Research - Age Certificate - Ms Begum

Age Certificate

 

 

What is the role of the BBFC?

 

The BBFC are a highly expert and experienced regulator of moving images. The BBFC also serves a serial function in society which is to advertise and protect viewers from moving images. They provide public information that infroms mostly parents to make appripriate viewing decisions for themselves and those in their care.

 

Moreover, they help to protect vulnerable viewers such as children and society from the effects of viewing potentially harmful or unsuitable contect while respecting ault freedom of choice.

 

What are the different Age Certificates?

 

The 'Universal' age certificate means that all ages are admitted, and that there is nothing unsuitable for children. An axample of a universal rated film would be High School Musical.

 

 

'Parental Guidance' means certain scenes in the film may be unsuitable for young children. May contain mild language, and moderate violence if relevant to the contect. An example of a PG film would be Tangled.

 



 

 

 

 

A film thats considered as a '12A' rating are considered to be unsuitable for very young people, and those under the age of 12 has to be accompanied by an adult, aged at at least 18 or over. Films under this category contain mature themes and modersate swear words. For example the 2002 film spiderman was given a 12A rating.

 

 

A '12' age certificate is appropriate to viewers that are 12 or over. Nudity is seen as allowed with minimal sexual contect. Violence must not dwell on detail, with no emphasis on injuries of blood. King Kong is a well known film that follows the guidlines of a '12' film.

 





 

 

 

 

A '15' rated film is suitable for viewers that are 15 years or over. Themes of a '15' film include hard drugs, frequent strong language , strong violence and strong sex references and nudity without grafic detail. An example of a '15' rated film would be ' The dictator '

 

Finally, a '18' rated film is only suitable for people that are 18 or older. Films under this age certificate doesnt have any limitation on the bad language thats used, detailed sexual activity aloud. Very strong gory and sadistic violence is usually permitted. The ' Saw ' franchise is a well known '18' rated film because of its extreme use of gory and sadistic violence.

 

 

 

 

The '12A' rating

 

 

The '12A' rating is the most recently introduced age certificate, it was introduced in 2002. Although the guidlines are similair to the '12' age rating, on a 12A rating they need to be accompanied by an adult, this is because the '12A' certificate includes more graphic scenes. Although any children under the age of 12 could watch the film (if accompanied by an adult) the BBFC strongly recomends not taking young children to see a 12A film.

 

Spider-man is a well known comic book hero, a large number of children have watched or read spider-man cartoons or comic books. So therefore these children would want to watch the film of their childhood hero. The BBFC was aware of the violence that the Spider-Man  film had so they knew that this film wasnt following the criteria of a a '12' rated film, and they didnt want to give it a '15' rating because of the high demand by children, therefore the BBFC came up with a new '12A' rating for this film and the 12A rating has been used frequently since.

 

 What age certificates do thrillers tend to get and why?

 

Thrillers tend to have a age certificate of '15'. this is because thrillers create suspence and shock within the audience and this is conventional to a thriller film. There are also aspects of strong langauge that are used in thrillers, which categorieses thrillers under the age certificate of '15'



 

The age certificate that id give my thriller and why

 

 

Id give me thriller a age certificate of '15' because the film  wouldnt be suitable for people under the age of '15' to watch it. It would consist of scenes that would cause shock within the audience, and the effect it would have is that it would cause fear and suspence.

 

 Conclusion

 

To conclude, this research into age certificates have helped me understand the different age certificates that are used in films, and ive learnt the specific criteria that each age certificate has. Ive also researched about films that have different age certificates and the aspects of the film that follow its age certificate. I now know what age certificate thrillers go under, and what age certificate my thriller would get.