Thursday, January 18, 2007

Documentary Changes MPAA procedures

After Super Size Me was released, McDonald's eliminated the Super Size menu items at their restaurants, but claimed that the movie didn't affect their decision.

But yesterday in part because of Kirby Dick's This Film is Not Yet Rated, the Motion Picture Association of America has announced it is changing the way things are done.

The MPAA president Dan Glickman is pushing for changes that will make the system more transparent and ratings easier to challenge by filmmakers.

In the past, filmmakers were not allow to cite other films that featured similar content in defense of their own work, but that will soon be a thing of the past. The make up of the appeals board will also include more members aligned with independent film and not be composed of members of the corporate Hollywood structure.

Additionally, since one of the main arguments of the documentary was the fact that the ratings board was supposed to represent the interests of parents and in more than a few cases, its participants were either not parents or people with grown children, new rules are being put into place to ensure that the panel consists entirely of parents. Demographic information about the panel will also be made available and the identities of the senior members of the board who are the intermediaries between the MPAA and the studios will also be made public.

While this doesn't entirely fix the problems with the MPAA's rating system, it is a great first step, and one I applaud.

3 comments:

Matt said...

This is very cool news - thanks for the update.

M

Semaj said...

Good, there needs to be some changes made to the system.

Of course this doesn't change the fact that Studios are using PG-13 as marketing tool. Horror movies are PG-13 now? WTF

MC said...

apostata: Isn't it :)

Semaj: The other thing I didn't mention was there is going to be a HARD-R rating too... sort of a rating between NC-17 and R that is going to warn parents that they really shouldn't take their kids to that movie. But I agree with you that the PG-13 rating is being used in a way that is very bad.