But the only person in the process who is on the film from the very beginning to the very end is the director. The writer delivers the script and his work kind of ends. Yes, making movies is collaborative, but the director is the one who leads the troops. When there's someone else also making critical decisions, then it starts to get confusing about whose vision it is. But Woody Allen, the contemporary director who arguably most deserves a possessory credit, refuses to take one, even though he writes and directs his mostly personal films.
Some directors defend the possessory credit up to a point.
It should mean something. Frankly, if possessory credits were not given out as freely as they are, I wouldn't have taken it. The writers' demands are part of a menu of issues as the entertainment industry faces a series of potential strikes that could cripple film and television production, starting in the late spring. Besides the writers' threatened strike, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, representing 135,000 actors, are scheduled to walk out on June 30. The Writers Guild and the executives of the studios and television networks called the Alliance for Motion Picture and Television Producers are set to begin two weeks of talks on Jan. 22.