BBFC film classifcation research.

The BBFC 



The BBFC is the British Board of Film Classification. This institution regulates the age ratings of the films which are distributed in the U.K.  Their age ratings are decided on  multiple factors, such as Theme, Language, Horror, Violence, and Sex.

The film that we want to do is a horror movie which makes people think and makes them jump out of their seat. The British Board of FIlm Classification states that a 15 film should portray horror as a strong menacing threat however, this must not be sadistic or sexualised.

As for language, there may be frequent use of strong language. However the strongest of the language must be justified by the context. And repeated or aggressive use of the strongest language is unlikely to be accepted.

Our Film

For our film we have decided that it deserves a '15' classification.  This is because of the horror theme which is very strong throughout the short film, being around the theme of a book, and has mild language in the script with no language being any stronger than the word 'fuck'. This is used in moderation and not for example every five seconds of the film.

Attempt at an opening title theme

How to make Guts

We have also been thinking about making some gut for our film so we found this video as we believe its a simple but effective way of creating the illusion of guts. If we use this idea we will also create our own tutorial fon how to make them.

How to make fake blood

Fake blood will be used throughout our short film, so we found this tutorial on how to make it which we think will be helpful for us as it shows easy and simple ways on how to make different types of blood. We decided to research how to make blood so it looked more effective and realistic in our film. This will also help us because we are going to make our own video on how to make blood so will help us with different ideas to how we can show it.

Creatively breaking the 180 degree rule

Some directors might deliberately break the 180 degree rule for a special reason such as to produce disorientation in the audience's mind. You may see this during battle sequences or a dance number. If the action takes the participants round a turn after that it can seem logical to the audience that action is moving in a another direction.

If actors are moving about during the action of a scene much attention needs to be used to maintain the apparent physical correlation of the actors to each other and to the set elements. If the scene is done as all close-ups it will be extremely confusing as to what is going on. An occasional wide, establishing shot can remove the misunderstanding.

Learn about the 180 degree rule and loads of other principles of filmmaking at the most comprehensive free online film school 4Filmmaking.com. Learning filmmaking isn't difficult and most all of the basics you ought to know are clearly explained on the Web.

Character Profile: Kirsten

Name: Kirsten.

Age: 18

English Literature student and college.

Loves literature and reading,

Is handed the book by Christopher and

Is driven insane by the vast powers of the book.

Can’t be stopped when in her fuelled rage.

Character Profile: Christopher

Name: Christopher

Age: 19

Normal guy who has is in Kirsten’s English Literature class

Who is originally handed the book  by Louise. But

Hands the book to Kirsten.

and is the first to die.

Character Profile: Louise

Name: Louise

Age 18

Normal village girl with plain interests

Has a main character role within the film and

Is classed as the main antagonist

Finds the book and gives the book over to the main

Antagonist Kirsten.

Book research.

We have been looking at different scary books featured in films or just genuinely creepy looking books. We have done this because we need to create our own book for the film. The books we've looked at are mainly dark and have some sort of scary picture on the front of it. This will look good in our film. 

Book of blood trailer.

This is the book of blood trailer. A college student agrees to help and woman discover what is happening in house were a mysterious and violent murder took place. The house is haunted by ghosts who need to tell their stories to move on to the next world, however the've ran out of room in the house, so choose to finish their stories on the student. He then becomes the book of the dead. 

This is simular to our film because it features elements of, murder, possession, and a book. Although, this one turns a person into the book rather than actually having a book, which is where this film differs from our idea. 

Possible film ideas.

FIlm concept 1 - Possessed book.

3 people move into a house together that the managed to get on the cheap, during their move in they find a book lodged in behind the fridge. As soon as they begin reading the book the characters begin to have strange inclinations to take part in murderous activities. On each other. Through out this episode of killing an image of a dead figure appears in various places, explaining to the characters just how to commit their murders and then inevitably the final character lefts murder.

This film would be a psychological horror that would create an eire feel towards people who are moving, because you never know what you are moving into. This lighting would be dark and the setting would be a typical house so that the views would feel even more uneasy within their own homes.

The concept of a possessed book has been used before with in another canadian short film named “Todd and the book of pure evil” where the book would grant your most needed wish. This was then developed into a TV seise. The filming style of this could be something we could look at if we intend to develop this idea into our own short film.

Film Concept 2 - Poisoned apple.

This concept would be an adaptation of Snow White. The beginning of the film would be set at a party where we would see the jealousy of one girl towards our representation of Snow White. This girls jealousy would be the reasoning behind her drugging “SW” with the drug “poisoned apple”. Disoriented “Snow” would walk through the party seeing dwaf like figures until she eventually passes out. When “snow” wakes up she is seen trapped inside a freezer, and then freezes to death whilst the jealous girl is happy that she is “fairest of them all”

This film would be a horrific twist on a classic story. This would create a complicated reaction towards our film because it would allow people to have their own ideas on how this classic would be changed into something more modern.

Fairy tale adaptations have become a new trend within the film industry so making our own version would most likely be something that appeals to a large audience since the concept has worked so well in the cinemas. 

Film Concept 3- intense drama (unnamed.) 

Following the inside thoughts of a young girl as she is about to commit suicide. It takes a back track look throughout her life to dictate the reason behind her standing on a roof about to jump. The backtrack would show different points in her life which have made an impact on her happiness and have led her to such drastic measures.

This would be a drama, and would also be very controversial as some people may find this type of film offensive, or might not want to watch something about something this serious.

Suicide films are something more of a rarity in the big hollywood films, however films with mental illness as their themes have done quite well, such as Girl, interrupted. This leaves a gate way toward taking on something involving serious issues. However putting something this serious into a 5min time frame might be unfair to the issue.

Film Concept 4 - Hunger games parody.

Based on the Hunger games, we could make a parody of this by taking out parts of the film and making them funny whilst keeping to the same basic storyline of the original. This would be a good idea because if you’ve watched the film, you would find this funnier, however if you haven’t watched the film then it would be hard to follow the story since parts would be missing. Also another issue with this idea would be trying to condense the whole feature film into the 5min short film we would be attempting to make.