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BBFC
The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is a company, which
volunteers to see if films are aloud in cinemas and what age rating the
film should be. Every single film that has been released into Cinemas
would have had gone through the BBFC to make surethey can pick the
right age for the film. The BBFC is a non-profitablecompany due to the
fact that they aren’tlinked to the government but the company makes
its money by getting the films creators to pay them to see if it can go in
cinemas. Even if the film is not suitable for cinemas they would have to
pay them to still check the film out. BBFC was set up in 1912 by a film
industry as an independent organisation. The BBFC isn’tlinked to the
governmentbecause they wantpeople to watch the films and rate them
who are not biased, so the BBFC would go out now and again and ask
the public questions about films and if they have meet the rightage
rating for the film. People that work at the BBFC would haveto watch
films, for very long parts of the day, they would also have to watch films
and videos that they don’tenjoy because its there job to watch
everything over and make surethat the film or video gets the right
certificate. The BBFC also offer a serviceto come on set of films and see
what they haveto do to make it suitable for the
right audience, mostfilms want to have films in
12A because anyonecan go and watch that film
but by getting the BBFC to come out to the film
set is very expensive. Also the BBFC offer an
educational service to schools, universities to
make surethat they understand on what they
have to go through. The local council havethe
power to change the certificate that has been
labelled on the film. The BFFC are able to ban
many films that havevery obscene things within
the films, it’s very rarethat films get banned
nowadays butthey will if they havesomething
obscenewithin them.
The U rating stands for ‘Universal’, which means
that anyone is able to go and watch the film, but
children under 4 will not be able to go and watch the video due to the
fact that there too young. The U rating has nothing to do with
discrimination, drugs, imitable behaviour, bad language etc. The PG
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rating stands for ‘Parentalguidance’, which means that the parents
should check out the film before, there children watch them but someof
the scenes throughoutthe film might not be suitable for young children.
The PG rating wouldn’thave any violence, nudity etc. in it to makesure
that if children do watch it there parents wouldn’tget mad. Someof PG
films challenge things like bullying, racismetc. The rating 12A means
‘Cinema release suitable for 12 years and over’ this means that only
people that are over 12 or over 12 are able to watch the film but if they
are with there parents they are able to go and watch the film, but its up
to the parents if they want there children to watch films that might have
some bad language throughoutthe video. The rating 12 means ‘Video
release suitable for 12 years and over’ this means that only people that
are over 12 are able to watch the film and they cant buy anything that
has a 12 rating if they are under the age of 12. The 12 age rating is very
similar to 12A but 12 is mostly rated on films to make surethat people
under 12 cant buy the film, so it’s the parents choice if they want them
to buy the DVD. There might be moderate language used throughoutin
films that are rated 12A or 12. There is a massivejump between 12 and
15, the 15 age rating means ‘Suitable only for 15 years and over’ which
means that people can only go and watch the film if they are 15 or over.
You would have to be 15 to go and buy the DVD or rent the film, a 15
rated film would contain things like strong violence, sexual nudity, drug
taking etc. Also at 15 there can be threat and horror throughoutfilms.
The 18 rated films mean ‘Suitable only for adults’ which means that
people only at 18 or over 18 is able to watch the film. 18 rated films
would contain things like very strong violence, strong horror, strong
blood and goreetc. The BFFC will spotout the obvious things that the
films is an 18 due to the fact if the film has strong pornography willbe
moved up to an 18 straight away. People that are under 18 will not be
able to buy any videos, DVD’s etc. If a 17 year old would want to watch
an 18-year-old film, they would have to ask their parents firstand ask
them if they can buy the film for him due to the fact that they couldn’t
go to a cinema. The R18 rated films stand for ‘Adultworks for licensed
premises only’ this means that only adults are able to watch these
videos, this would be contain loads of pornography so thevideos would
be supplied to adult sex shops to make surethat children don’tget there
hands on it.
The ObscenePublication Act 1959 and 1964 is an act, which was created
to make surethat any of obscene videos are released to the public to
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see, so it was published to makesure it protects the public from these
videos. The ObscenePublication Act would act upon things that involve
sexual activities such as necrophilia, rape, torture etc. Also videos that
are offensivewill be removed. This act is all about protecting the public
fromterrifying obscene acts that could be published. The Obscene
Publication Act is what makes the BBFC haveall of its power.
The Video Recordings Act 1984 was created becausethere was a gap
within The ObscenePublication, which made them fill in the gap by
making the Video Recordings Act. This act was also made to protect the
public fromdisgusting videos. Itwas created to make surethat the BBFC
have labelled all of the videos and films with certificates and explaining
the certificate to make surethat the audience understands on what they
are watching. Itwas also placed because they wanted to makesure that
the audience that is going to watch these videos understands on what
the video may include. The Video Recordings Act was made to make
surethat none of obscene videos are supplied other than a licensed sex
shop.
The Child Protection Act was made to protect young children, its made
to make surethat all of the children are being protected all the time. It
was also made to make surethat young children could only work for 4
hours a day, for example the first Harry Porter that was released were
acted by young actors which means that the young actors could only act
for 4 hours a day which means that the directors would have had to
come up with something to make surethat they could duplicate the
hours by using body doubles so that they could film for 8 hours a day.
Also the Child Protection Act protects children from sexual showing
within films, which means that no child is allowed to go naked within a
film. The Child Protection Act is for children that areunder the age of 16
to make surethat they are protected frommany differentthings. The
Criminal Justice Act strengthened the Child Protection Act further in
1988; they added new things like by having possession of indecent
images of children is illegal.
Video Nasty’s arevideos that have been removed due to having
offensively violent, gratuitously and pornographic. Becauseof video
nasty’s, theVideo Recording Act 1984 was putin place to make surethat
the public doesn’t see this videos. Because the government thoughtthat
everyonewas going to become obscene and startposting horrible
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things, by having all of these problems it created a moral panic. There
are many films that havebeen banned by the BBFC, the BBFC tries not to
ban that many films nowadays butthey will if they have to. There are
many films that havebeen banned in the UK such as The Bunny Game,
Hate Crime, and The Human Centipede 2 etc. Mostof films are banned
due to extreme violence, sexual violence etc. The Human Centipede 2
was banned due to having highly explicit sexual violence, the BBFC try
not to ban loads of films, and they mostly find wherethe disturbing part
is within a film and then try to change it around and removesome clips
fromthe film to makesure it doesn’t disturb the audience. In The
Human Centipede 2, the BBFC had to make32 cuts that meant they had
to remove two minutes and thirty-seven seconds to make sureit fits into
the 18 rated films. There were many more films that were banned
within the UK, like Mother’s Day 1980; it was banned due to the fact
that it was released while the video nasty period was going on.
The film ‘The Descent’ was given an 18-rated certificate, it was a 15 due
to the fact it has blood and gorewithin the film. ‘The Descent’ was given
an 18 because there were a couple of scenes that had violence; the film
became an 18 fromthe last 20 minutes of the film. In the last 20 minutes
of the film we see loads of violence and blood, which changed the film
to an 18 rated film. Within the last 20 minutes of the film, we see things
like eye gouging, a head getting smacked off the wall and blood coming
out of the monsters head, also we see Sarah stabbing Juno in the leg
with a pickaxe. The film was given a certificate without having to make
any cuts to the film. By having all of the violence at the end, the film had
to become an 18 becauseit wouldn’tbe appropriate for 15 year olds see
that much violence within a film. The ethical constraintof the film ‘The
Descent’ was when the car crash happen and we see the pole go
through Paul’s head and if we see a pole go through Sarah’s daughter
head would of probably got the film banned due to the fact that, you are
not aloud to show children dying within in films but you can see that the
director of the film has made CGI blood of the back of the car, to inform
the audience that the daughter has died. But they had to makesure that
the audience doesn’tsee the daughter die becauseif they did the film
would of have mostlikely been banned. ‘The Descent’ had to make sure
that they had companies agree with using there equipment within the
film, for example if they wanted to wear a jump with a massivecompany
logo, they would have had to get permission, becauseif they never got
permission, ‘TheDescent’ would have been taking to court and sued, or
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fined loads of money for using there products withoutgetting
permission fromthe company. ‘The Descent’ had a Land Rover within
the film which the audience saw clearly, so the ‘The Descent’ would
have had to go to Land Rover and asked them for permission to usea
Land Rover car within the film. They also had to get music agreement to
make surethat they could use the background music becauseif they
never the film could get taken to court and sued.
