watching film credits

Sometimes, for me, the best part of a film can be watching the credits at the end. 

Some of those jobs just have to be made up, don't they? 

Take "standby painter" for instance.  What IS that?  I have an image in my head of a guy in white overalls, with a paint brush in one hand and tin of paint in the other, standing there looking really eager, just waiting for someone to shout "Painter, Action!".

It must be pretty good to get a shout out for the job you've done, no matter how minor your role.  Absolutely everybody seems to get a mention at the end of a film nowadays.

Imagine they did that for every product that we used.

What if my cup of coffee had a listing of everyone who contributed in bringing it to me?

Like - the designers of the cup, printers, material suppliers, manufacturers, the guy who drove the lorry to deliver the cups to the cafe, the coffee & sugar growers and manufacturers, coffee tasters, farmers and cows, right through to the person who made the coffee in the café, the makers of the car they drove to work in, the coffee equipment manufacturers, the bankers, accountants and insurance companies who support the business, the music that was playing in the café.  And let's not forget the make up & clothing supplier and hairdresser of the server. 

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. 

How big would a cup of coffee have to be to print everyone's name and job title on there?

It's pretty incredible how many people go into making stuff we take for granted each day.  Someone, somewhere has worked their butt off making sure the print on the coffee cup is exactly the right pantone reference colour.  Probably had to work late to make sure they were on site for the print run start-up, maybe missing their kid's birthday party.  Maybe they had a splitting headache, but stayed on to get the job done.  Maybe they had to go and explain their decision to stop the line, to get the colour right, to the production manager who then complained to their boss.  All in the name of the print on a coffee cup that no one much notices. 

They're all out there.  The likes of us, not in the film industry, doing this stuff every day and yet the customer doesn't know their name.  Never will.

Once, for a laugh, I tried writing a credit list as if there'd been a film made of my life - it was pretty long and I never got close to finishing it. 

There are just so many unsung heroes I could (and should) thank for helping me get to here. 

But still, on that long, long list there was no standby painter.  Not needed one so far, but then I'm young yet........

I had to do it. 

I've just looked up Standby Painter and it IS someone just waiting around, on a film set, to do emergency painting.  Amazing!  Here's a job description - how cool a job is that?

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