Film classification

By Andrew RothFILM CLASSIFICATION

The BBFC (British board of Film censors) is a company funded by the fi lm industry and is responsible for the classification of fi lms within the U.K.

It is responsible for making sure that specific content is suitable for people within a specific age bracket.

Issues and themes such as drugs, horror, language, nudity, sex and violence are taken into account when classifying fi lms.

It is important to note that occasionally a classification of a fi lm can diff er from its rating in a cinema to that of its DVD or Blu-Ray release.

INTRODUCTION

U stands for universal which essentially means that it is suitable for a child over the age of four.

There will be no kind of bad language, with ‘damn’ and ‘hell’ being very mild.

There are no sexual actions, behaviour or language.

There may be inclusion of some fight scenes or mild emotional stress but these will be quickly resolved.

Typically no reference to drugs.

CLASSIFICATION-U

PG stands for parental guidance and this means that a fi lm is suitable for general viewing but may contain scenes that could be unsuitable for a younger audience.

Mild bad language may occur.

Sexual references are permitted in certain contexts.

No detail of violence, mostly implied injuries and jump cuts are acceptable.

CLASSIFICATION-PG

12A only implies for the cinema and means ‘accompanied’. Anyone over 12 however may go unaccompanied.

Infrequent strong language is permitted.

Sexual references may be used briefly and discreetly.

Moderate violence is allowed but there should be no emphasis on injuries or blood.

Some psychological thrillers may be passed as 12 with mild disturbing sequences.

CLASSIFICATION-12/12A

No one under the age of 15 is allowed to see the fi lm.

Strong violent, Frequent strong language, portrayals of sexual activity, nudity, drug taking.

There can be a strong use of violence though there should be no emphasis on injury or pain and gore is minimal.

Many horror/thriller fi lms are classified 15 as there can be a use of strong threat and violence.

CLASSIFICATION-15

No one under the age of 18 is allowed to see the fi lm.

Very strong language, strong horror, sexual portrayals.

Only the strongest horror fi lms with an emphasis on gore are classified at 18.

Self harm and other strong issues which may aff ect or influence the viewer may be cut.

CLASSIFICATION-18

Even though we are not making a full-feature length production, it is hard to classify something based on its opening. If this were the case then our opening would probably be classed as either PG or 12 because there is no strong language, and the violence is only implied through a jump cut.

We consciously took the decision to imply the violence because I think that in many cases, these scenes can be considered more creepy if the viewer uses their imagination.

The important theme of bullying is hinted at and this is the key topic highlighted in our thriller.

WITH THIS IN MIND….

Were we to carry on with the fi lm, it would be likely that we would want make our thriller as authentic as possible and because we are dealing with teenagers, themes such as sex and drugs would probably be mildly portrayed.

Strong language would also be likely to feature.

The most important theme that we would defi nitely want to delve deeper into would be the idea of bullying and the consequences of the action. After all this is what led to the death of Ollie in the opening.

In terms of violence, it is likely the scenes would become stronger, as we didn't’t want the opening to be too violent, the violence would gradually become stronger as Sean’s character develops.

IF IT WERE A FEATURE FILM….

Taking the previous slide into consideration, we decided that the fi lm would be classified 15.

The main reason for this is that in order to address our target audience, the age certification would have to be one which allowed teenagers to watch the fi lm because many of the issues that arise would be very relevant to this age bracket and this is why we feel are fi lm is so eff ective because the harsh reality of the narrative is so shocking.

As previously mentioned, the violence would likely get stronger as Sean becomes more erratic and in order to make the fi lm more realistic some blood would be shown.

IN CONCLUSION