Choosing an age rating

Choosing an age rating

By Connor Taylor

A main part which dictates the films target audience and part of its genre is the age rating, with that being so I decided to research and evaluate all of the age rating to come to a conclusion on which would be best.

U: Unrated/Universal
U is the lowest rating of all the film content ratings by the British board of film classification, and has very little variety in content due to the limit in most fields such as no swearing and very minimal use of mild language (damn), has no sexual content or referencing in any way. Their is also very minimal fighting or violence and have very little content which can be applied harmfully in the real world (bullying).

U rating therefore is suitable for any audiences and can be viewed by any age, making this age rating not appropriate to our film/teaser trailer as we have many references to drinks, drugs and bad behavior.

PG: Parental Guidance
PG is very similar to U, except that they are a little more lenient on the content, meaning a slightly higher level of violence, language and sexual content is aloud. It also for some lower ages means that they must have consent and be accompanied by an adult.

PG rating is also not suitable for our media production, due to the corruption aspect that we are portraying within the trailer requires the use of illegal aspects such as violence and prostitutes which would not be aloud within a PG.

12/12A:
12 rating means that anyone below the age of 12 or twelve has to be accompanied by an adult when viewing this rating content. A 12 will normally contain mild language, some referencing to sex and violence, but with minimal gore and effects.

12 I also think is not suitable for our film, as if it was produced fully much of the content would be inappropriate for 12 audiences such as the sexual references and scenes, most likely strong use of language and drug abuse.

15:
Fifteen rating is the next level from 12, with anyone 15 or under having to be accompanied by an adult. 15 rating usually can contain frequent strong language, sexual activity, nudity, strong violence, drug taking and sexual violence.

I think that 15 would be a suitable age rating for our film, as it will permit everything that we need to include in our trailer and film and a little more if need be, and it can still keep a slightly broadened target audience with the age restriction.

18:
Eighteen will allow everything from 15 but with extra such as much more excessive gore, very strong language, sexual scenes and sexual violence and much more.

Although we could use 18 for our production, it would seem to be a little excessive as our production will have not even half as much of what is allowed and would be inappropriate for our production.

Overall, I believe that 15 is our best option as it will permit everything that we need to include in our trailer and film and a little more if need be, without discouraging some audiences with an eighteen label.