Classifications

Below are the official guidelines from the BBFC on film certificates classification:

Classification Guidelines

And here is the student guide to classification:
Student Guide to Bbfc

For our film opening it can be told from the Classification guidelines that it would most likely be rated a 15 certificate.



Donnie Darko has a similar opening to our film so i looked it up on the website and had a look at its guidelines. It is also a 15 certificate and the website contained this information about it:

"DONNIE DARKO
Feature Film
Classified 13 May, 2002 .
Run Time 113m 11s
Consumer Advice: Contains strong language and psychological horror."

Looking at the guidelines on the website, as a group we have decided our film is most appropriate as a 15 certificate film. This is because it ties in with the horror and violence themes within the guidelines. By having our film at this rating we can hit our target audience being teenagers.

The BBFC guidelines for a 15 rating certificate are:

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example,aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example,‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may beacceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeateduse of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but withoutstrong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.SexSexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail.There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour,but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptableunless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose issexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the inflictionof pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely tobe acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is alsounlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violencebut any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet andhave a strong contextual justification.