Impact on certification

Impact on certification

Why do we have film certification?

We have this to protect. If we let some people see certain things which they might not be old enough to see then this could mean that someone could get psychologically harmed or physically harmed. 

In today’s society it is important to have film certifications because if we do not have them, some age groups can be harmed by what they see and it could affect them. For example if a 7 year old was to watch a 18 and it contained lots of violence with blood in, it could either scare them or it could also make them think that this kind of thing is an alright thing to do and they might attempt to copy.

When film companies are making their films it is important they know who they are aiming their particular film at and making sure that they are not doing anything that is going to breach that particular certification. If they do this then it could consequence in them not being able to show their film to the age group they wanted to which would then mean they will have a loss in box office money. This would then mean it would be a disaster for the film makers because the point of making a film is to make as much money as possible.

The BBFC are in charge of the certification. This stands for the British Board of Film Certification.  This company is government funded and they have to decide which movies are rated what. On their website they have they show the ratings of some new released movies and they will explain why they have given the different movies their particular certification. It is extremely important that they watch these movies thoroughly and make sure they don’t miss anything as it could harm the audience if they do.

To make sure that they make a right decision they have a criteria that they have to check with whilst watching the film. This then makes it harder for them to miss things ensuring that they get the age rating right.

When it comes to making my opening sequence to a film, I need to make sure I have looked at this so I am not breaching any of the criteria of the age group above because if I do this then it would mean less people are going to be able to watch my film and if I am targeting my film at 15 year olds and they cannot watch it because it is classed as an 18, this would then mean that not many people are going to watch or enjoy my film.
 

This video is the trailer for 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'. This is an example of an 18. You can see clearly why as there is violence, sexual scenes and language issues and this is only the trailer.

This is a screenshot from the trailer.