The BBFC and film certificates

 The BBFC

Who the BBFC are and what they do

The BBFC stands for The British Film Classification, and they are the board that regulate the British film industry. They are the ones who make the decisions of what can and cannot be shown in films, and also set age certificates for every film in the UK- a film cannot be released if it hasn't gone through this process. 

What do they consider when awarding film certificates 

These are the age certificates in the UK, and a number of things are considered before films get an age rating, such as: 

• Scenes including violence of all kinds

The way violence is shown is something considered. The BBFC consider aspects such as is the violence shown as self defence? 

Is it "play fighting"?

 What are the injuries and are they 'gory'? 

Is it the hero or the villain  carrying out the violence?- If it is the hero this would give children a bad image of what is acceptable but if it was the villain n they may be more likely to know that this is 'bad' behaviour and they are doing this because they are the bad guy. 

How realistic the violence is?... 

• Sex and drugs
• Obscene and discriminatory language 
• Dangerous behaviour 
• Criminal activity....

The list goes on and these are just some examples. 

Another thing considered is the context of the film. 

The BBFC consider whether the film is fantasy or realistically based. Films that are animated often allow more violence because the BBFC think that audiences won't think that it is real. 

A further consideration is the way the issue is handled. 

If a film is showing substance abuse, but shows it in a negative light, and shows its not a good thing, the age rating is likely to lower than a film that shows drug use as a "fun, everyday"activity. Eg teenagers doing for fun at a party- This would be given a higher age certificate. 

The format released

What films can and can't include to be awarded certain age certificates 

PG-  👶  (Parental guidance) 

These films are generally for everyone to view but some scenes may be slightly unsuitable for young children- (under the age of 8)  These films cannot include- 

• No detail of any dangerous behaviour 
• Drugs
• Discrimination of any kind
• Nudity 
• Sexual activity - mild sex references only
• violence 
• threat and horror
• Language

Sometimes in Disney films, adult jokes are included that children won’t understand. When watching it when older again, audiences might pick up on a joke that they never understood as a child. 

For example, in Toy Story 3, a sexual joke is made when Lotzo Bear takes Mrs Potato Heads mouth and Mr Potato replies "No one takes my wife's mouth except me" 

12A-

These films cannot be watched/ distributed to children under the age of 12. 12A means these films can be watched under the age of 12 with an adults consent. 

• No dangerous behaviour that children could copy should be promoted. No "glamorisation" of knives...
• Miss use of drugs should not be glamourised
• There may be moderate bad language and some strong bad language depending on who is using it
• Nudity must be brief and discrete and consensual
• Sexual activity must also be brief and discrete
• moderate violence but shouldn’t be detailed
• Threat and Horror- moderate and not sustained. Some scenes might be disturbing but overall not.
• Sexual violence and sexual threat- there may be verbal references but not graphic 
• Discrimination- should not be endorsed as a whole.

15-

• Dangerous behaviour- Dangerous behaviour-suicide, self-harming... should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Whether the depiction of easily accessible weapons is acceptable will depend on factors such as realism, context and setting. 
• Discrimination The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language. 
• Drugs Drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse (for example, through detailed instruction). The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable. 
• Language There may be strong language. Very strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification.
• Nudity There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. Sexual nudity may be permitted but strong detail is likely to be brief or presented in a comic context. Sex Sexual activity may be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour. Repeated very strong references, particularly those using pornographic language, are unlikely to be acceptable. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal are unacceptable.
•   Sexual violence and sexual threat There may be strong verbal references to sexual violence but any depiction of the stronger forms of sexual violence, including rape, must not be detailed or prolonged. A strong and sustained focus on sexual threat is unacceptable. Threat and horror There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic threat is unlikely to be acceptable. 
• 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 violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. 

18- Suitable for adults ONLY.

What film certificate my coursework would get 

The opening to our group opening sequence is not going to show active violence occurring, but will show someone who has clearly had violence acts happen to her. 

The pool of blood is also graphic and gory imagery, and the wounds, cuts, bruises etc wont be very pleasant to look at and will not be suitable for young children. 

In terms of just the opening sequence, I personally think it would be a 15. Even though a rating 15 states that "The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable", our images won't be too strong. Blood and wounds will be shown, but in my opinion, this is not the"strongest" imagery. 

Costume/Props List

COSTUME AND PROPS

Our opening sequence does not need too many props as we have the dolls house which is our main one. We are either going to use Tatum's or Nosa's doll house. 

This one is Nosa's.

In terms of costumes, we thought for our murderer we would use a 70's theme dress code, something like this- 

Our idea may change on this as we are not 100% sure if it will go with the style of our sequence but we liked the idea of these clothes.

We also need 4 or 5 white plain dresses despite there being one main girls as they might get ruined, we may use one to have in the washing machine, backup... 

Something similar to this 

In terms of shoes, we know we will need a lot for our pile, and they have to appear to be quite battered and old, so we thought we would ask the dancers at our school, (as there are many) if they have any of their old dance shoes, so we can destroy them a bit more, and then potentially use their current ones to just add to the pile and make it appear like there are lots. 

something like this. 

We also thought these would go well with the theme as they aren't such 'modern' shoes. 

We also need a mop and bucket- for the mop up of blood.

We will need LOTS of fake blood for the pool of blood, and I will have another post of how we will be making this pool of fake blood, and another post on makeup of our characters that Amy and Tatum have completed. 

The final prop we want to use is a cassette style prop that during research we actually realised is from the 80s rather than the 70s. We also need some headphones.  We still wanted to use this prop so we may change our characters outfits of the 70s, but still aren't 100% sure and will discuss this after half term.  

  

  

Storyboarding Our Idea

 On Wednesday our group began storyboarding our idea. We only did the first 5 shots.

Nosa, a member of our group did the drawings and as a group we all contributed ideas of what the shots would be. 

• SHOT 1- Close up of the murderers face, putting on headphones 
• SHOT 2- Close up of the murderer pressing play- Upbeat music begins to play
• SHOT 3- A mid shot of the mop swirling in a bucket
• SHOT 4- Tracking shot of him mopping a cleanish floor and the audience are shown a few drops of blood
• SHOT 5- A hand is introduced in the shot as were still tracking and more blood is appearing on the screen. 

With these shots, digetic sound will be occurring, like the upbeat song and potentially some whistling or an action to make the mopping seem 'fun'

  

Soundtracks and Master Edits

This is the original master shot edit I re shot because I the other one was too short. 

 

Here are the individual shots- 

The extreme close up 

The wide shot 

The close up

 

5th Feb diary entry

Todays media lesson was a success as our group spoke to Matt about our final idea that we came up with on Wednesday. Some feedback we got was-

• "This idea is fantastic" 
• "This idea is now like the opening to a film"
• The idea of the pile of shoes was a really good image and adds to the "scariness" 
• The upbeat music is also another aspect Matt liked as it makes the killer more psychotic

Our group had said how we got some inspiration from the opening title sequence from the film "Halloween" as the pumpkins are shown as the titles appear, although they don't really have a lot of relevance in the film. 

We liked that idea for our titles as from the start of the creative process we've always wanted to use a doll house. 

Over the weekend our group is going to be doing our individual research into things such as 

• What will the killer be wearing?
• Makeup
• Music...

We have another discussion with our teacher Becky on Monday where we will move onto the next phase of planning our sequence. 

Master Sequence Method

 On Thursday Matt did a workshop on 'Master Scene Method'

This consists of recording the same scene over but from different camera angles and different shots. The shots are then all compiled to add something to the scene. 

These are the original shots I took of my friend Mia on our daily walk- 

I then attempted to compile the video but found this hard as I didn't record the right content. I am going to re try this method next week and include all the videos. 

I went wrong by recording something too short, so next time I attempt this I will take longer shots. 

Finalizing Idea

 

In Fridays lesson, (29th Jan) our group had another meeting with Matt where we were given feedback once again that our idea was as if we 'were in the middle of the film'.

Our group went away and decided to watch some opening sequences of films that were recommended to us. We watched 'Single White female', 'Jaws', 'Joker' and a few more to get the idea of structures of opening sequences. 

Our group also decided to come up with a new idea just incase our original idea didn't workout, but thankfully, because of our time spent researching and watching other opening sequences we got more of an idea to how opening sequences our structured. 

Because of lockdown, I personally have been finding communication between the group difficult and feel that if we were at school we could move forward and plan our idea a lot more effectively. I reached out to our teacher Becky about this and we planned a group meeting to discuss our ideas once again (video above)...

This group call helped our group a lot as we finally got somewhere! 

We came to the conclusion that...

We would have our crime/ murder scene at the start of the opening sequence, and then going into the close ups of the dolls house with the titles playing over after this. 

We had a very visual idea of someone mopping up blood, in a 'psychotic' way, listening to upbeat music and smiling away as if he were doing daily house chores. 

We will have a dead body on the floor in the pool of blood that he is going to drag away into another room. 

Becky suggested that because of current situations it may be difficult to show a number of dead bodies because of social distancing, but we could have a shot of a pile of shoes and the murderer discarding the shoes the girl is wearing to give the audience the impression that this is not the first murder. 

In terms of location, we thought a plain, minimalistic open space would be good. The basement in the main building of Hurtwood underneath reception would be good as there is a wash room with a washing machine in that we thought would be good to use as a "cleaning place". There is also doors where the girl can be dragged through to discard the body. 

We left the call with these points above concluded and some individual research to do that we will share with each other the next time we speak, which was- 

• Amy and Tatum in charge of makeup- how would we show this girl is dead, bruises, blood...
• I would have a look for costume ideas- something plain, easy to replicate, cheap...

 

• Nosa would have a look into the sort of music we would use

 We have another live meeting with Becky and Matt on Friday before we begin storyboarding our idea... 

 

 

What is storyboarding

 Story boarding 

What is storyboarding? 

Story boarding is a visual representation of a film sequence broken down into individual panels/ boxes and is still very relevant now days. These boxes include a series of drawings, dialogue, shot number, camera direction... and it is all in order.

A storyboard consists of- 

• shot number
• location
• action
• shot/ movement
• sound
• lighting
• transition 

Here is an example of a blank story board template. In the small rectangular boxes, dialogue and any extra information can be included.

Story boarding is very important not only before filming, but also after. 

They are a huge help when planning and organising your film- (what shots, what order...) It also gives you an idea of what you want to film which saves you a lot of time. If directors went on set with no storyboard, a lot of time (and money) would be wasted trying to figure out shots on set. Having a plan gives directors a good idea of what they want shot, although there are times where an idea may come up on set and some improvisation  is used, but they are a rough plan of how the scene should play out. 

Story boards are also good because they are visual. They help you see what will work and what won't. For example, you have the idea to shoot two wide shots and a close up, but when drawing it out visually, it may not look like what you wanted it to look like. You can change your idea before you get to shooting day because you’ve seen it visually which again saves time and money. 

This is a visual storyboard. There is a clear plan of what order the shots go in and what is going on in that shot. 

Editing can also be taken into account during the process of storyboarding. For example, when drawing the shots out, you may decide a transition such as a fade would work between the two shots. This helps the editor in the future (in this instance us)

It is also important after filming because it helps editors match the final film to what they can visually see on the storyboard. The storyboard can guide their choices.