' (2017). The outtakes in the closing credits of this short film are used to provide actuality as characters from the film are still in character, keeping the audience engaged in and aware of the real-life situation that the protagonist experiences.

The font of the closing credit text should be plain and clear, making it easy for the audience to read the different roles. Conventionally, the text is white, displayed on a black background. The official closing credits have no relevance to the narrative of the media product and should signify the ending of the short film. Without any research, my credits would appear very unprofessional, lowering the standard of my short film.

I was able to formulate and idea for the structure and layout of my opening and ending credits.

Reviewing this, I need to reorder the list of job roles in my ending credits.