SYNOPSIS

When a street smart "goth girl" is forced to attend cheerleader camp as part of her  rehabilitation from a juvenile correction facility, she clashes with the "popular girls," and finds herself embroiled in a bitter rivalry with the bitchy ringleader. But when members of the Spirit Squad start turning up dead, the girls must put aside their differences as they struggle to survive the murderous rage of a crazed psycho-killer lurking among them! 

Monday, June 15, 2009

DO YOU NEED AN MPAA RATING?

I'm not gonna tell you what my budget is for Spirit Camp, but I will tell you it's under $5 million. Of course no amount of money is going to get back the blood, sweat and tears... but $5 million is the cutoff for the MPAA in regards to their pricing structure. Seriously, there is a huge gap in their pricing...

I just got off the phone with them, and they are sweet as pie... but I couldn't talk'em down. Anything under $5 million costs $3000 to get rated. Okay, 3 grand isn't much compared to what I spent to get Spirit Camp to the screen, but still... that's the cost of a new Macbook Pro, or a helluva time in strip club.  Add that to my attorney's retainer fee, E&O insurance (if I choose to get it), and national advertising... it adds up!

What's worse... if you didn't have anything to do with the production or financing, it would only be $2500... but because I put my own money up, and directed it, I get hit with an arbitrary extra $500. Makes no sense.

And the kicker... I sure as hell don't want to pay 3K for an NC-17... not that my film's rated NC-17, mind you... it's a hard R. I've got boobs and blood, but nothing excessive. Still, it makes me nervous. Lets face it... there shouldn't be any rating beyond R. NC-17 just puts you in that category of film that papers won't run ads for, and some retailers won't stock. 

I love the MPAA, don't get me wrong... parents should be able to judge the content of films their kids see, but an "R" rating is clear enough that it is for adults - but that it is not porn...

Moving on... I don't think I will rate the film. Lord knows I always opt for the unrated version anyway... bring on the gratuity. It's not like Walmart is going to carry this title anyway...

Make art without compromises! Woohoo!

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2 comments:

  1. Mark BJune 18, 2009 at 12:35 AM

    Yeh go for unrated! I'll be buying this movie without a doubt! Looks excellent!

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  2. kirkomaticJuly 3, 2009 at 9:57 AM

    you can also just get it distributed overseas
    first, and it will get rated free then on the web and
    then your home free it transfers when you
    get the regions in america, you wont have to worry bout the 3k, that is one of the reason it
    is good to enter the overseas film fest before
    you try to get the distribution agreement that is what i did with one of my films London, Austrialia and Canada, is good for this as well as the asia countries, my distributer iiodeck entertainment picked up the tab on that MC15 rating overseas, then america will allow transfer

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