The British Board of Film Classification

I have decided i need to research the certifications given to films and what the restrictions are for each one so we can then correctly give our film a certification and stick to the guidlines for that one.


‘U’
Universal – Suitable for all
It is impossible to predict what might upset any particular child. But a ‘U’ film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. ‘U’ films should be set within a positive moral framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror.
If a work is particularly suitable for a pre-school child to view alone, this will be indicated in the Consumer Advice.
Discrimination
No discriminatory language or behaviour unless clearly disapproved of.
Drugs
No references to illegal drugs or drug misuse unless they are infrequent and innocuous, or there is a clear educational purpose or anti-drug message suitable for young children.
Horror
Scary sequences should be mild, brief and unlikely to cause undue anxiety to young children. The outcome should be reassuring.
Imitable behaviour
No potentially dangerous behaviour which young children are likely to copy. No emphasis on realistic or easily accessible weapons.
Language
Infrequent use only of very mild bad language.
Nudity
Occasional natural nudity, with no sexual context.
Sex
Mild sexual behaviour (for example, kissing) and references only (for example, to ‘making love’).
Theme
While problematic themes may be present, their treatment must be sensitive and appropriate for young children.
Violence
Mild violence only. Occasional mild threat or menace only.


‘PG’
Parental Guidance
General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children
Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A ‘PG’ film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children.
Discrimination
Discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly disapproved of or in an educational or historical context. Discrimination by a character with which children can readily identify is unlikely to be acceptable.
Drugs
References to illegal drugs or drug misuse must be innocuous or carry a suitable anti-drug message.
Horror
Frightening sequences should not be prolonged or intense. Fantasy settings may be a mitigating factor.
Imitable behaviour
No detail of potentially dangerous behaviour which young children are likely to copy. No glamorisation of realistic or easily accessible weapons.
Language
Mild bad language only.
Nudity
Natural nudity, with no sexual context.
Sex
Sexual activity may be implied, but should be discreet and infrequent. Mild sex references and innuendo only.
Theme
Where more serious issues are featured (for example, domestic violence) nothing in their treatment should condone unacceptable behaviour.
Violence
Moderate violence, without detail, may be allowed, if justified by its context (for example, history, comedy or fantasy).


’12A’/’12′

Suitable for 12 years and over
Exactly the same criteria are used to classify works at ‘12A’ and ‘12’. These categories are awarded where the material is suitable, in general, only for those aged 12 and over. Works classified at these categories may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them.
The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films. No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult, and films classified ‘12A’ are not recommended for a child below 12. An adult may take a younger child if, in their judgement, the film is suitable for that particular child. In such circumstances, responsibility for allowing a child under 12 to view lies with the accompanying adult.
The ‘12’ category exists only for video works. No one younger than 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated video work.
Discrimination
Discriminatory language or behaviour must not be endorsed by the work as a whole. Aggressive discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly condemned.
Drugs
Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give instructional detail.
Horror
Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted, provided disturbing sequences are not frequent or sustained.
Imitable behaviour
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied, or appear pain or harm free. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
Language
Moderate language is allowed. The use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’) must be infrequent.
Nudity
Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context must be brief and discreet.
Sex
Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers. Frequent crude references are unlikely to be acceptable.
Theme
Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers.
Violence
Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual justification.


’15′
Suitable only for 15 years and over
No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.
Discrimination
The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.
Drugs
Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.
Horror
Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.
Imitable behaviour
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
Language
There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
Nudity
Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.
Sex
Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.
Theme
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.
Violence
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.


’18′
Suitable only for adults
No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema.
No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video.
In line with the consistent findings of the BBFC’s public consultations and The Human Rights Act 1998, at ‘18’ the BBFC’s guideline concerns will not normally override the principle that adults should be free to choose their own entertainment. Exceptions are most likely in the following areas:
where the material is in breach of the criminal law, or has been created through the commission of a criminal offence
where material or treatment appears to the BBFC to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society – for example, any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which may cause harm to public health or morals. This may include portrayals of sexual or sexualised violence which might, for example, eroticise or endorse sexual assault
where there are more explicit images of sexual activity which cannot be justified by context. Such images may be appropriate in ‘R18’ works, and in ‘sex works’ (see below) would normally be confined to that category.
In the case of video works (including video games), which may be more accessible to younger viewers, intervention may be more frequent than for cinema films.
Sex education at ‘18’
Where sex material genuinely seeks to inform and educate in matters such as human sexuality, safer sex and health, explicit images of sexual activity may be permitted.
Sex works at ‘18’
Sex works are works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation. Sex works containing only material which may be simulated are generally passed ‘18’. Sex works containing clear images of real sex, strong fetish material, sexually explicit animated images, or other very strong sexual images will be confined to the ‘R18’ category. Material which is unacceptable in a sex work at ‘R18’ is also unacceptable in a sex work at ‘18’.

We have decided to award our film with the certificate of 15 because we feel our storyline fits in with this boundary and doesn't go into the 18 guidelines. This means we will need to take into consideration what drug use we use and how we film it (make sure we don't promote drug use!) we will also need to make sure the audience don't know it is paracetamol because this may be seen as easily accessible drugs. We need to focus on all the other parts of the 15 certificate too.

Triangle Of Dependency

The 'Triangle of Dependency' is suggesting that the institution, audience and text are all interlinked with each other. Research is done to find out what the audience want from the text, the text is then created to fit the audiences needs from the research that has been done. For example, if something changes in society to make the text not popular anymore then more research will be needed to find out what is popular again and to make the text fit the audiences desires. Also the audience influences the institution used because like our film, we chose to have an independent company make our film because our audience don't want any special effects etc so it wont be an expensive film to make. However, if we were making a Horror film then the audience would want to see special effects and would probably want to see famous actors so they know it is going to be a good horror film; meaning it would be best to have a well known institution to give the audience that trust they need to watch the film. The institution influences the text because if you have a large institution like 'Warner Bros.' then you are limited in what guidelines the film has to follow. There is more freedom in an independent institution.

The 'Triangle of Dependency' will influence my film teaser trailer because all my decisions are based on the research i have done and have come from my target audience and their feedback. This way i know that our film will appeal to the right people that we want it to appeal to. In this case, the institution has not influenced our film because we made it up for out teaser trailer but i have done research into existing institutions and independent institutions to show that if we were to make this film, our institution would fit in well and would be recognisable as a film company because we have stuck to the codes and conventions of the existing independent institutions.

Scene 1.

Location : A teenagers bedroom to create a realistic room that the main characters would live in.
Lighting : High key lighting because creating a happy atmosphere of how Chloe’s life was before all of her troubles
Camera : Mid shot/ Two shot
Props : Birthday card/ flowers/ bedside table
Mise en scene : Bedside table must be framed within the shot, Actor must look natural
Description : Its Chloe’s birthday and James (Chloe’s best friend) comes to Chloe’s house to give her a card and some flowers. Chloe thanks and hugs James for her presents.

Scene 2

Location : Greens Norton pocket park
Camera : Long shot and then Dolly in/ Two shot
Lighting : High key
Props : N/A
Mise en scene : Middle of frame, Main character will look natural again, casual clothing (warm clothing )
Description : Chloe and Dan are on a romantic walk through the park the camera then dolly’s in to show the two characters just about to kiss which shows the audience that the two characters have a relationship.

Scene 3

Location : Chloe’s bedroom
Camera :
Lighting : High key lighting
Props : Make up/ make up bags/ shoes/ iPod playing in speakers/ straightners/ clothes/ camera
Mise en scene : Actors will be shown in all areas on the frame
Description : Chloe, Dan, James, Fran are getting ready for a party. They are all busy looking at clothes dancing. James and Chloe are together, hugging and showing the relationship between them.

Scene 4

The written text comes up to give direction to what is happening within the film

Scene 5

Location : Chloe’s bathroom
Lighting : Dim lighting but then goes into strobe lighting to show flashback
Camera : Mid shot/ Over the shoulder shot
Props : Bathroom toiletries/ lipstick written on the mirror
Mise en scene : Chloe will be framed in the shot
Description : Chloe is sat on the floor In her bathroom the lighting reflects the change in mood in the film, Chloe then stands in a rush to go and grab something from her cupboard there is a message written in the mirror Chloe smudges the message and then the harsh lighting comes in to shows starting the flash backs

Scene 7

Text comes in to give direction to the reader
Then a bright white light to signify the story going to flashbacks

Scene 8

Location : Grave yard
Camera :
Lighting : Dusk/ Dim lighting
Props : Grave stone
Mise en scene : Chloe is going to be sat in a graveyard next to her dads grave
Description : Chloe is sat by her dad grave crying and the camera will highlight the name of her father.

Scene 9

Location : Bathroom
Camera : Dolly In
Lighting : Dim lighting
Props : Packet of tablets
Description : Chloe throws the packet of tablets across the floor while rushing and then the camera zooms in on the packet

Scene 10

Location : Café
Camera : long shot
Lighting : high key lighting
Props : Café table settings
Mise en scene : facial expressions – sad disappointed
Description : Flash back of Chloe being stood up by Daniel in a café

Scene 11

Location : Chloe’s bathroom
Camera : Canted angle
Lighting : high key lighting
Props: Tablets
Mise en scene : Positioned to the right of the frame
Description : Chloe grabs the tablets and a close up shot is used to show the desperation

Scene 12

Location : Pocket park
Camera : same as shot 2
Lighting : high key
Props: N/A
Mise en scene : same as shot 2
Description : Chloe and Daniel at the pocket park showing the same scene as before only as Chloe goes in to kiss Daniel he pulls away.

Scene 13

Location : Bathroom
Camera : high angle
Lighting : low key
Props: tablets
Mise en scene :
Description : Close up of tablets

Scene 14

Location : Chloe’s room
Camera : same as scene 3
Lighting : high key
Props: Same as scene 3
Mise en scene : Scene 3
Description : This shot is the same as shot 3 but scene through a different perspective after Dan and Chloe kiss the camera zooms in on Fran looking jealously and disappointed.

Scene 15

Location : Bathroom
Camera : over the shoulder shot
Lighting : Low key
Props: Phone
Mise en scene : The phone is taking up most of the screen
Description : Chloe is sending a message but the audience don’t know who the message is to

Scene 16

Location : N/A
Camera : mid shot
Lighting : High key
Props: Phones
Mise en scene : the phones will take up a lot of the screen
Description : James and Dan both receive a text and the audience don’t know which one of them has a text from Chloe.

Scene 17

Text to show the title of the film

Scene 18

Location : Bathroom
Camera : Close up
Lighting : High key
Props: Glass of water
Description : the glass of water is shown hitting the floor making a large smash.

Storyboard!!

I decided to put our storyboard on my blog without any of the writing so it is clear what order the slides go in.

Navigation Map For My Website

I have put a big image around the outside so it catches the audiences attention, however this will be a graphic image, not one of the characters. I decided to put the smaller image (maybe of a heart) in the bottom right corner of the mini pages so this will sty there when the audience moves around the website. I think this is a good idea because it constantly reminds the audience what genre of film it is. I also chose to put the navigation bar across the top of the page instead of the 'normal' place (the left hand side of the page) because it is one of the first places the audience will look; i think it looks better across the top of this layout otherwise it would look like a list, which is not what i want because every page is just as important for my audience.

Final Production Logo!

We decided the first draft of our production logo was too 'tacky' and we want our production logo to look sophisticated to suggest to our target audience that the company is reliable and sophisticated.

We decided to have more white than black on our logo because white conotes happiness and purity, which suggests to the audience that they can trust out production company to produce good films. We also decided to keep the roses in red because this is the stereotypical conventions of love and a rose. The font we used is an old fashioned hand writing style to suggest to the audience that our company has been running and producing films for a long period of time. this shows that they can trust our films are going to be good because we have alot of experience in making them. We aldo kept the stereotypical colour green for the thorn shaped heart so it is clear to our target audience what it is.

'Rose & Thorn' institution logo analysis

We decided to ask 30 people from our target audience which font they preferred for our website and poster etc. We collected together our results and found that the most popular one was font number 1.

As a group we have decided to go along with our target audience and use font number one for our website etc.

Extra Research For Our Film Name . . .

We decided we needed to do some more research for our film name because in our questionnaire results, there was not a clear winner! We picked two of the existing names that were in our questionnaire that came out with the most votes then thought of two more names that the group liked. We then went round asking our sixth form which name they liked the best for a romance film and these were our final results . . .

Love Drug = 12
Forgetting You = 3
Love Passing = 4
Number 23 = 1

From this we can see that 'Love Drug' is a clear winner and as a group we liked this one the best too.

Our Film is going to be called 'Love Drug' :)

Applying Todorov's Theory To Our Narrative

Equilibrium - Everything in Chloe's life is perfect. She has the perfect boyfriend, perfect grades and perfect friends.

Disruption - Thing's start to go wrong in Chloe's life and everything is not so perfect after all. She has to cope with the death of her father whilst her friends and boyfriend are keeping their distance from her.

Reconciliation - Chloe turns to drugs as she has no one to talk to and thinks this is the only way to cope with everything that has spiralled out of control in her life.

Attempt to repair - Her male best friend, james, finds chloe and helps her.

Reinstatement of Equilibrium - As Chloe and james begin trying to fix everything in her life and make it perfect again, she starts to realise that james is who she is meant to be with.

How are characters represented in a Romance film?

Having analysed some romance teaser trailers, i found out that the two main protagonists (the main male and main female in the film, usually a couple) are represented using the stereotypical conventions of a male and female teenager.
The female is usually dressed in feminine bright colours like pinks and reds and her hair and make-up is always 'perfect'. We normally see her with her girlfriends for example, shopping and talking about the male.
The male is normally with his male friends talking about the female whilst playing video games etc. He dresses in casual clothes to suggest he is layed back and isn't that bothered about the female (but we later find out he is.)

Todorov's Narrative Theory

Todorov suggested that the conventional narrative structure of a story has 5 stages to it:

Equilibrium - any potentially opposing forces are in balance.
Disruption - A series of events disrupts the equilibrium.
Reconciliation - recognising that there has been a disruption.
Attempt to repair - the characters try to fix the disruption.
Reinstatement of the equilibrium - Situation is resolved and a conclusion is announced.

'Fast Romance' Teaser Trailer Analysis

'Sex And The City' Teaser Trailer Analysis

'Valentine's Day' Teaser Trailer Analysis

Final Synopsis!

We analysed our questionnaire and realised as a group that we needed to make some changes to the synopsis. Obviously we will not show all of out twists in the teaser trailer but our target audience said (from our questionnaire results) that we needed to add an extra twist into the storyline so this is what we came up with . .

Everything in Chloe’s life is perfect; she has the perfect best friend, the perfect boyfriend and the perfect grades. Life’s going exactly how she had always imagined it to. Now that everything’s falling to plan, and everybody including her is turning 18, Chloe can’t wait to live life to the full. However, things don’t quite go her way.

Slowly Chloe’s perfect world starts to crumble; maybe her best friend Fran and boyfriend Daniel aren’t so perfect after all. What used to be one hour phone calls every night between Fran and Chloe soon changed to 10 minute calls once a week. Why was she acting so weird? Did it have something to do with Daniel and why he’s pressuring her into their ‘first time’? Chloe’s broken relationship with her mum has left her coming to terms with the death of her father all alone.

All Chloe has to do is find a solution to all of her problems, get things back on track so she can have her fairytale ending and be the perfect Chloe she once was. Will her best friend and boyfriend issues be fixed or will her desperation and despair leave her contemplating suicide?

Navigation Map For Sex And The City

Questionnaire Analysis!

The group decided we needed to analyse our finding from our questionnaires that we sent out. We got together and talked about what was written on the research and this is what the majority of our target audience want and what we decided to take from that . . .

Q1. We deliberately gave out our questionnaire to more females because this is our target audience and the typical audience for romance films is women. However, we gave out the questionnaire to a small amount of males to see what they thought of romance films and to see if we could add something in ours to make it appeal to them more.

Q2. The majority of people were aged between 15-20 because this is closest to our target audience, however we also gave some out to the other age groups to see what they like and to see if we needed to change our target audience to a wider range (than 15-30); which we decided we didn't because not enough people are interested in romance films older than 30.

Q3. We asked what genre of film they most like and most people like comedy but we decided our groups' abilities would be better making a romance film, (which came second after comedy in our results) because this is what we are interested in and we have seen allot so we know the typical conventions etc.

Q4. Our results show that the majority of people only go to the cinema once a month to watch a film, which shows us that we need to think about more than one place (at the cinema) to show our film teaser trailer, for example, on the television and on the website. We also realised that our trailer is going o have to be extremely powerful with lots of persuasive devices in to gain the attention of the audience at the cinema.

Q5. After reading the synopsis, our results show that the majority of people would watch our film which shows the storyline appeals to them; This means that we can now go on to making our storyboard etc.

Q6. The suggestions for our synopsis were mainly to 'make it funny' but as previously mentioned, as a group, we don't feel that a 'ROM-COM' would show our best abilities and skills.

Q7. We asked this question to see what our target audience think the stereotypical conventions of a romance film is. They all said 'something goes wrong' for example, a break up. They also said 'a happy ending' is predictable in a romance film. Therefore, we decided to put these into our plot so our film has something going wrong and a happy ending to fit the conventions of a romance film.

Q8. The majority of people that we asked said that Red, Pink, White and Black are the colours they associate with a romance film. The connotations of red are romance, passion and love as are the connotations of pink. Pink is also associated with 'girly' things and 'girly' films, whereas white is a pure and neutral colour which contrasts the black which is danger and death; this sometimes takes place in romance genre's to create emotion for the audience.

Q9. Our results show that allot of people don't visit film websites. And Q10. shows that they didn't know they existed which shows our group that we need to do allot of promotion for our websites to let our target audience know about the website.

Q11.The majority of answers show that people want to see the Trailer,Galleries, Cast list, About the film and Games on the website but not downloads because they said they didn't know what sort of downloads it would be.

Q12. Our results show that people don't go on film website and therefore haven't seen one that is particularly interesting because they don't know the film website exists. This shows that it is so important that we advertise and promote our website the best we can so our target audience know about our website and will therefore go and visit it.

Q13. Almost all of our questionnaire's came back showing that our audience would not be more likely to watch a film if it has been produced by a large production company like 'Warner Bros'. This means that we can use an independent film company which will widen our opportunities as to what we can show in our film because films produced by a large institution follow a stereotypical guideline of storyline's etc. Also, our genre (romance) enables us to use an independent film company because we don't need any special effects which cost allot of money; therefore an independent film company will be able to afford to make our film.

Q14. Most of our audience like to watch 'Tear Jerkers' because they like the emotional response they get from it. This means we need to make our film sad in places so the audience can feel emotion which is what they want (from our results.)

Q15. Our results show that most people see film trailers either at the cinema or on the TV. This tells us that these two places are our main focus when advertising our movie using our teaser trailer.

Q16. People don't look at film reviews before watching the film which shows that we don't need to put allot of depth in our reviews on our posters (keep to a minimum) because people are not that interested in them and it doesn't change their opinion of the film.

Q17. The majority of people said that a film trailer persuades them the most to go and see a film which shows us that we need to focus on adding allot of persuasive devices into our teaser trailer as this is what is going to be attracting our audience to watch the film.

Q18. We couldn't come to a decision on our film name yet because everyone gave different answers, so moreresearch is needed on this area to find a name that our target audience like.

Filled in Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Analysis Of Independent Film Institution logo's

Institution logo analysis

Synopsis

Everything in Chloe’s life is perfect; she has the perfect best friend, the perfect boyfriend and the perfect grades. Life’s going exactly how she had always imagined it to. Now that everything’s falling to plan, and everybody including her is turning 18, Chloe can’t wait to live life to the full. However, things don’t quite go her way.
Slowly Chloe’s perfect world starts to crumble; maybe her best friend, Fran and boyfriend, Daniel aren’t so perfect after all. What used to be one hour phone calls every night between Fran and Chloe soon changed to 10 minute calls once a week. Why was she acting so weird? Did it have something to do with Daniel and why he’s pressuring her into their ‘first time’?
All Chloe has to do is find a solution to all of her problems, get things back on track so she can have her fairytale ending and be the perfect Chloe she once was. Will her best friend and boyfriend issues be fixed or will she find out that the truth is, those who she thought she couldn't live apart from are in fact the ones she’s best off without.

This is our first draft of our synopsis for our teaser trailer. After getting together as a group, we all decided that the middle paragraph needed some adjusting. We felt that it didn't build up enough suspense for the audience to get 'hooked' on our film.

What is Creativity?

Conventions of a Romance film

Narrative structure of 3 romance films

Similarities and Differences of a DVD Front Cover, Poster and Trailer