The BBFC (also known as the British film foundation of classification) have both roles and regulations in the British film and media industry; these roles being that the BBFC decide and regulate what films/movies are allowed by deciding upon the content it contains, and then upon reviewing the contents of the movie, they then decide firstly if the content in the movie is not so harmful, shocking, or disturbing that it needs to be banned and removed from the cinema listings and showings, once the decision that states it is ok to be put up into public viewing (majority being the cinema) the BBFC then look at the content they have reviewed and must decide on an age certificate they need to apply to the movie, or in a basic summary; what aged audience will be allowed to watch this movie.
The sole purpose and main reason behind age certificates that are applied to movies ,based on content it contains relates to one of the BBFC’s most prioritised rule which is to protect the public from anything offensive or could cause harm. By applying age certificates, they can restrict younger viewers from watching certain films that can either or both offend them and disgust them greatly, the younger viewers in an audience are the ones who are mostly more vulnerable to content such as violence, sexual activity and drug/alcohol usage, however most films usually display an abuse of it than the standard drinking.
Resuming on with censorship, as mentioned above the BBFC need to check if the contents within a movie/film are not so harmful, offensive or generally disturbing that it can’t be put into public viewing unless the directors decide to take back the film and re-edit the scenes which have been considered the ones which violate the rules and regulations of the BBFC. Generally the contents the BBFC both consider harmful to younger viewers (which in turn, the age certificates that should be applied to the movie are considered) and in some cases, should be removed completely if deemed too outrageous. The content in a movie that the BBFC mostly examine which in turn help them make their decision on either asking for certain scenes to be cut for it to then be publicly suitable, or re-edit the scenes but using censorship to remove the elements that considered the scene too harmful or disturbing, these can include; Violence (blood, gore), Sexual content, Nudity, Drug/alcohol reference/influence and criminal or violate behaviour (fighting). The different choices the BBFC have can be they can either ban the movie completely from public viewing, or they can ask for scenes to be cut (along with censoring the elements in the scene that they deem harmful). A good example of a film that had to be cut not just once, but multiple times until it was allowed to go into public viewing with a 15 age certificate was Psycho (1960), mostly the shower scene in that movie was the main focus of the censorship side where originally it showed full nudity and blood and violence of the attacker stabbing the victim, a few edits in; they removed the nudity but still contained the violence and blood until eventually they cut the violence out completely, it still had the attacker stab the victim but not on screen and the only part it showed blood was when it was being drained down the bath , which by then it finally was approved after all the cutting was done into public viewing.
Relating to censorship and the BBFC, there has been a famous debate between two people announcing and stating that censorship is ruining our viewing pleasure or makes the movie industry feel both limited and dull (represented by Mark Kermode) while the other case was how censorship can help protect from harmful content, supporting the idea of the BBFC and generally stating the advantages of using a controlled reviewing system (represented by Anminatta Forna).
Starting with Forna, she describes and mentions that censorship is used to prevent younger audiences and viewers to follow certain negative aspects displayed and promoted in films, these things such as alcohol or drug use, criminal behaviour or violence. Forna also states that some films can destroy or change our moral views and barriers, for example in the thriller film SAW; people are violently punished and mostly murdered and some viewers find pleasure and are curious to see what would happen if they was killed in these certain, horrific ways. She also mentions that in today’s world of mass media, the power of the words and images in a movie is powerful enough to hurt and alter our views, and younger possible viewers are more vulnerable to this, which supports the idea of BBFC’s age certificate policy.
While alternatively, Kermode disagrees on the use of censorship and age certificates put on movies by the BBFC, (including complete banning of movies) one of his main points stated that if freedom of speech is allowed, then why are directors forced to limit the ways they wish to express the possible stories and emotions of the characters in the movie by having to censor and cut parts of their movie out all because it would hurt younger viewers; linking to this he also states that it is the film makers decision to what they wish to include as content in their movie, for example in their thriller they may wish to have full and up-close gore and violent scenes which in turn they are obviously making this film for adults, and therefore does not require a governing body to add a policy to restrict younger viewers from watching it when truthfully it is the parents/carers responsibility if they want their children to watch the movie or not. Kermode also states that cutting parts and scenes from a movie for censorship can ruin the whole movie, for example what if the part that is required to be cut was a major plot twist in the movies storyline? Along with this he also states that even when certain content is censored and cut in a movie, it can still affect younger viewers; for example once again, Psycho (1960) where the blood is going down the bath’s drain can still put fear into a child by realising its blood from the victim.
Jonathan, an excellent post with lots of accurate and detailed information on censorship and age certificates, well done. It is great to see that you have looked into the argument of censorship, perhaps round this off by stating where your opinion lies.
ReplyDeleteTo develop your work, there is a lot of information here, make it look clearer by providing headings and titles to give it a little more structure.
You should also use some images in your work to develop your understanding, for example of the BBFC and age certificates.
In your censorship section, you need to show understanding between the differences of 'censored' and 'cut'. List all the things that are censored in films or need to have particular attention to, and also provide examples of thrillers that have been cut or censored.
For your Age Certificate section, provide information for all the different age certificates and provide a general understanding of what age certificates thrillers tend to have, provide some existing examples and say why.
To end the post, discuss how this information about the BBFC, censorship and age certificates has helped you understand what age rating your thriller will have, and some of the things you will need to consider when creating your own.