Deconstruction of age rating
"PG stands for Parental Guidance. This means a film is suitable for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. A PG film should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older. Parents should consider whether the content may upset younger, or more sensitive, children."
Our film trailer/film would be classified as a PG due to it having scenes of crime, drugs and sexual scenes that under the BBFC regulations would be inappropriate. Moreover, this has been purposely carried out as in our storyboarding process we set are target audience as people 15-25 years and it would be pointless to have a film that then falls into the PG section.
"Films classified 12A and video works classified 12 contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. Adults planning to take a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child. To help them decide, we recommend that they check the BBFCinsight for that film in advance."
For a film to be rated 12 or 12A then it has to move no themes or material that most people would not show to or encourage to people younger than 12. As a result, its say to conclude that parents or guardians of their child/children would be endorsing the viewing of a film that contains drug use, sexual activity and themes of corruption and crime, thus removing our film out of this category.
"No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age."
The material that 15 rated films are allowed to include are:
- strong violence
- frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
- portrayals of sexual activity
- strong verbal references to sex
- sexual nudity
- brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
- discriminatory language or behaviour
- drug taking
As a result of this list, it can be suggested that our film could most definitely be rated as 15 because it includes all of things above, excluding brief scenes of sexual violence and discriminatory language. Additionally, being rated a 15 would conform to are set target audience of 15-25 years because at this moment in time films such as ours are becoming ever more popular with this audience.
"Films rated 18 are for adults. No-one under 18 is allowed to see an 18 film at the cinema or buy / rent an 18 rated video. No 18 rated works are suitable for children."
- very strong violence
- frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***') and / or very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’)
- strong portrayals of sexual activity
- scenes of sexual violence
- strong horror
- strong blood and gore
- real sex (in some circumstances)
- discriminatory language and behaviour
Comparing the criteria of material allowed to be shown in 15 rated films and 18 rated films it is now very clear that our film is a 15 rated and not 18. This is because our film does not contain real sex, discriminatory language and behaviour, strong horror, very strong violence and are no scenes of strong portrayals of sexual activity.
Conclusion
Only films such as The Wolf of Wall Street and Legend are rated 18, whereas the rest are 15 rated which illustrates that our film conforms to the main themes in genre. Moreover, it would be extremely difficult to make a film 18 in our genre without breaking rules or offending someone; therefore creating a film that is rated 15 and hits our target audience is what we desired from the storyboarding.
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