Opening Credits Order

Christina MacCallum
Upon researching online on the typical order of opening credits in
films I found the following information:
While there are many variations, most opening credits use some
variation of this common order:
(NAME OF THE STUDIO)
Name of the studio that is distributing the film and may or may not
have produced it (Walt Disney Pictures, Columbia, Lions Gate,
Universal etc)

(NAME OF THE PRODUCTION COMPANY)

Name of the production company that actually made the film or
name of the investment groups or companies that financed a
substantial part of the film (usually credited as "in association with"
or "A (studio name) production.").

(PRODUCER NAME) PRODUCTION or/and (director only) A

FILM BY (DIRECTOR NAME)

STARRING
Principal actors (sometimes the stars' and director's credits will be
reversed, depending on the star's deal with the studio; in other
cases, as in the Rodgers and Hammerstein films, or as in all three
film versions of Show Boat, or, as in many Disney films, the title of
the film will be shown before the names of its actors; sometimes, as
in many of Cannon's films, the name(s) of the principal actor(s) will
be shown before the name(s) of the producer(s), i.e. "The Cannon
Group presents X in a Golan-Globus production of a Y film").

(FILM'S TITLE)
Name of the film.

FEATURING
Featured actors.

CASTING or CASTING BY
Casting director.

MUSIC or MUSIC COMPOSED BY or ORIGINAL SCORE BY

Composer of music.

PRODUCTION DESIGN or PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Production designer.

As a variation some of the below may be noted:

SET DESIGN
COSTUMES or COSTUMES BY or GOWNS (older movies)
HAIRDRESSER
MAKE-UP ARTIST
SOUND RECORDING (older movies)
VISUAL EFFECTS DIRECTOR or VISUAL EFFECTS BY
EDITOR or EDITED BY
Editor.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of photography.

PRODUCER or PRODUCED BY, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Producers, co-producers, executive producers, 'also produced by'
(credited for various reasons according to contracts and personal
scrutiny of the principal producer). Often, though, the name of the
producer will be the next-to-last opening credit, just before the
director's name is shown.
BASED ON THE BOOK (PLAY, GRAPHIC NOVEL etc.)
BY or FROM A PLAY/BOOK BY (older movies)
If based on a book or other literary work.

BASED ON THE CHARACTERS BY or BASED ON THE

CHARACTERS CREATED BY
If based on characters from a book or other media.

(SCREEN) STORY or STORY BY

Person who wrote the story on which the script is based, gets "story
by" credit, and the first screenplay credit, unless the script made
substantial changes to the story.

WRITER(S) or WRITTEN
BY or SCREENPLAY or SCREENPLAY BY
Screenplay writers. The Writers Guild of America allows only three
writing credits on a feature film, although teams of two are credited
as one, separated on the credits by an ampersand ("X & Y"). If each
works independently on the script (the most common system), they
are separated by an "and". If more than two persons worked on the
screenplay, the credits may read something like "screenplay by X &
Y and Z and W" X and Y worked as a team, but Z and W worked
separately.

DIRECTOR or DIRECTED BY
Director. The Directors Guild of America usually permits a film to list
only one director, even when it is known that two or more worked on
it. Exceptions are made in rare cases such as a death, and

subsequent replacement of the director mid-production, and for

established directing teams such as the Coen brothers.

I got all of this information from Wikipedia. It was really

helpful in understanding this order and how we will
incorporate this into our film.