We recently had some question about our fees and how we work, I thought I’d provide some commentary on it. Hope it helps.
We charge a flat fee to develop an App that is non-refundable if the App is not approved by Apple. Unfortunately, we have no control over Apple’s approval process and at the end of the day it’s their call.
During the submission process we are required to fill out a rating form that Apple provides. We ask film makers to fill this out (www.stonehengeproductions.com/rating) and we then transfer the ratings to this form to the iTunes approval site. Basically, this form determines Apple’s rating for the App. If the rating for: “Prolonged Graphic or Sadistic Realistic Violence” or “Graphic Sexual Content and Nudity” (the last two in the form) is anything other then “None”, by definition, Apple will not approve the App and we will not develop the App (before any fees have been paid). We have also worked with film makers to determine how we can get around a “Not Approvable” rating…to get to the next rating level down…”17+” which is kind of like an “R” rating and is “Approvable” (and we have a number of “17+” Apps approved and available on iTunes).
To date we have been 100% successful in getting Apps approved. We have worked with Apple to ameliorate their concerns, and again, this has been successful. For example, Apple has come back and asked for a stricter rating than we had originally submitted and upon changing it, the App was approved.
We work very diligently to get an App approved. You can ask any of our clients and I’m sure they will vouch for us. We put in a lot of work to build these custom Apps, and that work has costs associated with it. We try and pre-screen and let the film maker know if there are issues before we begin and as a result we have never been in a situation where the film maker has paid us and not gotten the film App approved. But at the same time, we have to have some protection built in on our end so that we are not working without pay.
