Credits

Overview

Credits are the main thing we track at IMVDb, and our goal is to track all the credits for each video. Below is some information on how our credit tracking system works.

Basic Credit Structure

Credits have a very simple structure. First there is a credit type. A credit type is simply a type of credit that has a name a human-readable code. For example, the most popular credit type is Director, which has the code dir. Credit types help us make sense of credit histories by giving us the ability to sort and organize by a coded system.

Note: When credits are returned via the API, you'll get a position_name and a position_code variable to use - there is no need to translate credit type codes.

Each instance of a credit is recorded separately in the database. If an entity is credited a the director and producer on a project, there will be two separate credit entries - one for director, and one for producer.

Credit Notes

Credit notes are used when there is some extra data to go along with credits, like if a credit is for an individual editor but they should be credited as coming from their edit house, the notes field is where this information will go. Most commonly you'll see something like this:

at Fun Cutters Edit House

Notes are also useful when a credit fits into a wider category but is credited as something very specific. If a video submits a credit as "Cat Wrangler", the credit will be added to the database a "Animal Wranger" with the note of "Cat". This keeps the credit system flexible while making sure our credit types list is not bloated with credit types with only one entry.

Cast Credits

Cast credits work on the same system but are returned in a slightly different format than crew credits. Cast credits do not have a credit type returned, but they do have a position_role returned.

It's important to note that the majority of music videos do not have "roles" as we usually think of them in films. If a band member appears in a music video he does not have a role in the classic sense, but is simply appearing. For this reason, the role data is blank more often than not. Roles are only entered in the case they are provided by the video's creators or they are important to understand who people are in the video (ex: "Girl in the yellow jacket").

Credit Type Reference

The following is a credit type reference table. This data may change or be added to, but now that credit types have been in use for a few years, we can usually tackle a credit list and not come across any positions we don't have. Positions we don't have are added to this list on a rolling basis.