I understand that the mpaa rates films and all that, but I can't seem to find how one actually gives them the movie and gets the rating. For example, if I had a tape, how would I get it rated? Please don't tell me what I already know about the mpaa giving ratings, or send me a link to the mpaa website, unless it's to a page that has an address for or information about sending tapes to get rated.

Why? Do you want to get them to rate something of yours or something?

It's more of just a curiosity. I just find it weird when I constantly hear crap about submiting stuff to a board to get rated, but can't find any hint of how one actualy does that.

No, I don't really want them to rate something of mine. Unless I learn that it's somehow ridiculously inexpensive (like a percentage of my nonexistent costs).

I was kind of thinking that it would be fun to shoot for making a nc-17 rated film without sex. But it seemed like I should really know how to get that rating before thinking about it. I should also just hear that it costs more money than I have to get it rated and give up.

For your purposes there is absolutley no reason to get your film rated. Its a big politcal BS thing that only matters if you are getting national distribution to the major theaters. Go make your NC17 movie. If its really good and wins sundance and they want to release it nationwide someone else will take care of it getting rated. But go watch The Aviator (not only because its frikken awsome). They have a scene where they are getting their film 'rated' and i imagine thats pretty close to how it happens. A board of old farts who know nothign about art watch your movie and complain there is too much blood and they can see a tit on frame 2010. But realy, dont spend time worrying about that at this stage.

The ratings are decided by the people on the board, meaning that if they give your film an NC-17 rating, it's because they think that people under 17 shouldn't see it.

It doesn't have to be sex, or violence, or drugs, it can be anything. You can make a movie about a terrorist making a home made bomb and blowing up a christian church, and if the board thinks teenagers might do it, they can put an NC-17 rating on it just to make sure teenagers don't see it. If they decide it's okay, they might give it an R rating or a NR rating.

There is no standard and no precedent for giving a movie a certain rating except for how the people on the board feel. Meaning that a board that gave a film a rating of "R" to a film 20 years ago may give it a "PG=13" rating today.

You don't need anything rated unless you plan to distribute it, since that's the reason for the rating system.

I think the distribution companies are the ones that worry about the ratings, and they are the ones in contact with the MPAA, so that's probably why it's hard to find their address. Else they would get flooded with small movies trying to get a rating to come off as a bit bigger budget or more important than they were.