Sunday, 20 January 2013

BBFC - British Board Classification of Films

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within the United Kingdom. It has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs and some video games under the Video Recordings Act 2010.

In class we watch a BBFC video about why films are under certain classifications and what areas the BBFC look out for when rating a film. There are four main areas the BBFC look for when rating a film: bad language, violence, sex and nudity and taste and decency. The video gave examples of films they had rated and why they had given them that rating, here are a few examples:

Violence
'Casino Royale' This James Bond film is rated at a 12A. This film is rated a 12A because id does contain some violence (the torture scene) however in this scene we can only see La Chiffre swinging the rope and then James Bond's reaction and we can hear what is going on but because we cannot actually see the violence happening it is our imagination that is filling in the blanks, the BBFC therefore passed it at this rating.
This again is the case in 'Die Hard 4.0'. The film is rated as a 15 even though it too contains fight scenes such as the one where John McClane is kicked through the window the scenes are again worsened by sound effects.

 Bad Language
Some films have a higher classification purely for the language used in the film, an example of this is 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' this was pushed up to a 15 because it has so much taboo language in it.

Sex and Nudity:
Some films can have a higher classification if they contain some nudity; an example of this is 'Titanic' in the film we see Rose DeWitt Bukater's breasts as she asks Jack Dawson to draw her naked. It was therefore rated a 12A as there id some nudity however it is only one person and its not hole body nudity and also there is no explicit sexual scenes in the film.

Taste and Decency:
'Borat' was classified as an 18 in cinemas and a 15 on DVD. The film got this classification because
 the context of the film could be considered racist however it is used very extremely for comedy value.
.




No comments:

Post a Comment