1. Unit 20 Learning Aim B – Understanding Regulators
There are three different regulators you need to pay attention to for your
work here...
1. The British Board of Film Classification – BBFC
2. The Advertising Standards Authority – ASA
3. The Office for Standards in Broadcasting – OFCOM
You don’t have to write a big detailed explanation about who they are and
everything they do. You just need to explain how their regulations will have
an effect upon your work in this unit.
The BBFC
The big issue here is that you are marketing a 15 certificate film.
• 15 is a mandatory certificate for cinema and home entertainment –
nobody under 15 can see or buy/rent a 15 certificate film
• You can demonstrate good understanding of how the rules work in
practice by talking about making a 12 certificate trailer for your 15
certificate film..
o Because trailers are given certificates in their own right, not just
because of what certificate the film has
o Because if the trailer is a 12a/12 then it can be shown before
other 12 certificate films in the cinema (and/or on DVD /
BluRay) and
o By cutting the trailer for a 12a/12 you are allowing it to be
shown to a bigger audience and you can reasonably assume that
whilst there will be some younger people in the audience too,
there will be a good proportion of the audience for a 12a/12
certificate film who are old enough to watch your 15 and
(because you will target your marketing at the ‘right’ kind of
film for your audience) they will be interested in your film.
• This issue crosses over into issues that relate to the ASA and OFCOM,
so...
2. The ASA
• You are making marketing material, so that means your work needs
to be compliant with the rules for Advertising set out by the
Advertising Standards Authority.
• There are big codes of practice here, and there are separate ones for
broadcast and for non-broadcast media (so one that relates to your
audio piece and one that relates to your poster)
• Most of the information is very specific and doesn’t need to concern
you here but there are a couple of core principles that you should bear
in mind....
o Advertising cannot lie and also cannot mislead the audience
o There are a handful of specific things you should avoid in the
marketing– cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, nudity
o Although your film is a 15 your poster could be viewed by
anybody so it really shouldn’t be more than PG rated (if you see
what I mean – there are no ratings for posters, but it shouldn’t
contain things that might cause a film to get a 12 or higher
rating – nothing to scary or gory, for example)
o The ASA defines ‘children’ as ‘under 16s’ - and your film is being
marketed to 15 year olds.
• The two sections you need to pay particular attention to are ‘Harm
and Offence’ and ‘Children’
o Harm and Offence – pay particular attention to 4.5 - Marketing
communications, especially those addressed to or depicting a child, must not
condone or encourage an unsafe practice . and 4.8 - Marketing
communications must not portray or represent anyone who is, or seems to be,
under 18 in a sexual way.
o Children – I think you need to read through all of Section 5 of
the code – essentially you need to be generally much more clear
and careful when you are marketing anything to children. In
particular, perhaps, the introduction at 5.1 Marketing
communications addressed to, targeted directly at or featuring children must
contain nothing that is likely to result in their physical, mental or moral harm:
and 5.14 children must not be encouraged to copy practices that might be
unsafe for a child
3. OFCOM
• OFCOM are the regulator for broadcast media – they would be
responsible along with the ASA for trailers shown on television. For
the work you are doing here, they are the specific regulator for the
radio feature you are going to make.
• The big issue here is about suitable material for broadcast.
o There is no watershed on the radio. Instead you always have to
pay attention to who is likely to be listening and to ensure that
your content is suitable.
o You should assume that you are very likely to have a younger
audience listening during radio’s prime time – the morning
Breakfast Show between around 7am and 9am and the
afternoon Drive Time show between around 3pm and 5pm.
o Your radio piece is going to be broadcast on a weekday
afternoon between 3pm and 5pm, so it is in prime time
• OFCOM defines ‘Children’ as ‘under the age of 15 years. Your film is a
15 certificate film. That means that you are not marketing your film to
‘children’ so far as OFCOM is concerned. (But you are so far as the
ASA is concerned, because they say ‘under 16’).
• However, the rules also say that broadcasters must take all reasonable
steps to protect audience members under 18.
• As your audio piece is going to be broadcast during prime time, you
have to make sure it is appropriate for a general audience. That
means...
o The extract of the film you record has to clearly be from your
generic horror/thriller film but still needs to be appropriate for
a general audience to listen to (which is key – ‘listen to’, not
‘watch’).
o Your interview and review segments again have to discuss the
film as it is whilst also being appropriate for a general audience.
