Research into age certificates and the BBFC.-Miss Georgiou.

Research into age certificates and the BBFC.



The British board of film classification watch all films that are released in the Britain and award each with a film classification. They have an age rating and give some information about what to expect from each film. The age rating is decided after they judge each film with their classification guidelines. The age ratings are there to protect children from seeing unsuitable content in films. The BBFC have to watch every film released in the UK and decide what age rating to award it.

The U certificate stands for universal, this should be suitable for all ages above four. Example films include 'Teletubbies', 'the smurfs and 'cars 2', these films were put into this age category as the BBFC had reviewed it and decided that the content was in the guidelines of what  a 'U' certificate would be.

 Not all films rated U are children’s films – many adult films, many older films, are rated U because they don’t contain any strong issues .A U film might cover various of different themes, as long as it is appropriate to a young audience.

PG stands for Parental Guidance. Parental guidance is suitable for general viewing, although some parents might decide before their child watches it if it is suitable for them.

Some PG films explore challenging aspects such as bulling or anti-social behaviour, although this behaviour will be shown to be wrong and will be resolved.

Examples of PG rated films include 'Home alone,' 'shrek' and 'Up'.

12 rated films are for children that are 12 and older, their might include moderate language and violence but mostly in context to the story. Popular 12 rated films include, 'The dark knight', 'The hunger games' and 'Iron man 3'. 12A is a category  specifically for the cinema, this means that you must be accompanied by someone over 18 to watch the film in the cinema.

15 rated films are not suitable for children younger than 15, they can include, strong language, strong violence, portrayal of sexual activity, drug taking and brief scenes of sexual violence. Many horror and thriller films are rated 15, although the horror and thriller films with very gory images are rated 18. Examples of 15 rated films are 'MAMA', 'friends with benefits' and 'Flight'.

18 films are not suitable for anyone under the age of 18, as they contain strong issues such as:very strong violence, frequent strong language  and/or very strong language, strong portrayals of sexual activity, scenes of sexual violence, strong horror, strong blood and gore, real sex (in some circumstances), discriminatory language and behaviour. examples of 18 rated films are 'The godfather', 'Alien' and 'se7en'.

Summary.

after carrying out this research i have concluded that my own opening sequence to a thriller film will be made to be awarded with a '12' or '15' rating, as these films are usually the scariest by using suspense that is conventional to thriller films but without gore that some films use to get '18' certificates.

References.

I taken some information and facts from the internet to research the BBFC, the websites are en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Board_of_Film_Classification, ‎www.BBFC.co.uk and 

www.imdb.com .