2. BBFC
• The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental
body which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos/
DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984.
• It is also responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within
the United Kingdom.
• The BBFC was established in 1912 as the British Board of Film Censors by
members of the film industry.
• All films have to go through the BBFC before they are allowed to sell and
distribute it.
• The BBFC also offer education for young people on their impact on films and
upon how important film certificates are.
3. Certificates
Every film rated by the BBFC receive a certificate, with advice and instructions
detailing references to sex, violence and coarse language. If a certificate indicates
that a film or video game is only suitable for someone over a certain age, then only
people over that age can buy it and view it.
The BBFC rates theatrically released films, and rates videos and video games that
forfeited exemption from the Video Recordings Act 1984, which was discovered in
August 2009 to be unenforceable until the act was re-enacted by the Video
Recordings Act 2010. Legally local authorities and the government have the power
to decide under what circumstances and regulations films are shown in cinemas,
but they mostly choose to follow the advice of the BBFC.
4. Legal Acts
Obscene Publication Act:
The BBFC can remove what they think can play a significant impact and influence the
public. Also, what they deem to be a negative impact or cause physical harm to people
or the public, they can make the producer of the material remove the part/scene or
ban the material from showing all together. The BBFC also bans material they think
can lead to criminal actions or misconduct. This gives the BBFC power to remove
content in movies which can negatively effect or harm the public.
Child protection act
Children are legally allowed to only act/work on set for a time of 4 hours a day. Also,
under this rule they are not allowed to sexually exploit children or allowed to include
them in sexual scenes. This gives the BBFC power to remove or ban any scenes in a
movie which sexually exposes children.
5. Legal Acts
Video Recordings Act 1984
The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale
or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon by an
authority designated by the Home Office. The British Board of Film Classification,
which had been instrumental in the certification of motion pictures and material
since 1912 was made as the classifying authority in 1985. This act was first put in
place when VHS was first introduced, due to this people were able to rewind and re
watch scenes from a movie, which were only deemed to be watched only once,
therefore this raised a lot of argue and controversy, to which this act was the
solution.
6. Effect of BBFC upon film
The BBFC has had quite an impact upon film, as it has banned many films which they
deemed to be offensive or harmful to the public. They have also banned many films
which break the rules and regulations of the legal acts, such as the child protection
act. The banned movie are often referred to by the term ‘video nasty’, this term
became popularized when video cassette came out in the 1980s, used for banned
movies which were criticized for their violence and to be religiously wrong. This
therefore created the Video recording Act in the mid 80s, as many movies were being
deemed to be not suitable for home video or viewing at all. Many of the banned
movies were of the horror genre and contained scenes of excessive gore, torture or
sexual abuse. Movies such as Straw dogs, Driller Killer and Last House On The Left
were banned for being under the legal acts and being a video nasty. Some of the
recent banned films include films such as, the full sequence of The Human Centipede.
This is banned due to the horror and violence included and deemed to be not suitable
for many audiences.
7. The Decent
• The Descent was passed uncut by the BBFC, as it did not contain any material or
content which is harmful to the public and did not break any rules or regulations of
the legal acts.
• The Descent was given a certificate of 18 and not a 15, because it contains content
which is not suitable for viewing by a 15 year old. It contained strong bloody
horror, as the cast of the Descent got tortured and killed by ghoul like monsters
(crawlers) in a deep un explored cave system. It also contained a gruesome car
crash which led to the death of the key protagonist’s husband and daughter.
Furthermore, as there is a dark, inescapable cave system, the movie might not be
suitable for viewing by people with claustrophobia.
• The Descent contained strong violence, alongside blood and gore, inflicted on the
cast of the Descent and the monsters also, as there are many fight scenes and
gruesome deaths.
8. The Descent
• The Descent contains many ethical constraints, one of which is the death of Sarah’s
daughter in the car crash. This is an ethical constraint, because it can raise issue
and can be perceived to be wrong, even though the moment of the death is not
shown. Some people might deem this to be wrong, as they might not like the idea
of the death of a child and reference to it. Although, the film does minimize the
death, as much as possible without completely hiding it without reference or
having the audience unaware of it.
• Another ethical constraint is that the female cast is being tortured and killed by
the crawlers in the cave. This can be an ethical constraint, because many people
can be against the idea of only females being brutally killed, as it can be deemed
to be unethical in some countries and religions.
• During the making of the Descent, legal permissions, such as licenses for music
rights would be needed, because the makers of the Descent are not legally
allowed to use the music of an artist in the movie without permission form the
artist or without a license.
