Editing A Certain Sacrifice (section)

== Production and development ==
''A Certain Sacrifice'' is a [[Super 8 film]].<ref name="SPIN">{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ugCQfxwym0C&dq=Madonna&pg=PA46|title=Madonna's First Movie|magazine=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]|page=46|date=May 1985|accessdate=March 8, 2023}}</ref> It was made on a [[Low-budget film|low-budget]] between $12,000 to $20,000.<ref name="TheI"/><ref name="Crouse">{{harvnb|Crouse|2000|p=234}}</ref> The film marks the acting debut of Madonna and the directorial debut of Stephen Jon Lewicki,<ref name="TheI">{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMUqAQAAIAAJ|title=Madonna's First Movie|journal=The Independent|page=34|date=1984|accessdate=March 8, 2023|publisher=Foundation for Independent Video and Film|volume=7}}</ref> an aspiring filmmaker.<ref name="Telegraph"/> Various authors have regarded the movie as an [[Underground film|underground]] [[art film]].<ref name="Heatley"/><ref name="Bego55"/><ref name="McCrossan"/><ref name="Wall"/><ref name="Braun"/>

Despite Madonna's second thoughts about having participated in this movie, Lewicki had nothing but compliments for her. One of his oft-repeated stories was how he "discovered" Madonna and was amazed that she hand-wrote a three-page letter for a part that did not even pay. She was only paid $100, only because she was short on her apartment rent and Lewicki paid to help out. In [[Christopher Andersen]]'s 1991 biography, ''Madonna Unauthorized'', Lewicki stated: "That woman has more sensuality in her ear than most women have anywhere on their bodies".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=k9EyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aO8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=2559,334204&dq=madonna+a+certain+sacrifice&hl=en |title=Madonna no movie virgin |work=[[Ottawa Citizen]]|date=March 1, 1985 |accessdate=April 18, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3700847.stm |title=Entertainment &#124; Madonna: Queen of reinvention |publisher=BBC News |date=May 24, 2004 |accessdate=April 4, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AASB&p_theme=aasb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAD8B5C8225011F&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |title=NewsBank for Statesman &#124; www.prod.statesman.com |publisher=Nl.newsbank.com |accessdate=April 4, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DN&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI%7cDN&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB29D701F80B4ED&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |title=A Bomb, Not A Bombshell; Madonna Was Desperately Seeking 'Tracy' |work=Philadelphia Daily News |date=June 15, 1990}}</ref>

Actor Jeremy Pattnosh wrote and performed several songs in the film, including: "Certain Sacrifice" and "Screamin' Demon Lover". Years later, in a 2000 [[Channel 4]] documentary on Madonna's early years (titled ''Madonna: Naked Ambition''), her Breakfast Club bandmate Dan Gilroy recalled: "I did not like that fellow who made ''A Certain Sacrifice'', I felt he was using them big-time [...] it needed a laugh-track, something".