Wednesday 19 October 2011

Film Classifications

The classification for my film will be a 15 certificate, this is due to the theme and horror content that would entail in the whole film if it were fully created. I looked over the classifications on the BBFC website ( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/) and this seemed like an appropriate age category. My main audience is males ages 18-29 and so starting at a 15 certificate will give room for younger ages to access the film also. Many of the psychological horror films that I have looked at are primarily around the 15 certificate, the more recent horrors have become lower then perhaps the earlier made films. Rosemary's Baby and Jacob's Ladder are both 18's, yet I believe if these were to be reviewed in present day the certificate may not be as extreme as the content is far less shocking than it was at the time they were made. As explicit gore/violence is not necessary in a psychological horror the certificate does not have to be heightened to be appropriate for the intended age group. Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised, this means that the film can contain strong levels of frightening horror, but without the stated above. As I would like my film to be haunting and 'horrific' this classification is appropriate.
My trailer would primarly feature in picturehouse cinema's, the trailer itself could be classified as a 12 as it will not feature any of the explicit horror featured in the whole film. I believe this trailer would be shown before other films within the thriller/horror/drama genre, as it would not be a shock to see a horror featured here. This is compared to waiting to watch a comedy and being suddenly confronted with a slasher trailer. The two would not mix, they would need to be in the same or similar genre. I have reviewed the scenes/images that will be shown in my trailer and I believe it would mainly be suitable to be shown in films with a 15 or above certificate. Unless films beneath this rating still contained mature or psychological themes.

2 comments:

  1. An interesting interpretation of the BBFC guidelines. Maybe we should go through them together considering exactly what 'level' of content you are expecting to be in your film (even if it's not in the trailer). You Should also consider where your trailer will be exhibited. If it's in the cinema for example; what classification of film will it run before? Do you want to make a version that could be shown in slightly lower classification showings?

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  2. to echo Mr D' comments - it may be useful to go onto the BFI 2011 review (there is a link in the school media folder on common files) to consider statistics for each classification / age and genre.

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