Regulation Research!

When creating a short film it is good to have an understanding of what should or shouldn't be included in your film to meet the regulations of that area of media and in this case it is the BBFC which handles this specific area of media. I think that in having a good understanding of the guidelines in the certificate I want to aim for will help me when filming my film.

The BBFC is an independent, self-financing and not-for-profit media   content regulator. They operate transparent, consistent and trusted co-regulatory and self-regulatory classification and labelling systems in the UK.

As a highly expert and experienced regulator, there mission is to:

• protect  the public, and especially children, from content which might raise harm risks
• empower the public, especially parents, to make informed viewing choice
• recognise and respect adult freedom of choice within the law
• respond to and reflect changing social attitudes towards media content through proactive public consultation and research
• provide a cost-effective, efficient classification service within our statutory remit
• work in partnership with the industry to develop innovative service models to provide content advice which support emerging media delivery systems
• provide an effective service to enforcement agencies.

Here are some of the things the BBFC look for when deciding what classification a film is:

Drugs

• No work taken as a whole may promote the misuse of drugs and any detailed portrayal of drug misuse likely to promote or glamorise the activity may be cut. Works which show drug misuse while emphasising the dangers may receive less restrictive classifications than works that present drug misuse in a neutral manner. Where smoking, alcohol abuse or substance misuse feature to a significant extent in works which appeal to children, this will normally be indicated in the Consumer Advice and/or Extended Classification Information.
• This is good to know for my film because the killer might have psycological problems and might be using drugs ro escape his problems.

Language

• I am allowed to use a frequent use of the word "fuck" and stronger words may be used but only if they are justified by context I need to know this for my film because the victim might be screaming or swearing at the killer.
• Aggresive use or constant use is unlikely to be acceptable and this could pose as a problem because there could be a scene where the victim is swearing a lot but from this I can cut that scene out.

Violence

• Violence may be strong but isn't allowed to dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.
• The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable so when doing my film I will have to watch out for this because I need to shoot a scene with a victim being killed.
• Violence will be a key feauture in my film and I think it will be easy for my to stay within the guidlines because I won't dwell in the injury or use the strongest of gore.

From looking at the guidelines for the different classifications, I have managed to see what my film will be which is a 15 and the different things which you can include for example in a 15 you can include frequent use of strong language which may be a thing which will be included in my short film. You are also allowed to use some imitable behaviour such as hanging/suicide/cutting themselves but you can't dwell in the fact they are doing it, so this might be another thing which I include in my short film because I want the killer to have psychological problems or maybe a troubled child hood, also in my film there will be a lot of violence (the murder taking place and perhaps the final confrontation) and this would make my short film a 15 because you can use strong violence.

From this task I have learnt the guidelines which people have to look out for when making a film and targeting at a certain audience and seeing what they can and can't include it's helped me int he fact that now I know what I can and can't include so when it comes to filming I know more in depth what the scenes will include.