Credit removal

[mark_s]

I recently lit a production of 'Company' at Northumbria University, but due to a number of issues caused by a serious miscommunication between the university and our supplier, I requested that my credit as Lighting Designer be removed. I felt that due to the issues caused by this miscommunication (hire equipment arriving on the day of the 1st performance leaving very little time to rig and no time to plot, colour mostly not in stock) my design had been severely compromised, and I was not prepared to be credited for something which fell far short of my original intentions.

 

Although the company fully understood and praised my professionalism in dealing with the issues which arose, I felt rather embarrassed at having to request that my credit be removed from the programme. It also made me consider how such things are dealt with in the professional world where there is the added complication of fees and damage to relations of potentially important clients. How many professional lighting designers would take the same action when faced with the problem of their intentions being compromised through no fault of their own (or even no fault of the company), or how many would consider another approach due to the potential to damage relations with the company, producer, or director? What other options would you consider?

 

As an amateur, I'm mainly trying to gauge what the professional response would be in a similar situation, and whether my actions were the correct way to proceed. I'm especially interested in hearing from anyone who has faced this problem before, and how they dealt with it.

[paulears]

Moderation: Mark asked for this topic to be moved here, and we've obliged. It was originally in the ALD forum, but he would like a little more exposure. The question is specifically aimed at professional lighting designers, so it would be appreciated if comments could come from those with some professional experience of this kind of issue.

[Dave]

I can't really comment on the LD world, but there's a similar concept in the film industry - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Smithee

[paulears]

I wasn't going to add to this one, in the hope that somebody else would, but this did happen to me a few years ago. It was a pro show, but rather low budget. It was a short tour, and Shakespeare (which is not my favourite). The venues were quite nice, but not proper theatre style venues. It had partial arts funding, so it sounded interesting. It soon became clear that the promises that the set designer/stage manager and I had got had been made without any real idea of what we were doing or the real available budget, and things started to get cut, and cut, and cut. We were both pretty fed up, and one day, we talked about having our names removed from the publicity material. To cut the story short, I bottled out, but my colleague didn't. He carried on, and the next reprint had his name missing, and mine still present. The tour lost money, and a few end dates were scrapped. Looking back, he came out of it the worst. Depending on which story you listen to, it was him who jumped ship, him who started the problems, and him who even added to the costs by 'insisting' on a reprint (which was needed anyway, but not mentioned). Nobody remembers my lighting, and it certainly doesn't feature on my CV, but everyone remembers the fuss my colleague caused.

 

Looking back, I don't believe it solved anything and certainly didn't do him any good. Much depends on if your credit is actually important? Is having your name on a compromised design that bad - especially when people you respect know why it was compromised. Maybe if the production was VERY high profile and people really would judge you on your work so it's vital - then I might consider it, but the truth is that sadly the vast proportion of my work is simply not good enough in perception to make me worry too much. I've never collected programme credits, or even programmes and have forgotten more shows than I remember.

 

So much depends on how important good notices, reviews and comment are to you?