Firstly I will need to research real media products in the thriller/horror genre in order to get an idea of the certificate provided in order to apply this to my product, and discover who my target audience will be
The House at the End of the Street
- The House at the End of the Street is in the horror/mystery/thriller genre
- It is about a young girl moving into a new house, which was the scene of some sort of accident
- Bad events surround the house and the horror begins
- Although this film is more supernatural than our product, the genre is still the same as we have chosen a thriller, and we will be using elements of mystery in our media product
- This film has a 15 Certificate
Mama
- Mama is a supernatural horror
- It is about 2 young girls who disappeared in the forest the day after their parents died, and have been left alone in the forest for 5 years, and then go to live with their aunt and uncle
- It is based that they were not alone in the forest and had some form of 'mother' who never left them
- This is a more paranormal film than what we expect to create
- Contains poltergeist-like, supernatural phantom - Mama
- It includes frightening scenes and has been described as a terrifying experience
- This film has a 15 Certificate
Black Swan
- Black Swan is psychological thriller/horror
- It is about a ballet dancer who wins the leads in "Swan Lake" and is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette
- But slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odile, the Black Swan
- Is more a psychological thriller, however still contains many aspects that we wish to insert into our own production
- About a young girl, losing her mind and spiralling down a dark hole which she cannot control
- This film has a 15 Certificate
The Return
- The Return is a psychological thriller, with elements of mystery
- Joanna Mills, a traveling business woman, begins having nightmares of a murder that occurred 15 years ago
- Soon she is drawn to an old farmhouse, where the murder took place
- The main character, Joanna Mills suffers episodes of self-mutilation and dark visions, which take the form of dark memories not from her life
- It is about the dark search for the truth
- Contains scenes of violence, which may be similar to our product
- This film has a 15 Certificate
Findings
- Based on this research, most films of this genre are a 15 certificate so I feel this would the most appropriate one for our own media production
- Our product is also in the thriller genre and may contain scenes of violence or frightening events past the first two minutes
- According the BBFC (British Build of Film Classification) a 15 rated film or video may contain:
- 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
- At 15 violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable'
- Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable
- Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable
- There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence (for example descriptions of rape or sexual assault in a courtroom scene or in victim testimony) but any portrayal depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context
- At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat
- Information from the BBFC website
- As our production is surrounding a stalker/murderer, it is possible that it will contain scenes of violence, however these scenes are unlikely to be too severe for a 15 rating
- We do not know the way in which the antagonists deals with his victims, but we can imagine that if this was a full length movie, rather than the opening 2 minutes, there would not be too much, if any sexual violence, and this would not be vividly, once again allowing us to stay in the 15 certificate
- As our genre is in the thriller category, the last point particularly counts to our production
- We would be able to stay within these guidelines and there would be no focus on sadistic or sexualised threat, however it may be likely to be quite dark in nature and contain a strong sense of horror, which is allowed in the guidelines
- Overall, I believe that this would the best certificate on for our production, based on real products of a similar genre, and the guidelines outlined on the BBFC website
