2. Films are age rated to theoretically protect younger
audiences from seeing adult-aimed films. An age rating is
also a good suggestion to the media consumer about what
the film contains inside. This allows the active media
consumer to make their own choice as to whether the film
would be suitable for them and their children.
Age ratings include UC, U, PG, 12A, 12, 15 and 18. The
two age ratings I will be focusing on today is 15 and 18 as
these are most associated with thriller genre films.
3. If a film is certified with a ‘15’ age certificate, nobody under the age of
15 can rent or watch that particular film. 15 certified films are not aimed
for children under the age of 15 and therefore would be unsuitable for
them. There are no absolute limits, other than the film must be suitable
for a 15 year old to watch.
In a ’15’ rated film, you may encounter strong violence, frequent strong
language, portrayals of sexual activity, strong verbal references to sex,
sexual nudity, brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to
sexual violence, discriminatory language or behaviour and drug taking.
With strong language, the most offensive words are often not used
excessively, but other forms of strong language may be heard
throughout. Violence and drug taking may be featured as a main
theme, but it is never encouraged to the viewer.
For example, Psycho is rated a ‘15’ due to its portrayal of sexual
activity, suggestive (but not shown) nudity, and strong violence. It was
not rated an 18 because there is no full nudity, the sexual scenes are
covered and more suggestive and the violent scenes are often covered
by clever camera and editing work.
4. The 15 guideline would be helpful for me and my group
with our opening sequence, as it helps us choose what
content to include if we decide to aim for a broad teenage
age and adults. If we decide to stick to a 15 rating, I now
know that we would have to have control on how much
offensive language we use, and avoid using the most
offensive words if they are not strictly needed. We should
also never glamourise violence or drug usage in our
videos, though we are not restricted from using it as a main
theme. This is helpful for me because my target audience
for our opening sequence will hopefully be 15 and over.
5. An 18 rated film is a film that is not aimed for anyone under the age of
18. It may contain scenes or actions that may affect children in various
ways including strong language, full nudity and suggestive gory
violence. Therefore, an 18 rated film is unsuitable for anyone except
adults.
If you watch an ’18’ certified film, you can expect it to contain very
strong violence, frequent strong language (e.g f***) and / or very strong
language (e.g c***), strong portrayals of sexual activity, scenes of
sexual violence, strong horror, strong blood and gore, real sex (in some
situations) and discriminatory language and behaviour.
Generally, there is no limit as to how often strong language is used,
even the very strong language. Violence in some 18 films could be
portrayed as a good thing, as well as sexual violence and
discrimination. It is therefore suggestive that a passive audience may
not want to watch an ‘18’ certified film.
For example, L.A. Confidential is rated 18 because it features a strong
sexual theme (a main character is a prostitute), there is gory violence
featuring a gunshot and a pile of very bloody bodies in the bathroom
and there is constant use of very strong language.
6. The 18 guideline may be helpful for me and my group
because it will tell us what not to do and what boundaries
not to cross when making our opening sequence thriller
film. This is because we intend to make our opening
sequence suitable for 15 year olds upwards rather than just
adults. Learning about the 18 guideline has taught me that
suggestive violence and exploitation of sexual activity
should not be something that’s included in our opening
sequence. We should also not go over the top with very
strong language, as this may be suitable for over 18’s, but
certainly not for 15-year-olds.
7. I think this age guideline from BBFC is a good reference to
people as to whether the film is suitable for them or not,
especially adults with children. They can buy a ‘U’ rated film safe
in the knowledge that it will not contain anything unsuitable.
However, I do think that the BBFC’s age rating doesn’t fully work.
Firstly, there are a lot of active media consumers out there – if
they want to see a film, they will ignore the age rating and simply
watch it. Also, although age ratings help in cinemas, they do not
work on internet streaming movies (something that’s very
common now). There’s nothing to stop a 5-year-old watching an
18 on the internet.
Overall, I still think it’s good to have this age ratings, but they
have now become much more of a guidance rather than a rule
these days. It would perhaps be good for the BBFC to come up
with a new modern system that will apply to the internet era.
