BBFCJack Cooper

Introduction

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.

‘15’ age ratingIf 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.

How does this help me identify a target audience?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.

‘18’ age ratingAn 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.

How does this help me identify a target audience?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.

ConclusionI 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.