BBFC - British Board of Film Classification

It is clear to tell from the image and the post title what the BBFC is and what they do, they give movies their viewing certificates, these certificates can be given based on a few different things, could be the gore content of the film, action, drugs, sex, physiological scare they deliver etc.

U stands for Universal, although it doesn't say an age but it says it should be viewable for children of the age of 4, however at this age it is not easy to tell what would upset a child so movies of this certificate are kept rather subtle.

When it comes to bad language in a U certified film, the extent is words like "damn" and "hell", words such as "bloody" and "bugger" may be used but this is right at the very extent of what can be used.

With regards to sexual content in U certified films, there may be scenes instigating something sexual, e.g. making love is going to come next but they won’t necessarily show it, just the leading scenes up to it, scenes like this are widely used in all films, the effect where the audience knows what is going to happen, or the scene after they know what has happened.

Horror and violence scenes will be used briefly in U certified movies, there will be small fight scenes or scenes where characters are placed in danger, however solutions will be imminent and the audience will be reassured.

Unless there is a clear educational message, or anti idea then drugs/illegal drugs are not normally used in U certified movies.

U certified films can cover most themes and keep the tone throughout the films subtle and reassuring. Friendship, loyalty, honesty and respect are largely used and this is to help with the tone of the film, U certified films are designed not to have too much of an influence on children's emotions.

PG stands for Parental Guidance, as you may know or guessed this is the next level up of certificate for films, a PG film is suitable for general viewing however with parental guidance, films with this certificate should not affect children aged eight or above, however when watching this film with a younger audience parents should consider it may affect them.

Not all PG films are made with children in mind however, for instance documentaries which are certified PG, documentaries could reveal truths and have disturbing images, and largely they are suitable for general audiences however.

Themes as you go up in age become more adult, for instance the themes in PG certified films may include, bullying and things like anti-social behaviour will not be condoned, and if children are seen to be drinking and smoking then it will be presented as being bad and wrong, similar as if drugs are shown in a PG certified film then they will be presented as harmful.

Bad language is something you will see more of in PG films, however only words such as "shit" and "son of a bitch," if the bad language is more vicious then there is chance it will be passed up to the next category.

There will be more sexual references in PG films, the only time the movie will be moved up to the certificate above is if they believe the child is going to be able to recognise and understand it, otherwise the film will be left with a PG certificate.

Violence will not be a main part of a PG film, although there may be some, there won’t be detailed scenes of horror and violence, there may be blood, how it came about will not be clear or highlighted.

Drugs involvement will be labelled with a clear message that this is bad, wrong and harmful, the only time you will see drugs. Pg certified films are all in all for every ones viewing.

The 12A and 12 certified films, 12A means that children under the age of 12 may watch the movie however they must be accompanied by an adult, if you are over the age of 12 then you can view the movie without adult company.

The language in both these certificates becomes stronger, the words stated before will still remain but words such as "fuck" "bitch" and "twat", even thought the language may get stronger, the use of bad language is going to be less frequent, unless strongly condemned racial and homophobic terms will not be used in 12A or 12 certified films, and if the use of them is frequent and not shown as wrong/bad then the certificate will be pushed up.

Sex may be portrayed in both these certificates however it would be very discreet, the type of things that would not go beyond young teen minds, strong sexual preference is unlike to be accepted into this category and with regards to nudity, it may remain in this category as long as it’s discreet.

the limit to violence n this certificate is increased yet not by so much, the odd scene of some gore and blood is feasible, however nothing in detail is allowed, for instance seeing an injury, crime scene with blood, these are the small references which are allowed.

The horror in this category has definitely increased, physical and psychological danger is allowed, for instance things like hanging and other means of death may be shown as long as they do not frequent or very sustained. Weapons are used in 12A and 12 films however the type of weapons that aren't hard to get a hold of should not be advertised/glamorised in the films for obvious reasons. Reference to drugs and drug use should not be frequent and should not be instructive and the idea that they are bad and wrong should still remain.

When it comes to the certificate of 15, its where cinemas, movie rental places and games stores begin to get much more strict, the rating of a game should not be underestimated due to the fact that it is a game, the rating remains the same and the content is going to be pretty much the same as it would in a 15 rated film, the rating has nothing to do with how hard the game is etc.

Here is a list of some of the things you may find in a 15 rated film:

· Strong violence

· Frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').

· Portrayals of sexual activity

· Strong verbal references to sex

· Sexual nudity

· Brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

· Discriminatory language or behaviour

· Drug taking

Language can get much stronger, words such as "C***" may be used which you would not get in any of the underneath categories, everything is pushed to higher level at 15 rated which is why companies may be seen as much more strict when it comes to selling a game or letting someone into the cinema.

The use of drugs may be more frequently shown but still must be labelled with the same message that they are bad, things such as aerosols and solvents which are also drugs are not allowed to be advertised/glamorised due to the reason they are easy to get a hold of, similar idea behind weapons being used in 12A and 12 rated films.

18 rated films are the highest rating a film can be given, with films rated at 18 all of the things in the previous descriptions which could not be used for whatever reason, you are likely to find in a film with and 18 certificate. A game rated 18 is the same as a film rated 18; they are going to contain the same content or very similar content.

Here is a list of some of the things an 18 certificate contains:

· Very strong violence

· Frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***') and/or very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’)

· Strong portrayals of sexual activity

· Scenes of sexual violence

· Strong horror

· Strong blood and gore

· Discriminatory language and behaviour

One thing however is that drug use may be frequently shown however there must still be clear indication not to misuse/take drugs. You may think that because something is rated an 18 that it will be full on filth and bad however even at 18 there are limits and levels.

The messages which lie behind film, all the things that could make someone cause harm to them, infest ideas about harm to society through violence all have to be thought about when rating a film, some films may never be seen or used in certain areas because of reasons that have been mentioned.

Audience Research

Currently we are coming up with a questionnaire to go around and ask to various ages throughout our school, because our theory is that the age where you begin to really think of the certain genres you like and have actual reasons for why. The questions we created for the questionnaire begin with general but then get into depth when we find out what kind of horror people like and we ask for reason as to why. the questions where:

• How old are you?
• Do you like horror films?
• If you don't why?
• What kind of horror films do you like and why? (gory or supernatural)
• What do you expect to see in a horror film?
• Do you fear the film more if it is based on a true story?
• What time of day do you prefer watching horrors and why?
• Have you ever had to stop watching a horror because its too scary?
• Have you ever had sleepless nights from a horror, if so what was the horror?
• Do you find horrors scarier when there is a child involved?

The questions we have come up with we feel look at most the different sides of horror and tell us what the audience actually like, what age they are etc, so we can look at the elements, find a possible trend as to what particulars the audience like and add them to our trailer.
We set out to ask mostly people in our year because as mentioned before this is when you are informed and have seen enough to really make your mind up about what you like. We also planned to ask teachers and generally older aged people who we know, the reason for this was because although our age in A2 is when you properly decide what you like, as you get older things change, people change, situations change, environments change, so there is a large chance that what people like is going to change. A question i am going to add on to the questionnaire for the older interviewees is precisely what I'm looking for:

• Has your choice since you where younger changed of what you like?

Depending on the reply we get we can then contrast the different ages and the different responses, look at reasons perhaps there are so many differences/similarities in taste by age.
By asking this question we may also be able to draw other strings about what kind of films people like and what they like in later life, do they like horror at a young age and then prefer comedy as they get older, do they settle into family life and prefer action, do they grow and get into horrors at an older age, so many thing can be drawn from one single question, As Roland Barthes says, different perspectives produce different meaning, he described text as "tangled threads" and once the threads where untangled they provide a whole range of potential meaning.
Rather than handing out questionnaires we have chosen to ask them the questions while filming them, given them a brief couple of minutes before we film so they can see the questions and think to give properly informed answers rather than off the top of their head which wouldn't give us such great feedback to work with.

Theories and Trailers

From research i have gathered various information for what makes a good trailer, there is a balance of elements which come together to produce a good trailer. If too much of the story is added to the trailer of a film then the audience will think there is no point to watch the film because they already have the plot and main scenes all in the trailer, however if too little of the story is given away the audience is left with a confused mind and question weather watching the movie is even going to be worth it.
Although we are not creating a full movie at the end to follow on from the trailer, these are the elements needed to create a good trailer regardless of weather its just a trailer or a movie is to follow.

Tzveta Todorovz's theory of narrative is worked around the idea of equilibrium, when things are at equilibrium they are balanced.
His theory goes:

• Equilibrium
• Disruption of the equilibrium
• Recognition of the disruption
• Attempt to repair the damage/disruption
• New equilibrium

Equilibrium, everything being okay at the beginning, you see a little bit into the character, his/her surroundings and personality.
Disruption of equilibrium, thing going wrong for the main character, for example hes a hero and hes challenged.
Recognition of the disruption, the character is over the reality that there has been a disruption and begins to look into and see what it is.
Attempt to repair the damage, comes up with a plan/scheme to fix what has happened, may have aquired a team or something for instance.
New equilibrium, the hero has solved the problem and everything has settled and the situation may be different then the beginning, for example some character may have died but things have gotten better and settled now.

Another theorist, Claude Levi Strausse had another media theory, this theory was of binary opposites, " a pair of opposites, thought by the Structuralists to powerfully form and organise human thought and culture."
Some of these opposites being the obvious, for instance, cold-hot, dark-light, although these are basic terms the way they are used and implied throughout media gives them allot more meaning, for example, you would have a gory horror scene set on a hot beach in broad daylight, the horror scene would be set in a dark forest where it gets cold and scary etc.

Another studied theorist in media is Roland Barthes, text in media is used on a wider level then in common vocabulary, text is used to describe images, actual text, film, basically the subject that you are working on, Barthes said texts where either "open or closed", his way of describing was that text is like lots of tangled threads, and he said that once those threads have been untangled it gives a whole range of potential meaning.
You can begin to look at a narrative from one perspective, however if you continue to break the narrative down with a different perspective you could come up with a complete different meaning. Barthes came up with 5 key codes which are found in any narrative.

• The Hermeneutic Code (HER)
• The Enigma/Proairetic (ACT)
• The Symbolic Code (SYM)
• The Cultural Code (REF)
• The Semantic Code (SEM)

The Hermeneutic Code: is the way the story avoids telling the truth or giving away all the facts, this is to cause mystery, this can be identified in horrors and many other films, the story only really begins to unravel itself halfway or even further through.
The Enigma/Proairetic: this is the buildup of tension and the effect of leaving the audience on edge and thinking what happens next..
The Symbolic Code: similar to the semantic code, it puts semantic meanings into bigger categories and sets of meanings, this is when there is antithesis, opposing and conflicting ideas.
The Cultural Code: morality and ideology, looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge.
The Semantic Code: this code points to the particular elements in a text that suggest a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation. Connotation: cultural/underlining meaning, what it symbolises.

http://www.slideshare.net/alexdabriel/barthes-codes-theory

Texas Chaisaw Massacre Trailer analysis

I may be seen as a touch obsessed with the film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, however its just simply because its such a good horror and for the work me and my group are dong it seems perfect to analyse and maybe even absorb some of the techniques and elements and apply them to our media piece.

The use of sound n the trailer isn't very loud or have many notes, the sound throughout is very subtle, the main reason for this is throughout there are a few loud noises, you recognise them and they have much more significance and effect when the rest of the noise is not so loud. The suspense throughout this trailer is maintained, you are given a taster of the film however the taster is watered down because allot of the noises are covered up through editing, my point being there is allot you see but there is even more you don't.
When the children are travelling in the car its basic, indie radio music very light in the background so you can clearly hear their speech above it. This music ends when they come across a girl/hitchhiker, then the music turns into heartbeat, this heartbeat although it isn't fast its a thumping beat, you hear this in the background when the hitchhiker says, "they're all dead." while the heartbeat noises are going on there are various shots of the group starting to conclude what to do next, what moves to make, also right at the beginning of the heartbeat, like in most horrors, they show some strange scenes, one is of a doll, a skeleton, a record player, the signature house, each shot perfectly matched with each heartbeat.
When one of the females is in the house, is when she hears a loud bang which is when the heartbeats end and after the bang, an eerie noise is played, then not so long after there is the noise of the chainsaw which is only a couple of seconds. The eeriness remains while the group explore and come across some strange things, you get two views of what is going on from the trailer as the group split into 2 smaller groups.
When the strange and eerie noises become revealed, each shot from then till the end of the trailer is ended with a photographic effect, snapshot of their faces for example, faded out in bright light then the next scene snapshot, fade out in bright light, the noise of the camera snapshot editing is very effective as the noise the camera makes is matched with the fade out light. This fadeout techniquee increases in speed till the credits at the end of the trailer begin when u hear a running girls footsteps and screams over the credits, u think the trailer is over then u hear slow footsteps and then it jumps back into the trailer where u see a chainsaw and many panic scenes of the children.
Although the trailer is very fast pace after the first introductory scenes, editing such as the camera effects added in slow the pace right down.

The editing techniques throughout the trailer are ones which i think are very effective also ones which i am hoping to have in our media piece to add the same effect.
The representation of people throughout this film is interesting, because you have two groups of people. One group who are used to the crazed "Leatherface" and then the tourists who get caught up in all of it. The extreme clash of reactions physiologically gets into your head, you  have the tourists who are being slowly butchered, the one remaining tourist in the end seeks help from the occupants of the county, yet it is the occupant's who are sheltering "Leatherface." When she comes across the first of the people the state she is in is an extreme state of shock and fear, yet the reaction she got from the people was an extreme state of calm, when the two emotions clashed, the atmosphere was never at equilibrium, both parties where continuously trying to win each other over, the tourist trying to convince them "Leatherface" is coming and them talking about "Leatherface" as a local and that he wouldn't come into their home and disrespect them. Further into the movie you realise some of the characters are family members of this beast and feel very sympathetic and have no remorse for the lives he takes, again the clash of emotions, the antagonism of the tourist clashed with the sympathy of the family.
It shows men nor women to be more brave, mentally/physically stronger, the contrast of 2 groups of people, those in Texas who know and are used to this crazy man and life, and those who are faced with this alien and crazed ways of this county. On both sides you have men and women, if there is one change throughout the movie, it is the main female character from the tourist group, she seems the very innocent and needs taking care of type, however in the end she is the only one remaining, not only does she soldier and make it through the rain and escape, she along the way tried to save two members of her group and wasn't successful however then realised a baby had been stolen from the hitchhiker form the beginning and so she saved the baby. So there was a big transformation in her character from the beginning to what she was in the end, the last one standing, managing to hack off "Leatherface's" arm during the manic.

Personally i think the cast used to make the film, the tourist group, are the age group who this film is aimed at, the target audience, the age of the tourist groups is between 18-20 i would say, this is an age where when you do something, your more daring, you have those who don't for example Erin, from the movie but then what makes it a horror, even when you make good decisions bad things can happen, picking up the hitchhiker ended with most of them being killed in brutal ways, is when they don't want to do something but then they end up doing it anyways because most of the people you are with are doing it, peer pressure, not wanting to be left alone, all these things are the small things that lead up to the main thing, the main story where things always tend to go wrong and then they talk back and regret.

Movie poster analysis

Images: the images used in this poster along with the title are a clear give away of what the film is about, you have "Leatherface" walking down a Texas road with his chainsaw, you can see he is wearing something that looks a lot like an apron which is a shade of green, you can tell this due to the light coming through it, chainsaws are heavy bits of equipment used for logging etc, how the main character holds it in one hand and walks with it suggests that he may be quite strong. The typical horror colour conventions have been used but altered, its not the strict black background with the red writing swiped across it, blood, dripping, the cloudy skies have been given the colour of the dusty Texas plains.

The bottom right section where "Leatherface" you can see the camera image was edited as were "Leatherface" is walking the sky is of a lighter colour so you can see the back of the main character whereas the rest of the sky is seen to be charcoal grey. Right at the top of the poster where the sky is seen to be charcoal grey is where the title has been written in the colour of the sky in the bottom right section.

 

 

Although the title and the image give away the main ideas of the film, very cleverly underneath the title is written "The Beginning", so when you immediately see the poster you think you've got most of it worked out however when you see the writing below, it gives the effect that there is so much more to come which is very effective. On some movie posters they have certain magazines ratings on the film etc, on this particular poster they don't have that, which gives it that raw UN-rated effect, personally i tend to read or browse reviews when i am going o watch a film but with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre i didn't read and didn't see any ratings however still thought id watch it.

Everything on this movie poster is an indication of the genre, the colours, the props, the font in which the title is written, the strap-line, these are all indications that this is a dark, bloody horror. The way all of these things have been put onto this poster which is of high deffinition quality, but been given that old rigid effect that tops off the whole idea you can get from the poster, big built male walking casually down a deserted road splitting the Texas plains holding a chainsaw, old, ridged, rough, these are the word which come into mind when looking at this particular poster, the idea gained from the image of the main character is that he doesn't care, its clear he doesn't fear anything, but is that just because he has a chainsaw? Anyone could have a chainsaw, its the mindset that sets you aside from the rest, there is a clear case of that with this character, not just alone but in a city or busy town, in the middle of Texas, certain form of isolation.

The way the character is walking along, casually, doesn't give the impression he is in a hurry, and the fact that he is just walking down a road that seems so bleak, suggests that hes not really walking towards anything. This gives the impression that there is some sort of connection between man and location, hes a crazed man with a chainsaw..in the middle of nowhere, he doesn't seem to be walking to anywhere..there is nowhere to walk to.

The strap-line plotted right in the centre of the poster, "Witness, The birth of fear." suggests that this is where the fear begins, this is well co-ordinated with the way they wrote "the beginning" underneath the main title, when a film is released, and there are plans for a sequel, they don't tend to write the beginning or anything of that sort because right at the end of the film there is a scene which suggests there is going to be another one. "the beginning" and "Witness. The birth of fear" are both lines that give the effect that this is something else, not quite like any other horror you may have seen, not any other film or thought that has made you fear something or someone, gives it the "one of a kind" identity which is what i believe is this movies USP (unique selling point).

When you put all these thought and ideas together along with the poster of course you can clearly tell what kind of film this is and what target audience it is aimed at. The language used in the title is very strong, powerful yet rigid, just like the effect of the poster, old, rigid, slightly faded effect. They have set it as a real true story by adding "The" before the main name, when you think there could of so many other names for this film, even if the name remained this long there are so many other words that could be used to substitute, however they have matched up the poster effect with the style of the writing, the positioning of the character, the colours and the text perfectly, these all come together to back up the message that the text gives, there isn't a horror quite like this one.

Horror magazine front cover analysis

A horror magazine i found through research.

This magazine I found through research for horror magazines to analyse I found to stick out most because with each edition they have a certain film producer and all the films of that producer are in the edition.

Going along with the horror conventions of things being dark and bloody/gory they have kept the magazine cover dark with the killer on the front holding his blade. They have chosen more than one colour for the writing but made sure that all the colours used stand out against the background, some magazines such as Empire magazine tend to have one colour backgrounds and one main focus however because there are so many focuses on this magazine they have had to use many different colours for all the strap-lines and text.

The left third which is green has an orange coloured text similar to the main title; however on the left side of the magazine you will see it is sort of the other way round, green writing on a beige backing where the sub content of the magazine is listed.

The writing is in red for the name of the film and for the masthead of the magazine although it is in yellow, it’s very bold and been given a dripping effect and although the colour is yellow, we all know blood drips and so it gives that type of effect, Looking as if almost it’s been painted on a piece of wood.

The strap-line listed underneath the title is 3 typical things that you would expect during watching a horror film, "Blood, Guts, Gore and More!" The film Friday the 13th goes along with the convention of, "what happened to those kids." Group of teens off on a trip and one by one get butchered.

Instead of attracting readers with the one main image like Empire magazine tend to do, this says a lot about Empire magazine, you can clearly see with Scream magazine they are trying very hard to shout out and say look how much our magazine contains read it! However with empire the front suggests that they are a lot more sophisticated, established so they do not need to shout and say how great their magazine is because people already know and will buy. Along the side they have other images of different movies with strap-lines the magazine is shouting out how much about how many films is in this magazine. Another small change from Empire magazine is how the barcode is set on the left third rather than on the right hand side yet similarly is very subtle to Empire magazine.

Also this magazine cover shows films and film characters and everything on the cover is to do with film however on the Empire magazine they have things which are slightly separate to the point, for instance on one of the Empire magazine covers there is a gold circle in which is written in large, "40 movies that will get you sex!" This is one the front cover of an Empire edition where the main background colour is red and is in gold. Whereas on the he Scream magazine they’re using all sorts of colours and images to attract your attention shouting out read me, the Empire magazine being subtle and established one small thing like that attracts lots of attention, Empire magazine don’t bombard you with different focuses they give you a few main ones however when looking at the Scream magazine threes so much for your eyes to look at your looking all over the page.

Location and Camera

As I previously mention for location during our first A.S piece we were restricted as to where we could go and film due to school timing, however this year we are able to go out more and filming different outside locations,
We have come across an empty house which belongs to a member of the group which is not only empty but also undergoing refurbishment so parts of the house almost look abandoned which is perfect for what we are filming. Some of the walls have been stripped along with the floors, most of the furniture has been moved so we are left with just a house as a shell at our disposal.
Close to the property also there is an area which we found perfect, outdoors it’s an alleyway which has trees standing tall either side and leads into a woodland where anything is possible, as some horrors say, the things you think that you think you would never see and are only in films, we are able to use this location and although during the day there is nothing to fear or worry about, when the sun goes down and the dark hits, who really knows what happens in this woodland, when dark hits is the time we are hoping to film in and around the woodland, hopefully by using this convention we will be able to catch some footage in the woodland that people would expect to see in a trailer of a film.
The filming we have done and the rest of the filming we are going to do is being done on a camera that is of a much higher quality than the camera that was used to do the last year A.S piece. The camera we are now using is full HD, shoots higher fps and also allows the use of filters for video/photo. so instead of having to pack our footage with editing from the Mac computers we are able to film in for example black and white, the time we use on things such as editing small parts like this we can use working on other parts of the media course, on the camera when something is filmed with a filter it gives the footage a better effect than if its uploaded and edited which is something we found when we looked at two pieces of footage, one filmed with a filter and one uploaded and then edited.