Target Audience

To classify a film we looked at the bbfc website to see how the measure the age requirement of a film. From this we decided that our film would be a 15 as it has a certain amount of violence and blood involved in it. There are many guidelines on how to define a movie as a 15 (these are taken from the bbfc website): 

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

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.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language. The strongest  terms may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

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

All of the above definitions were taken from http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2/

Our film does not go over the boundaries that are set, we have no bad language in our film so language is not an issue. No drugs or discrimination takes place and there is no sex. For horror there is only a bit of blood shown on screen and is not enough to class as a horror film, so this goes into this class, to an extent the behaviour is imitable, but if people imitated it it would be irrational, and there isn't a large clip of the killing or real life weapons. Our theme is thriller and there are a few other 15 thrillers that come to my mind like paranormal activity and the blair witch project, they are both 15s because they are practically psychological, playing with the audience's mind. In the killing scene we do not dwell on the killing of the victim, they are killed and dragged of screen quickly so it would be fine as a 15.

Examiners look at issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, sexual violence, theme and violence when making decisions. They also consider context, the tone and impact of a work (eg how it makes the audience feel) and even the release format (for example, as DVDs are watched in the home, there is a higher risk of underage viewing) - Taken from http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/ as a definition on how to classify a film. When we did this we took into account all of the above reasons for making it a 15 and decided that we made a film that perfectly fit the requirements of a thriller/horror age 15 film. We want our film to be aimed at those of around 15-25 as that is the age where most people seek thrills and look for films that give out a sense of fear and excitement.