BBFC Institution Research

1) Research the BBFC: what is the institution responsible for? How is it funded? What link does it have to government?
The British Board of Film Classifications (BBFC) is an independent company that allocates age ratings to films before being released in the UK. According to the BBFC official website it is a "non-governmental body" that gets its income "solely from the from the fees it charges for its services" which is based on the running time of the films they release.

2) Read this BBFC guide to how films are rated. Summarise the process in 50 words.
One of the main things that the BBFC do is analyse the films they are rating just to see what the narrative is/who the characters are and how frequent things like strong language, violence, sex/nudity, drugs, threat are in the film and at what points they occur during the film. Sometimes, film content can be deemed too inappropriate for the BBFC to assign a rating so they are sent to the distributors who ultimately have final say over whether the film is released or not.

3) Read this BBFC outline of the issues faced when classifying a film. Summarise the debate in 50 words.
The main argument had in the classifying process is whether films should have the freedom to include whatever content they want (provided it stays within the law) without worrying about what age group it should be limited to or whether by doing that, they risk damaging the "moral development" of young children if they happen to be exposed to it.

4) Read this BBFC section on controversial decisions. Why did The Dark Knight generate a large amount of media coverage regarding its certificate? Do you agree with the 12A certificate The Dark Knight was awarded?
The main reason The Dark Knight generated a large amount of media coverage was that a large proportion of the public deemed a 12A certificate to be too low a rating due to the amount of violence that features in the film and parents were worried that it could be too distressing for 12-14 year olds to watch. However, an argument against this that I personally agree with is that despite hundreds of complaints from members of the public, examiners said that all the violence in The Dark Knight adheres to the BBFC Guidelines for a 12A rating which states that "violence must not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood".

5) What are the guidelines for a 15 certificate?
Discrimination: A film with a 15 certificate may make reference to homophobic, racist or other discriminatory themes/language, however it should not encourage or support such behaviour.

Drugs: There may be some reference to or display of drug-taking but similarly to discrimination it should never promote or advocate drug misuse.

Imitable behaviour: Any 15 rated film that exhibits any type of imitable behaviour e.g. suicide, self-harm should not (according to the BBFC website) "dwell on detail which could be copied", in simpler terms, they should not show any details of the behaviour that could make copying it easier.

Language: Generally, very strong language is permitted in a 15 rated film, depending on the context in which it is used. In order to determine whether a film should receive a 15 certificate, the BBFC usually consider the frequency of strong language, the people using it and the manner it is used in.

Nudity: In a film with a 15 certificate, there are generally no restrictions on nudity if the context is non-sexual. They may permit some nudity in a sexual context, provided they don't exhibit it in great detail.

Sex: Similarly to nudity, sexual behaviour can be shown but without strong detail. However, any references to sex in the film may be much stronger than the activity itself but any references that are deemed too strong will probably be unacceptable.

6) The BBFC website offers an explanation of every classification it makes and detailed case studies on selected titles. Choose one 15-rated film from the BBFC case studies section and summarise the classification the film was given and why. 
Some could argue that Hot Fuzz's 15 certificate was the wrong decision due to the fact that the BBFC's guidelines state that "there should be no emphasis on injuries or blood", yet there are several moments in the film that go against that guideline. However, the BBFC argue that because these moments are usually accompanied by humorous dialogue, it essentially prevents the distressing atmosphere that would have existed, were the violence not comically exaggerated. Therefore they felt it was not necessary to raise the certificate to anything higher than a 15.
As well as this, the BBFC website mentions that Hot Fuzz incorporates two uses of what could be considered the strongest language, which ordinarily would immediately assign an 18 certificate to a film. However, similarly to the violence in the film, the two uses of this particular word are seen in quite laid back, humorous situations and neither use is with malicious intent. One could also argue that the second usage of the word could have more positive than negative effects as the character that uses it is using it to express his disapproval of drug-dealing. 
The BBFC concluded that due to the fact that the film is generally funny throughout and incorporates this humour to accompany the elements that individually would warrant an 18 certificate, that leaving it as a 15 was the right decision.