Trip to Cinema City

http://www.sbbfc.co.uk/


With my Film Studies class we were able to go and see a free screening at Cinema City on monday the 17th of October. The film was 127 Hours and as part of watching the film we also had a lecture from a senior examiner from the British Board of Film Classification who actually classified the film 127 Hours and gave it its age certificate of a 15.

He talked about how they classify a films age certificate with the different criteria they match it to, having to deal with different issues in a film and how they sometimes have to cut parts of the film out to even make it acceptable to view to anyone, in very extreme rare cases they ban the film entirely, but of course this decision is not made lightly.

At '15' the BBFC guidelines state that violence 'should not dwell on the infliction of pain and injury' and 'the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable'.

He talked about 127 hours' issues, for example its gory injury, some swearing and mild nudity/sexual references. He told us how some people argued that it should be an 18 becuase of when James Franco as Aron Ralston cuts off his own arm. But it was eventually decided as a 15 becuase it was based on a true story, the actual cutting off the arm was not glamorized or sensationalized and was simply part of what happened to Aron in his ordeal, having to go to a real life extreme in order to survive, self-inflicted out of necessity. Danny Boyle was just being true to what really happened. They felt that it has appeal to a slight younger audience and thought it would be unfair to not allow them to view it, arguing that stronger violent or strong horror films were passed at an 18. Because of the graphic detail in the scene there was a warning before the film advising that the scne carries the potential to cause distress and physical discomfortsick/vomiting-warnging

"This isn’t a horror image which relishes or invites pleasure in the gore or injury. In fact, although it presents like violence, or self harm, this is the portrayal of an improvised surgical procedure, conducted in the most extreme of circumstances and is required to save a life. It also takes place in a work which is exploring thematically ideas of survival, independence, help and self-reliance." From     http://www.sbbfc.co.uk/CaseStudies/127_Hours

• From the trip I learnt more into how they classify films and the different criteria that decides the films age certificate.
• I will use this gained knowledge in deciding my own age certificate for my short film, and will be more aware of keeping to guidelines of the particular age group. 

scan in that sheet