Editorial Report 13b

Just another report. The end is near.

Audience Questions

• Again, the content is much shorter and more streamlined now. I think the main message is covered much better when there's less for the audience to have to focus on. 
• Again again, now it's a video. The audience can follow what I'm saying with the video, and now there's music which I think really helps to set the vibe. The new form makes it much more successful. 

Here's a bit of the script:

Let’s talk about the MPAA again.

The MPAA was created in 1922, and it regulated the content that could be displayed in movies for decades and began to grow more and more powerful as the American cinema grew in popularity in countries all over the world. (graph of where the MPAA has an important presence in the world) The MPAA had two jobs; to lobby in Washington for things like copyright issues, and regulate the movies.

The original regulations created by the MPAA were quite strict and kept practically all adult content out of movies. This changed in the 1960s when the director of the MPAA at the time, Jack Valenti, created the ratings system we have in place today as a replacement for the previous regulations. The emergence of the ratings system was revolutionary and benefited the directors greatly. The original system was made up of G, PG, R, and X ratings; the X rating would later be changed to NC-17. (picture of all the ratings and their audiences) This was a very effective system at first. Movies had a place and a specific audience, and now directors create the films they really envisioned.

It wasn’t until the 1980’s that the MPAA began to receive heavy criticism. Parents were distraught at the type of content that appeared in PG movies; most parents assumed that a PG rating meant that the film would be appropriate for children in every way and they wouldn’t need to check what their children were watching as long as it was PG. (a few clips of scenes from gory PG movies of the time)

Horror movies in particular received plenty of criticism for their PG ratings; one of the most popular PG horror movies of the 80’s was Jaws, which everyone knows is a violent film. (Jaws clip)

The last straw came from the combination of the horror movie, Gremlins(clip), and the action-thriller Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.(clip) Gremlins was a horror movie chock-full of violence and general nastiness. Indiana Jones shocked parents across the nation with the famous beating heart removal scene. Steven Spielberg directed the Indiana Jones movie and produced Gremlins, and ended up experiencing plenty of backlash from angry parents. From this conflict, the PG-13 rating was born; movies that would include some violence or adult content, but not enough to be a film targeted towards adults.

PG-13 was a goldmine for directors and producers. Movies with a PG-13 rating were open to a broader audience and brought in more revenue. Directors began to create their movies around the parameters of what could be rated PG-13; horror movies in particular suffered. But the worst was yet to come.

Now here's a link to the edited version as a video. If it doesn't load again you might have to download it... Sorry about that, I'm not sure why it only works sometimes.

LAST REPORT ! ! !