AS Level Media Studies
Age certificates;
The 'u' stands for universal which means that it is suitable for any person over the age of four to watch. If a film is suitable for a child under the age of four then it will be marked 'suitable for children in pre school'.
U films do not contain any issues in terms of discrimination, drugs, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, threat or viloence. If there is any violence then it will be very mild, for example a push.
The 'PG' stands for parental guidence, this means it is suitable for general viewing. Some scenes may be unsiutable for younger viewers but they should not unsettle any child over the age of 8.
Not all PG films are for children for example Saving Mr.Banks, they may contain very mild bad language, very mild violence and there may be slight references to alcohol and drugs but nothing that a young person could immitate.
In a '12' film you have to be aged 12 or over to be able to view the film. There is also an age certificate called '12a' this means that you can be under 12 to view the film but you have to be accompanied by an adult.
There may be strong language used depending on the situation, there is no anti-discriminatory language used in this age certificate and there is moderate violence but there is no attention to detail. Dangerous behaviours may be present but there is no anti-social behaviour. There may be scenes with minor drug related issues but again there is no attention to detail.
This certificate means that children under the age of 15 are not able to watch. In 15 certificate films you would expect to see;
-Strong violence
-Frequent strong language
-Sexual activities
-Strong references to sex
-Sexual nudity
-Sexual violence or verbal reerences to sexual violence
-Discriminatory language or behaviour
-Drug taking
-A lot of strong language
18 certificate films are not suitable for any person under the age of 18. They may contain ;
-Very strong violence in detail
-Frequent use of strong language
-Strong portrayals of sexual activity
-Scenes of sexual violence
-Strong horror
-Strong blood and gore
-Real sex
-Discrimnatory language and behaviour
We decided that the best age certificate for our film would be a 15. This is because we are planning to use the explicit term "f**k" in our dialouge. Using the BBFC as a guideline we have decided that it would be inappropraite if we were to allow the younger viewers to hear this. Also the characters that we have created throughout the film are targeted towards 14 to 18 year olds which makes the film more relatable for the viewers.