Age Certification

After our visit to bbfc, I know understand the reasoning behind each certification.

With this in mind, for our short film, we felt that it will come under the age certification of 15.
The reasoning is;

• Dark themes; violence, death and murder.
• These themes however are not explained in detail.
• Sound that suggests stalking.

We determined this age rating for the film under bbfc's regulations.

bbfc Research Visit

Starting to brainstorm our short film ideas, we took a day out to visit the film classification company of bbfc. The purpose of this trip was for coursework research to further plan our short films.We got an insight of how the professionals classify the ratings of films, near enough every film available to the public. The effect this will have to my short film is the decisions I carry out pre creating my short film. It will alter the decisions I make brainstorming the film due to keeping content suitable for certain ages in order to achieve the age classification I would like for my film to help maximise audience. As well as pre-film ideas, I will have to continue to carry this thought throughout filming and post production to what is included in terms of content.

I also learnt, that not only the actual film has to obey the guidelines for the age rating, but my trailers have to apply to these rules and may even have to be made more child friendly in order to be advertised on certain channels, places or times of the day. The first thing they told us is that whatever the age rating is, the trailers and advertisement pre the main film have to be suitable for the audience and age classification of the main film in which they are about to watch.

The bbfc's principle guiding aims are: to protect children and vulnerable adults from potentially harmful or otherwise unsuitable media content and to empower consumers to make informed viewing decisions. Carrying out their aims, bbfc provide an insight on their website, which although could contain spoilers, it does bring whats included to your attention. They also provide the age rating through their own experience, expert and other research. Although, with all this protection they do say they aim to ensure films reach widest audience available for the content and them of the film, except any content or film that includes material that conflicts with any criminal laws in the UK, or if the film has been created illegally, then bbfc refuse to classify it.

There are eight 'specific classification guidelines', which are; discrimination, drgs, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, threat and violence. The pictures below show the information sheet in brief which they use to determine each age classification.

 For the eight guidelines above, they cannot be to specific on the sheet due to it varying in different circumstances. For example, they explained that for language they can not write a list of words banned to be used due to the length it would be and also the unneeded ban of some words in some situations, such as, different classifications can have different levels of language in addition to some content of films at same certification may make the use of the language effective whereas some would be offensive. Therefore, bbfc have to take this into consideration and make their own judgement to guidelines depending on the content.

Three 'general classification classifications' are used by bbfc that affect the final outcome of the age classification. The tonal considerations include extent in which it emblematizes the world and how it could impact potential audience. Secondly, they take the theme into account, however this depends upon the tone and impact of the work. Context, the main aspect they believe to consider how a topic is portrayed and the intention of the issue.

Focus Group

Focus Group

This focus group was great piece of research for our target audience. This helped towards planning and producing our opening. We first hear Joseph Hill state, "my favourite film is Insidious" which he then goes onto stating why, "jump moments every now and then"..."distractions, flowing conversation and then all of a sudden then the demon popped up behind his head", these quotes show that for teenagers that jump scares are the most successful for scaring the audience, as well as the supernatural/paranormal sub-genre appealing the most to teenagers.

The reason for this is that the percentage of peoples ages that attend the cinema rely on the youth audience. In the graph below it shows that ages of 15-24 appear at the cinema the most, being roughly 32% of the audience from 2003-2014. This means that, the data should be taken into account and that for a successful opening, aiming it at the interests of the youth will increase the likeliness of success.




Furthermore, another peer in the focus group said, "my favourite is the Shinning", explained by,"this is due to the use of sound as it creates tension. Sound is underrated, and without it, it is hard to create a successful film". These quotes help towards my research because we know that teenagers like the use of sound, and we will make sure sound is use well in order to fulfil these needs that the audience want/expect. This peer states that his favourite film is The Shinning, a horror/thriller film. This means that the teenage audience, our target audience favour the thriller/horror genre to those such as gore horrors.

This then leads to the fact that in the focus group, another teenager says, "avoid gore, not scary, the ones with anticipation and jump scares scare me more.", this further leads to aiming a horror sub-genre of thriller due to use of jump scares in that category. We also found out to completely avoid gore as teenagers are immune to that aspect meaning it would not be successful.

Inspire - Textual Analysis (Represntation Theories)

In the short film there was many dominant ideologies shown. These dominant ideologies were very negative , for example, a negative image of a muslim male was emblematized in a way that he is a danger to society and danger to the mother and her child. A voiceover then changes this by explaining how society views are not always right and are implanted stereotypes which can be proven wrong such as a good deed carried out that inspires us. We then experience this man smiling and then helping the mother catch her train, breaking traditional views. This supports Gramsci's theory of Hegemony. This is a theory that states that the dominant ideology is the one that is used commonly as it is what the audience are most likely to believe. Therefore, this voiceover supports this theory and then this impacts us as an audience as we feel bad to assume these negative stereotypical views on minority groups.

Tessa Perkins states that 'stereotypes are assumptions we make based on groups of people'. Within this short film the theory is relevant through the use of mise-en-scene. One clear example of this is the use of the laptop as a prop where we can see the lady looking at articles which highlight how Muslim men with bushy beards and select clothing are threats to our society. This is related to Perkins theory by the stereotype not being true, this is because the Muslim man showed he could help and be nice, therefore meaning stereotypes change just as Perkins lists, opposing this sense of 'moral panic' as a society we go to due to believing this negative stereotype created. This leads to a theory by Stan Cohen, 'Moral Panic'. This is because the women went into panic when she saw this stereotypical man who is seen as threat to our mainstream society, just as Cohen states that society will experience moral panic when are exposed to a group of individuals who are portrayed as threat to society.

Another representation theory is Bell Hook's theory which quotes, 'skin colour is a code; lighter skinned women are considered more desirable and fit better into the Western ideology of beauty.', using this theory in the short film, editing helps to higlight that skin colour has been used as a code in the film for example, there was a large amount of jump cuts used alongside fast paced editing when the Asian women was on screen. The reason for this is that it emblematizes their lives as chaotic and not in control. This could further be inked with that the use of this is to further portray a point that non-white races are 'not in control' and 'not in power'. There was also a slow motion evident on the Muslim male to emphasis this view of danger and threat he is given by society. A shot reverse shot soon after then reveals him smile and help the lady and the women smiling back. This is to show representations can be given through their colour, yet they have countered this stereotype.

During the short film we experience the homless woman sitting down and along comes a man who sits next to her and purely looks at her as an object. A theory that applies to this is John Berger's 'men look, women appear'. Camerawork and movement reveals this through the use of a deep focus to show the focus on the man objectifying the women.  Therefore, this supports Berger's theory, however, during a large proportion of the film the women was not sexualised and focused on the camera in a sexual way, countering Berger's theory. Although you could argue and relate tp Hook's theory that colour is a code, and women generally of white skin are sexualised or that black females may only be sexualised by black men, which is evident in this short film.

Gaunlett has a theory that media messages are diverse, diffuse and contradictory. He believes media is used as resource to be processed to be through sense of self and modes of expression instead of being zapped into someones brain. This is evident in an occuring example of the lady at the train station with the Muslim man. We see the women make judgements of this man and his actions, however it is proven wrong by his acts towards the lady by being nice. As an audience we feel guilt for making these predictions of this character, this has an effect that it makes us feel bad and hope to change what we think of people. This thoery supports dominant ideoligies that are wrong.

To conclude, the short film has a message throughout which is pre-judged representaions of people, the dominant ideology, however these stereotypes are not always correct. Giddens is a theorist who belives that mediated experiences make us reflect upon and re-think our own self-narrative in relation to others. This is linked to this short film because as an audience we feel these views and then feel bad by the film countering are thoughts of others, proving us otherwise that these people are not all threats and dangers to society. Giddens theory is then applied due to the audience having to rethink our self-narrative of others as we was wrong.

Tick Tock - Textual Analysis (Narrative Theories)

Editing:

Todorov's theory of equilibrium was not evident in the short film Tick Tock as it didn't follow a conventional, linear story arc. Instead, a reverse chronological narrative was established through the use of editing. The editing technique of reverse editing was clearly used to create the reverse effect for the short film. This obviously shows the end of the film first and the start of the film last. Tick Tock also consisted of slow motion shots as well as fast paced or sped up shots. The purpose of this editing to be used is to give the audience the knowledge of the adrenaline and emotions of the protagonist.

Sound:

The short film has a closed narrative, as theorised by Barthes, as the meaning is clear and resolved at the end. Barthes also theorised that an enigma code is crucial in engaging an audience in a narrative which was created through the use of sound. In the short film the dialogue was purposely muffled to have the effect on the audience in which that we did not understand exactly what is being said,  just like the action. However, it is also used to focus the audience on the action to understand the narrative. To add, there was also a fast-paced soundtrack. The reason for this non-diegetic sound was to exaggerate the story of the protagonist and that he believes he is going to die. The soundtrack is also synchronous because as it suits the situation.

Mise-En-Scene:

Bordwell and Thompson state that a narrative is the product of a cause and effect relationship, and this can be seen through the use of key props used in the mise-en-scene. Firstly is the use of the pill as a prop consumed by the protagonist, in which causes the narrative due to thinking that he is going to die and the effect is him trying to set things right with people and the things he regrets in his life. Another prop is used, the box. The purpose of this was the focus of the narrative.This box symbolised love and relationships, and that regret is felt when losing loved ones or silly mistakes were made in relationships etc. Therefore, the use of the box to be returned to his love symbolise the effect.

Camerawork:

Levi Strauss' Binary Oppositions is also a narrative theory as he says you need to have opposites to build a story. E.g. good vs evil, right vs wrong, known vs unknown. We are exposed to this during the short film when the tracking shot reveals the credits, which is what he did wrong compared to the action which is what he is doing right. The long tracking shot always portrays known vs unknown. This is done by the journey of the protagonist which he believes he is dying and yet to realise it was a prank.

Narrative Theories: Linear & Non-Linear

Narrative is the telling of a story through a presentation of events.

Linear

is the order in which events are portrayed correspond to the order in which they occur.

Beginning - Middle - End

Beginning
Description of setting

Middle
Events leading to climax (most tensional drama in the story)

End
Resolution, problems are resolved or accepted.

•  Events happen in linear sequence is also known as the plot (main events in story), includes subplots (additional supporting story lines).

• Parallel plots - a narrative features more than one plot with both of these carrying equal importance, sometimes emerging at the end.

Examples of Films:

Linear:

Non-Linear:

Narrative Theories

Narrative Theories

null