Research Into the bbfc and Film Certificates

 The Bbfc And Film Certificates

The bbfc refers to the 'British Board Of Film Classification'. The bbfc is the body in which controls the British film industry. The board set both the rules of what is allowed to be seen in films and what is not, as well as being in charge of deciding upon the age certificates for every film which is released in the UK.

Moreover, the  bbfc is also there to receive any complaints and questions from audiences regarding their opinions and wether they're unhappy with the age attached to a film, content of a film etc. This job of assigning age certificates is crucial due to it being illegal to release a film in Britain on DVD or in the cinema, unless the bbfc has given it an age classification. 

Another one of the bbfc major roles is considering the context of a film, including if the film is animated, realistic , fantasy based etc. Fantasy, cartoon or animated films containing violence almost always get given a lower age certificate as the bbfc believe the audiences can clearly see the violence is in fact not real.

They also thoroughly consider the way the issues are handled.

List of things the bbfc consider: 

- Scenes Including violence of all kinds.

- Scenes including sex and nudity.

- Scenes including obscene language.

- Scenes with discriminatory language.

- Scenes of self harm.

- Scenes of criminal activity.

- Scenes with dangerous behaviour. Eg- lying on train tracks.

- Scenes of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

- Scenes involving child actors/ charcters.

- Strobe Lighting.

Things they would consider regarding 'Violence':

- Is the violence made to seem 'normal'?

- Why are they being so violent? Self defence?

- Is the violence enjoyed?

- Does the violence get punished?

- How much violence is there?

The format of a films release has a large voice in the response of the bbfc, as they tend to be a-lot stricter with classifying films for DVD release rather than films for cinema release. Example, being the release of the film the Hunger Games, it got given a 12A certificate for the cinema, however this certificate doesn't exist on DVD, so for the DVD release they had to decide wether to put the film down to a PG or up to a 15. They decided upon a 15.

The Process 

Production companies must send a copy of the their film to the bbfc for them to watch, responding in their decision of the age certificate. Additionally, if the production company decide thats not the result they wanted they can re edit the film and send it back to be looked at again.

Examples of when audiences believed the BBFC got it wrong:

- The Joker (2019)-  Audiences believe the age certificate should have been given an 18 due to the amount of violence and brutality. 

- Peter Rabbit (2018)- Audiences complained young children may copy the scene where the rabbit throws fruit at people.

- The woman in Black- got hundreds of complaints about the film being terrifying- resulting in the bbfc changing there regulations to considering the tone of the film as-well.