
My question is should Robert Lawson be credited with a writing credit? I don't think so because even though his illustrations are a basis for the look & feel of the movie, he's not actually a writer. But, if he should be credited, how should that credit look?
Adrian, Champion
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Posted 1 year ago
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My feeling is that the same policy as the opera composers and lyricists should apply here. Unless mistaken, the lyricists are registered among the writers when the composer is in the music department (e.g. see Losey's Don Giovanni). I am not familiar enough to suggest a hosting department for illustrators... !
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Nikolay Yeriomin (Mykola Yeromin), Champion
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Nikolay Yeriomin (Mykola Yeromin), Champion
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Nikolay Yeriomin (Mykola Yeromin), Champion
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If Robert Lawson worked together with Munro Leaf to create the actual story (the plot, whatever) found in the book from which the film was adapted, then he is a "writer" by show business's understanding of the term "writer".
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Nikolay Yeriomin (Mykola Yeromin), Champion
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GMJ, Champion
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Munro Leaf (based upon the book "The Story of Ferdinand")
Robert Lawson (based upon the book "The Story of Ferdinand": illustrations)
Nikolay Yeriomin (Mykola Yeromin), Champion
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Michelle, Official Rep
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Just to confirm, in this instance for the title "Ferdinand", the illustrations are a vital part of the book and as Robert Lawson received billing with Munro Leaf, this is an acceptable Writer credit.
Regarding whether illustrators should always be listed under the Writer section, however, is a bit trickier to determine. The example mentioned earlier in the thread for comic books is very valid, as these are collaborative works and very often the illustrator has as much creative input (sometimes more) than the actual writer of the dialogue. In order to make a truly fair judgement, we would have to look at the creative process of the book and then decide.
I hope this helps!
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When it comes to credits and IMDb, to me it’s pretty clear that there are two different credits here:
1) Based upon the book by (Writing)
2) Based upon illustrations by (in this case probably Art Direction, in some other cases perhaps Animation department)
The book was written by Leaf. He’s the credited author in the original book and in the film. I’m sure Lawson contributed greatly by creating the visual world, characters design and other ideas, but he didn’t get the Writing credit for the book (to my understanding at least), nor the film (as we can see from the screenshot). At the end of the day that’s the main point, isn’t it?
Artists/illustrators/animators etc create visual worlds, design characters etc, but writers create the story, dialogue, the screenplay. They actually write the book, page by page. We still need to see the difference, whether we like it or not. Artists/illustrators usually (of course: not always) receive a ”story” or ”screenplay” credit when it’s appropriate. It’s not really up to us to make that decision here on IMDb.
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Peter, Champion
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I think “Art Direction” is wrong. Most illustrator credits are in the art department, though there are some in animation and others in writers already.
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The point here is whether some person is credited or not, how they’re credited and to which department. To me that’s relatively obvious based on the screenshot - and the fact that the original children’s book is credited in similar fashion (I guess the cover says ”Drawings” originally, maybe ”Illustrator” in some editions).
This is also a pretty good point about Robert Lawson - he did both, but not always (from Wiki):
”In total, he illustrated as many as forty books by other authors and another seventeen books that he himself was the author of.”
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The words "write" and "illustrate" could potentially be interchangeable, perhaps should be, but they are not necessarily so. The editors and publishers avoid using the word "illustrate" in conjunction with a person's name to describe the product of said person who has not drawn, doodled, sketched or so any part of said product. It is as though editors and publishers regard an "illustration" as a special kind of "writing". Even so, it is never immediately clear that phrase "illustrations by" implies "plot by" or "story by" or just generally "by", unless all credit for a book is attributed to exactly one individual, in which case only preposition "by" is usually used. Often the illustration credit in a book reflects work merely done at the behest of the author, and rarely does a writing credit in a book reflect work done merely at the behest of the author, all because the word "writing" connotes storytelling.
For our purposes, since we are dealing with things in the perspective of movie creation, we can just about consider everybody with any major original credit (perhaps to the exclusion of "thanks" credits) in a book from which a movie is entirely adapted as having "written" the book, as long as those names transition to the screen. This is, of course, contrary to what I expressed earlier, when bringing up the art department of a movie. I'm bouncing around partly because of semantic nuances.
Peter, Champion
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Peter, Champion
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Michelle, Official Rep
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Thanks for all your thoughtful comments about how illustrator credits should be categorized on the site. I have passed along all your feedback to our editorial team for review and requested an update to our guides to help address these specific credit examples.
Will, Official Rep
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Regards,
Will
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