The BBFC classification for our film is 15. The target audience for our thriller is around 17 year old students. We decided on the 15 classification because if we had 12 classification it probably wouldn't be suitable for people who are 12 years old. However, if we decided on the 18 classification then 17 year olds wouldn't be able to watch our film which is our target audience so that wouldn't be appropriate either so we decided on the 15 classification.
No one under the age of 15 is allowed to see the film at the cinema or buy/rent a classified 15 film. The things that may appear in a rated 15 film are things like; strong violence, frequent strong language, portrayals of sexual activity, strong verbal references to sex, sexual nudity, brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references of sexual violence, discriminatory language or behavior and drug taking. There could potentially be a great deal, at 15 there is no upper limit on the number of uses of strong language. Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest term, depending on the manner in which they are used, who is using the language, its frequency and any special contextual justification. There may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language, however, at 15 the work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behavior. At 15 sexual activity can be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. At 15 violence may be strong. It should not dwell in the infliction of pain or injury and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat.
An example of a rated 15 film is final destination 3.
Final destination is a Thriller so it is the same genre as out thriller Never Look Back. The films are similar in the sense that they both have violence involved and also psychological mind games. This is why I think Final Destination is a good representation of our thriller.
To find out why this is the most appropriate classification and for information on all other classifications click here.
Below is a Target Audience Profile for our target audience. Our typical audience member is called Chloe, she is 17 years old, she has a part time job as a photographer, she is also a student, she loves going shopping with her friends and going camping with her family, she loves films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and Saw. For more information on our target audience member i have embedded a document below that tells you all about her.
TAP
Here are 2 films similar to ours;
Film Title - No escape
Age Range - 15 - 24
Genre - Thriller
No escape is the same age range and genre as the film that we created. Therefore it is a good representation of our target audience. Also helps us understand what our target audience likes. No escape is similar to our thriller because they are the same genre. Not only that but there is also violence involved in the film which is the same as ours. There are psychological mind games and also the family in the film are trying to escape from killers. In our film Stacey is trying to escape from Alex when she thinks he is following her.
Film Title - Jurassic World
Age Range - 15 - 24
Genre - Thriller
Jurassic World is the same age range and genre as our film that we created. Therefore it is a good representation of our target audience. Also helps us understand what our target audience likes. The film Jurassic World is similar to our film as there is violence in both. In the film people try to escape from the dinosaurs. It is that escape that makes it similar to our film because we see Stacey trying to escape from Alex at the start of our thriller.
Gratification theory is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. For example, if people want an adrenaline rush or excitement then they go and see action-thriller movies.
My next post will be Evaluation Question 5.
