Video Credits

Don't call me Shirley.

At the beginning of the Closing Credits, a short clip of each of the major characters is shown and a caption shows the actor's name. The clips are usually from scenes earlier in the show/film, but sometimes they might be extra footage.

Much more common in the 1930s, when this trope was sometimes used at the beginning of the movie to introduce the cast. Warner Bros. did this for pretty much all of its films in the first few years of the sound era.

Compare Framed Face Opening.

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Examples

Films — Animation

• Shrek 2 and Shrek Forever After
• Robin Hood (1973) does this at the beginning (as Disney Animated Canon films didn't have full closing credits until mid The '80s, preferring simple "The End" title cards).
• The Simpsons Movie had one with the voice actors next to headshots of their characters. And the main cast (except for Yeardley Smith) all have many - Harry Shearer even shows after a small clip featuring Mr. Burns and Smithers.
• The last three of four Futurama DTV movies use an approach similar to The Simpsons Movie, with representative samples of the cast's major characters shown on screen; The Beast with a Billion Backs fits in as many as 11 or 12 for good measure.
• The LEGO Movie has a variant - all actors have their names in a setting representative of their characters (Chris Pratt: a construction site; Will Arnett: the Batcave, etc.). The LEGO Batman Movie, on the other hand, just shows the actor next to the character.
• The first part of the credits Piglet's Big Movie serves as a music video for "A Few Good Friends", featuring clips from the movie intersped with live-action scenes of Carly Simon performing the song.
• Zootopia combines this with a Dance Party Ending, as many of the characters are watching a concert by Gazelle. An interesting variant in that only characters that have a significant voice actor receive a caption, whereas, many notable minor characters voiced by either production staff or veteran voice actors do not (ie Mr. Big, Fru Fru, Manchas, Bucky, Pronk)
• Twice Upon a Time has color images of the characters alongside black-and-white photos of the voice actors wearing recording headsets.

Films — Live-Action

• 1941 (1979)
• Absolute Beginners
• Airplane!
• Baby Face
• The Bad and the Beautiful
• The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training
• The Bargain: A pretty unique version. The main players are introduced before the start of the movie. Each performer comes out onto an empty stage dressed in formal wear. Each one takes a bow, and as they bow, they morph into the clothes and makeup and wigs they wear in the movie.
• Battleground (1949)
• Beauty and the Beast (2017)
• Bernie
• The Blues Brothers, Coming to America, Burke & Hare, The Stupids, Into the Night, Innocent Blood, Oscar and Trading Places, all directed by John Landis.
• Camp (2003) highlights each member of the cast as they perform in the all-hands finale, with additional clips for members of cast who aren't participating in the number.
• The Cave of the Yellow Dog
• Chariots of Fire, in which the famous opening scene of the runners on the beach is re-run at the end with the actors' names on the screen.
• Chicago
• Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, the first two films directed by Orson Welles. Welles did not include himself in the video credits for Kane despite playing the lead role, instead burying his own credit at the bottom of a quick list of minor characters. For The Magnificent Ambersons, Welles not only had video credits but narrated video credits, with Welles reading off the actors' names as they appear in turn ("Joseph Cotten played Eugene Morgan") and reading off the crew's names with appropriate video clips (for example, a shot of a film camera as Welles says "the photographer (i.e., cinematographer) was Stanley Cortez").
• City Limits reminded us which of the cast survived the film by listing them by [Actor] is/was [Character] (e.g. John Stockwell is Lee; Dean Devlin was Ernie), except for the Special Appearances By credits (Special Appearance by Robbie Benson as Carver; and James Earl Jones as Albert).
• Cloud Atlas uses this trope to show each of the many roles each of the principal actors played in the movie.
• Coal Miner's Daughter
• The Comedy of Terrors
• Con Air
• Day for Night
• Days of Glory opens with a narrated video credits sequence in which the narrator introduces all the characters as the actor's credit pops onscreen. In the case of leads Gregory Peck and Tamara Toumanova, the narrator also introduces the actor by name.
• From the DC Extended Universe's Creative Closing Credits:
  • Suicide Squad (2016) has a swirling mosaic of items related to each actor's character - although the Billing Displacement for Karen Fukuhara makes her not the only name as Katana's mask is shown.
  • Aquaman has the actors next to statues representing the characters.
  • Given SHAZAM! (2019) has animated credits, cartoons of the characters appear next to the actors' names. SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods follows suit with drawings resembling a mythology book's illustrations.
  • Birds of Prey (2020) shows the actors next to illustrations of their objects\emblems.
• Delicatessen
• The Deer Hunter
• Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, as it is an Affectionate Parody of 1940s Film Noir. The credits also showcase the "cameos" of 1940s actors cut into the film.
• The Diamond Arm
• Dinner at Eight
• Dracula: Dead and Loving It featured credits like this framed in ornamental picture (or possibly mirror) frames
• Dune (1984)
• The Eagle Has Landed
• The Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials always did this at the beginning of their first few chapters. The later episodes of each serial would omit the cast portraits.
• The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) uses this for its opening credits. As the plane's engines cut out and it plummets to the ground, a Reaction Shot of each character ends with a freeze frame and dramatic musical sting as the corresponding actor's credit is shown.
• Fright Night (2011)
• Ghostbusters (1984) had the actor credits appear as they were onscreen (except for Annie Potts and William Atherton, who were absent from the climax). Ghostbusters II and the 2016 reimagining went for the more traditional way of showing the actors with previous scenes.
• Half Past Dead 2
• Harvey
• Heroes for Sale
• House of Usher — a quick montage since there are only four actors in the movie.
• Inside Man
• In Into the Woods, the final reprise of the title song is presented like this, much like Chicago.
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level shows icons and objects representing the characters next to the actors.
• Kill Bill, at the end of the second film. The sequence shows characters from both movies, a nod to the fact that they were originally supposed to be a single movie before the studio intervened.
• King Solomon's Mines (1937 version)
• Knives Out and Glass Onion, with paintings of the characters.
• Ladies They Talk About
• The Last Picture Show
• Le Bal: Essentially mandatory as the film is both a Nameless Narrative and a Silent Movie so there was no other way to associate the names with the roles.
• Licorice Pizza does this, showing clips from earlier in the movie along with the actors' names, set to the Taj Mahal song "Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day".
• Lilies of the Field
• Little Fugitive does this for one person. After an ordinary credit screen lists all the other actors, there's a video shot crediting child actor Richie Ambrusco, who played the protagonist, Joey.
• The Little Rascals (1994)
• Little Shop of Horrors (1986 version)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: As the last of the movie trilogy it's the only one to have "real" closing credits, with photos of the cast treated to look like hand-drawn art.
  • Likewise with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe often uses this in their Creative Closing Credits:
  • The Avengers (2012) showed the six protagonists aside their character's weapons (Chris Hemsworth and Mjolnir, Scarlett Johansson and an energy weapon, Jeremy Renner and a quiver) or costume (Robert Downey Jr.: Iron Man helmet; Chris Evans: Captain America's suit; Mark Ruffalo: Bruce Banner's broken glasses and torn shirt)
  • Iron Man 3 features clips from all three Iron Man movies, in an homage to '70s era action movies and TV, complete with a '70s style arrangement of the movie's theme, entitled "Can You Dig It?"
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier has minimalistic monochrome drawings of the actors (though given Toby Jones plays a Virtual Ghost, his name appears atop a bunch of old-school mainframes)
  • Thor: The Dark World had drawings of the cast.
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron displays the actors' names besides their characters in the statue that comprises the Creative Closing Credits.
  • Captain America: Civil War shows the actors through the shadows in a broken room through symbols that represent them (Spider-Man and Aunt May are by a spider web, Black Panther near a scratched wall).
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming features drawings reminiscent of the characters (with MJ and Ned even getting their faces drawn).
  • Thor: Ragnarok goes similar to Winter Soldier, with black silhouettes of the characters.
  • Black Panther (2018) has monochrome paintings of the characters.
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp uses figurines of the cast in dioramas recreating scenes in the film.
  • Captain Marvel (2019) has silhouettes of the cast (aside from the title character and Maria Rambeau, who get their faces)
  • Avengers: Endgame is the only traditional "clips of the actor" case. Though the top billed (who are also the original six Avengers) actually go last, and with their autographs on screen alongside their names.
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home has pictures of the actors mixed in amusing ways with objects (mostly reminiscent of paper collages).
  • Eternals has art (statues, paintings) of the myths inspired by each character that gets covered by the Eternals' golden Tron Lines. (Kit Harington gets represented by a box with the Black Knight's crest on it which is revealed in The Stinger to contain the Ebony Blade)
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home has drawings of a few actor's faces or graphical representations of their characters.
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has pictures of the cast, albeit duplicated and colorful to combine with the colorful kaleidoscope background.
• Manos: The Hands of Fate — for all the good it did them.
• The Martian has one overlapping with "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue.
• Marty
• M*A*S*H
• Midnight Mary
• Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous does this for everyone other than Sandra Bullock.
• Mortal Kombat (2021), through red and black silhouettes of the characters.
• Mr. Bean's Holiday
• Nixon
• No Man of Her Own
• Not Another Teen Movie
• The Nutty Professor
• The Odd Couple
• OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.
• Phantom of the Paradise
• Pokémon Detective Pikachu, through the characters drawn in art reminiscent of the Pokémon Adventures manga.
• Predator (with new footage of everyone laughing and happy, except for a truly scared Arnie)
• The Princess Bride
• The Producers (original film only)
• Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis
• Revenge of the Nerds
• Played with in Robin Hood: Men in Tights, where only the big-name cameos are featured this way.
• Rubber
• Salt of the Earth: Divided between the professional actors in the cast (only five, including the female lead) and the non-professional actors (everyone else in the movie).
• The Sea Inside: Rather atypical use of this usually whimsical trope in a deadly serious I Cannot Self-Terminate assisted suicide drama.
• Seed of Chucky
• All the Scream films
• Sherlock Holmes (2009)
• She's Gotta Have It
• S.O.B.
• Somebody Up There Likes Me: The video credits at the end leave out Steve McQueen (actor), who had one of his first big roles in this film, as a hoodlum.
• Spaceballs
• The Sting: The opening credits.
• The Story of a Cheat: A most unusual opening credits sequence, in which there actually aren't any "credits". Instead writer-director-star Sacha Guitry, out of character, walks around the film set introducing everyone else in the crew—the camera man, the sound recorder in his booth, the caterer, the lighting technicians, and all the actors.
• St. Trinian's and St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold
• Strange Days
• Stuart Little 2
• Sunrise at Campobello
• The Tattered Dress: The opening credits show moving images of a handful of the biggest characters. Used cleverly, because the video credit for Elaine Stewart shows that Charleen Reston wasn’t upset about the incident that tattered her dress.
• Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick
• Tropic Thunder, in a way. Once the credits reach the cast, every actor is showcased in a Splash Panel of sorts.
• 12 Angry Men. Somewhat necessary, considering that no character is named onscreen.
• The View Askewniverse: Some movies feature these, accompanied by a blooper featuring the credited actor. The movies in question are:
  • Dogma
  • Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
  • Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
• The V.I.P.s: The credits appear at the beginning of the movie, identifying each actor as their character is shown preparing to leave for the airport.
• Volga-Volga: The opening credits have video clips of all the actors, accompanied by a singer who identifies each character and the name of the actor playing them.
  "This bureaucrat is played by Ilyinsky, of all guys."
• Wait Until Dark: Including all three of the disguises worn by Alan Arkin's character.
• Pretty much every movie Warner Bros. made from 1930 to 1935 or so had video credits at the beginning, as the house style. The practice was for the main stars of the film to all get solo video clips, then have Split Screen video clips for the supporting players, two at a time.
• William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet combines this with Freeze-Frame Introduction and, unusually, puts it in the opening credits, as a means of introducing (most of) the main cast before the action actually begins.
• Windtalkers
• The Wild Geese
• Seemed to have been popular with shot-on-video horror films, such as Sledgehammer (1983), Cannibal Campout and Satan Claus.
• Woodstock: Clips of the various musical acts, shown in order of appearance, as each is named with a credit.

Live-Action TV

• A fair number of BBC sitcoms (all written by David Croft) of the '70s and '80s accompanied by the caption "You have been watching" (later adopted as the name of a panel show) including:
  • Dad's Army
  • 'Allo 'Allo!
  • Hi-de-Hi! — though the actors are not in character. This is particularly noticeable with Diane Holland (who plays snobbish Yvonne) and Leslie Dwyer (who plays miserable old man Mr Partridge) as both actors generally beam happily in the credits.
  • Are You Being Served?: Since the episodes are practically teleplays, the clips are of the actors — sometimes not in-character — after completing the episode.
  • And even into the '90s with Grace & Favour (a.k.a. Are You Being Served Again), You Rang, M'Lord?, and Oh, Doctor Beeching! (about the last series to use them).
• Skins (series finale only)
• Many MTM sitcoms did this for the supporting cast and guest stars, including The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, and Taxi.
• Miranda (2009) does it too, as a loving parody of the sitcoms of the 70s, although there is No Fourth Wall during them, and the actors wave to the camera.
• Done in Ashes to Ashes (2008). Set to heart-warming music the finale credits feature clips of the characters laughing and smiling. All the more touching as you realise just how little they did it and the overly devastating theme of the final episode.
• Many of the intros to Only Fools and Horses did this with the three main characters.
• The final episode of Babylon 5 ended with a long credit sequence showing all the regular cast (actually the regular cast of the penultimate series, for complicated reasons) in their first and last appearances in internal chronology. They also included the Entire crew.
• The Invaders (1967) did this in the Title Sequence, with Roy Thinnes appearing after the main title (usually in a different clip each week) and the guest cast appearing after the opening narration. In all cases the actors' names were read by the narrator as they appeared on screen. This was also standard procedure for most of Quinn Martin's other series.
• Rentaghost in the British sitcom tradition, but not in the usual style of children's TV.
• Top Gear uses these at the end of their Burma Special as a parody of The Bridge on the River Kwai, complete with everyone credited as "Sir Alec X" (where "X" is the last name of the given staff member).
• The original 70s run of The Cross Wits had a screen showing the celebrities in that episode, with their names appearing crossword-style on all four sides; the screen would then show the credits for the producers and directors.
• In a variation, Battlestar Galactica (1978) very unusually did video credits of its supporting cast at the start of the episode, rather than putting up captions over the first act as with most other series.
• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier followed the movies and had the actors next to their pictures or of objects representing the characters.
• In a tip of the hat to the movie, M*A*S*H did this for a select few episodes. (The pilot, the first and second season closers, and the first part of the fourth-season two-part opener, that last one used the Wham Shot of Colonel Potter riding into camp.)

Video Games

• Silent Hill did this in the blooper reel.

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