Tricksy British filmmaker Charlie Lyne made a 10-hour movie of paint drying and submitted it to the British Board of Film Classification, who must watch the film in entirety to rate it. Lyne crowd-funded almost 6,000 GBP (8,600 USD) as the BBFC charges exorbitant rates per minute to filmmakers who must have their film rated. Lyne says that he finds these costs prohibitive, especially because every film must be rated if it is to be shown in any British theater, even in a screening capacity. Here’s the report in partial from Washington Post below.
British filmmaker Charlie Lyne made a 607-minute movie of white paint drying on a wall, and over the course of two days, the British Board of Film Classification had to watch every second of it.
“Paint Drying,” as the film is titled, became a crowdfunding campaign in late 2015, as a way for Lyne to protest what he sees as the unfair cost for independent filmmakers who want their work released in the United Kingdom. His crowdfunding money covered the nearly £6,000 in fees necessary to get the British film board — the equivalent of the Motion Picture Association of America — to give the it a rating.
On Tuesday, the BBFC declared that the film was “U,” for “no material likely to offend or harm,” presumably because the film is literally just 10 hours of paint drying and nothing else.