Planning: Censorship Ms Begum

Censorship

Film Censorship is the hiding or banning of explicit images, words or scenes in films that would be deemed unsuitable for a certain age group by the British Board of Film Classification or (BBFC).

Role of (BBFC)

The role of the British board of film classification is to protect the public from anything offensive or could cause any harm. They are the ones who decide the age certificate for all films released in Britain from cinema or straight to shelves. The decisions they make if a film is deemed unsuitable to be released in the cinema are:

·         They could make no changes and just move the film straight to D.V.D

·         They could tell the producers to cut out the offensive scenes and make it appropriate for viewers in the cinema

·         Or finally they would ban the film completely and it wouldn’t get show in cinemas

Cut

Cutting a film is when a film has been edited or has had scenes taken out of it to make it appropriate for viewing. An example of a film that was cut before it was released was Saw. Some of the graphic images and gore was deemed unsuitable and was needed to be cut before shown in the cinemas.

Banned

 

Films being banned mean when a film is taken away from cinema viewing completely due to indecent, harmful or offensive material. An example of this is Freaks. Due to high levels of discrimination, disturbing content and cruelty this film was banned for over 30 years.

 

What themes would cause a film to get cut or banned?

·         Violence

 

·         Graphic representation and realism

·         Corrupting the young

·         Controversy and the press

·         Sex and nudity

·         Sexual violence

·         Religion

·         Class

·         Language

·         Shock

·         Drug abuse

 

Examples of other films banned in the UK

·         The human centipede 2

 

The sequel is due to be released in October, 2011, but has been denied a classification for distribution in the United Kingdom. The sequel contains much more blood and faces than the original, and also that it makes the first film look soft in comparison. The new film also contains a larger centipede involving twelve people and involves rape and masturbation scenes.

·         Mikey

Mikey was banned in many countries and is still banned today in the UK. Many graphic scenes of torture and murder contributed to the ban, as well as the James Bulger murder of 1993, when two young children tortured and murdered a toddler. This is also an example of corruption of children.

·         The Exorcist

The Exorcist was banned in many individual towns and countries for being horrifyingly scary, and in some cases for religious reasons. The film affected many audiences so strongly that, at many theatres, paramedics were called to treat people who fainted and others who went into hysterics. In the UK, The Exorcist wasn’t available until 1990.

Forma vs Kermode on Film Censorship

Reasons For Film Censorship (Forma)

·         Words, images and scenes that are used in some films can be taken in the wrong way and could end up stirring racial hatred.

·         The public may be influenced by a certain characters and some may even put themselves in the predicament the character is in which can be very dangerous for themselves as well as the public.

·         Certain scenes shown in different films can influence certain people to re-enact those scenes and could potentially cause harm among the public. E.g. rape, robbery, murder.

·         Films are breaking down the barriers that are meant to separate the film world from the real world e.g. a film could have someone killed but then when you see it on the streets you think it’s a joke

Reasons against Film Censorship (Kermode)

·         As humans we don’t watch films to be influenced by the scenes or characters. We know what is right from wrong. We watch films to enjoy what is on the box office at the moment.

·         When the directors are filming the films, sex doesn't occur while they are filming so there's no need to censor it when it out in the cinemas.

·         Every human has their own opinions to different things and films are just one of the things people will react differently to.

·         Restricting films to the laws of the public is impossible; films are not made to encourage their viewers to commit murders and rape. Instead they show the audience realistic situations or events.

 

 

Conclusion

This lesson has really helped me in deciding what to include in the thriller opener i want to create. It has shown me that there are limits when it comes to creating thriller films with explicit scenes. It has explained that excessive uses of offensive material is likely to cause a film to be banned.