Not sure is this fits into this section. Regarding the ending credits of a film. Is there any real science or rule of thumb when putting together the ending credtis??

I am making a doc on my military deployment and I have all the military members first, following that is the production staff, music and then the "Thanks and special thanks." If I want to thank people from various fourm based web site like this one, should I put in each name or just make a "blanket thank you" to all thoes from the following web sites??

I fell as if I may be reading into this too much, but I want to make sure the ending credits are as professional as possible.

Thoughts, ideas??

Chris

On screen talent, then crew, then 'thanks'. Keep it short and readable. Honor any commitments, verbal or otherwise - "I will give you credit if you loan me this gear..." means they get credit for the gear/food/transportation/housing - whatever.

So its safe to say that anyone who had any kind of involvement in the film should get mentioned?

"Safe to say" - sure, somebody going to arrest you if you do? If you've promised credit to somebody because of their involvement, keep your promise. If credit is typical for their level of involvement (Part of the contractual job agreement IE CREDIT, COPY, MEAL) then make sure they get credit. But just because a guy delivered pizza to the crew, doesn't mean he deserves credit. Hired services not directly involved in the project don't merit them. (If you're paying for hotel rooms, you don't list that chain in the credits. If you flew on American Airlines, you don't list them- now if they DONATED - you might IF that's part of the agreement)

Keep in mind, some people might donate services/goods/money and NOT want to be listed in the credits, especially if its a controversial or polarizing subject matter. They night not want it publicly known that they support that point of view. That's happened to me before.

There are no hard and fast rules, besides your own name appearing more than three times.

(That's a joke, sort of.)

Break the trend and be creative. Example...

Partial Credits Test Sequence fo Upcoming Documentary on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/douglas_thigpen/3521019787/)
(Video)

It goes through that, plus a couple other 'profiles' in there in the final version, and then goes into a fairly quick technical credits crawl with a similar style to match.

Clever, Douglas. I like it.