BBFC Research

The BBFC is film regulator for the UK. They are in charge of age ratings in films such as U, PG and 12A. Their aim is to make sure children are protected from things they shouldn't see. These ratings are chosen to fit the target audience and make sure there are not any issues to the audience that are watching it. For example a horror in 12A needs to have many restrictions as children will be the audience for this rating.

 

There are five steps to rating a film/video. Step one is for the owner to send it in to the BBFC with a form. The form gives information about the film such as when it is due to be released in cinemas and what rating the owner believes is appropriate and what rating the owner wants. Knowing what rating the owner wants the film to be gives a rough idea of what rating the BBFC have to look for and what the distributor believes is appropriate. Step two is for the company to pay roughly £800 for a rating. This cost covers the whole length of footage the company has given for a rating. Step three is to make sure the film is at a good quality and for examiners to watch the film. If there are any technical problems the film has to be corrected for it to be completely finished. The exact film that will be shown in cinemas is the film that has to be rated. Step four is for the film to be scheduled in a diar which lets the examiners know when the film will be shown and where and also for them to know how much time they have. Last step is for the examiners to watch the film and make note of any issues they can see so it is corrected in time for release. When this is done, a synopsis is written which is about the age rating and write the BBFCinsight for the film. This is used so parents are aware of why the film has this rating and what restrictions there are.

 

Our target audience is teenagers aged 15+. A 15 rated film can include...

• Strong violence

• Strong language

• Portrayals of sexual activity

• Drug taking

• Discriminatory language or behaviour

• Brief sexual violence

• Sexual nudity

 

Films with the age rating 18 and R18 can include very strong violence, frequent strong language, strong horror, strong blood or gore and scenes of sexual violence. This is similar to a 15 but an 18 shows it more frequently and is often a lot more graphic.

 

However, some of these can only be included in little detail as this audience is still young but all can be included briefly, some more than others. For our film, we will consider using a few but not all as our film idea only includes violence and drug taking. Violence in a 15+ film can be strong but strong gory images aren't acceptable. Drug taking in a 15+ film can be shown but cannot encourage drug misuse. We will consider this when we film and edit our film.