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NEWSLETTER: THE FILM ENTREPRENEUR MPAA Ratings and Other People's Money Spring 2001 Artistic choices are made every day in this business, especially by independents. A frequent remark is that it is called show business not show art. Whenever you are using other people's money, your obligation is not necessarily to be dishonest with yourself but be honest with them. The decision of Wayne Wang and his distributors to let The Center of the World go out without an MPAA rating has brought up discussion of that subject once again. According to an Associated Press report, Wang said. "I knew when I started this film that I didn't want to deal with the ratings board. I wanted to make an honest movie without being bothered by people telling me what I couldn't do." That's fine. In this case, the film was produced and financed by two production companies, Redeemable Features and Artisan Entertainment, who know the score. What should you do when raising money from private investors who don't know the score? 1) Be honest with yourself or you can't be honest with them. What rating is your project likely to get? If there is anything questionable about that, look back at old trade articles or film reviews that discuss NC-17 (imdb.com is a good source) and see what reasons the MPAA had for giving that rating. 2) Decide which is more important. Making exactly what you want or scaling it back to at least a possible R rating. 3) Explain the rating system (available at mpaa.org) and potential distribution situation to your investors. Will you lose some? Perhaps. However, it is better than having them sue you later by misrepresenting the distribution potential of the film.
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