Construction: BBFC Age Rating

What is the BBFC?

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is a non-governmental organisation, founded by thefilm industry in 1912. It is responsible for the national classifications of films and the censorship of films exhibited at cinemas and other such content. 

What is a BBFC Film Certificate?

A BBFC Film Certificate is a certificate that is given to a film before release which indicates what the minimum age a potential audience member must be in order to view a film in a cinema. It is based on the regularly updated guidelines presented by the BBFC in order to reflect people's current views and expectations. They are used as a guideline for audiences to see what type of film they are about to watch based on the age limit set on the film, with U films being rated as universal, to the opposite end of the spectrum where 18 rated films tend to be gritty. 

What Did We Rate Our Film?

We, as a group, decided to rate our film as BBFC 15. We felt this was most appropriate as there is mild drug use, and strong violence. This take us out of the 12 and 12A category as we felt that the use of cigarettes and cigars was slightly glamourised in our film. We also felt it should be in the 15 category because the violence involved can be depicted as strong, but not as strong as an 18 rated film may be. The content in our film may have been viewed as unacceptable to those younger than 15, so as a result that is the age rating to our film.

How did We Make Our Certificate?

We found a BBFC15 Certificate on the internet and edited in Photoshop. This was a relatively easy task as we all new how to use Photoshop. We had struggle in finding a similar font to the serif font used by the BBFC, so we went with one we found which looked similar. We changed the template's pre-existing content to show: mild drug references and strong violence, to fit with our film.