Critical Investigation: History

• The BBFC carried out a national survey in May 2002 and got almost identical results, with over 70% of people supporting the introduction of 12A, as it is now known, provided children under 12 were accompanied by an adult and Consumer Advice was available to help them make informed decisions about what their children could watch.
• The very first official 12A rated film was The Bourne Identity.

(http://www.bbfc.co.uk/education-resources/student-guide/bbfc-history/2000-2009)

Benefit of Bourne Identity being given the 12A are

• It took £2.15m at the box office
• This is due to the wider audience being available to institutions

Pre 2000's films which are equivalent to 12A

• Jaws: The Revenge (1987)- 12
• Batman Returns (1992)- 12 

These are film pre 2000's which would possibly have a chance to become a 12A today. The film Jaws especially was seen as a very scary film at the time.

The Film Batman Returns contains some scene which are a bit similar to the modern Batman.

 These three scenes may be ones which may be put forward as controversial scenes for a 12A.

Critical Investigation: Bibliography

The film cultures reader

Author:	Graeme Turner
Publisher:	London ; New York : Routledge, 2002.
Summary:	The Film Cultures Reader brings together key writings on contemporary cinema. It focuses on film as a social and cultural practice, and on the relationship between cinema and popular culture.

Censoring Hollywood : sex and violence in film and on the cutting room floor

Author:	A Dillon-Malone
Publisher:	Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, ©2011.
Summary:	"Censorship has been an ongoing issue from the early days of filmmaking. One hundred years of film censorship, encompassing the entire 20th century, are chronicled in this volume. The freewheeling nature of films in the early decades was profoundly affected by Prohibition, the Depression and the formation of the Legion of Decency"

Research for Critical Investigation

Critical Investigation Research (15,000+)

Possible Titles:

Have Hollywood attitudes towards violent content in 12A films become more liberal or have audie
nces’ film desires changed?

Have recent Hollywood attitudes towards violence changed audience expectations and pleasures? 

Quotes:

"Dority (1989) defines censorship as a mind set that aims at protecting us from the perceived
harmful effects of what we read, see, and hear."

"This kind of content used to be rated X or NC-17. The motion picture industry keeps changing its standards. No wonder the MPAA's rating system confuses parents." - Dr Ted Baehr

He added: "Even so, the movie industry needs to clean up its act and stop inserting graphic violence, sex, nudity, and drug use into its movies. After all, would Casablanca become an even better work of art if the script contained a bunch of f-words, or if Ingrid Bergman appeared completely nude? Definitely not!" - Dr Ted Baehr

“It will be inevitable that public attitudes and values will change over time.”- BBFC website

BBFC Ratings

Books:

• The Film Cultures Reader
• Censoring the 1970s: The BBFC and the Decade That Taste Forgot
• Film and Video Censorship in Modern Britain
• Censoring Hollywood: Sex and Violence in Film and on the Cutting Room Floor

Articles:

• Censorship or Greed (http://thegreatesttrick.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/censorship-or-greed-the-12apg-13-debate/)
• Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/2461820/Our-attitude-to-violence-is-beyond-a-joke-as-new-Batman-film-The-Dark-Knight-shows.html)

Documentaries:

• BBC FOUR: Dear Censor- BBFC Documentary

The Film Cultures Reader

The New Hollywood: Thomas Schatz: 

“And with the 1966 breakdown of Hollywood’s Production Code and the emergence in 1968 of the new ratings system- itself a further indication of the segmented movie audiences- film-makers were experimenting with more politically subversive, sexually explicit and/or graphically violent material.

Postmodernism and the end of Hong Kong cinema: Stephen Teo 

“For Hong Kong cinema, the late 1980s was also a period of social change signalled by more liberal attitudes towards film censorships and the decriminalization of homosexuality, confirmed in 1990 through a majority vote in the legislative council. The new censorship ordinance was passed in 1988 and introduced, for the first time in the territory, a ratings system.

Censoring Hollywood: Sex and Violence in Film and on the Cutting Room Floor

 By Aubrey Malone

"20th century, at a time when sex and violence were taboo on screen, and those who engaged in anything to do with either suffered dearly" (P1)
"Censorship wasnt a major issue in the days of silent films" (13)


"The history of the American cinema could be summed up in two words: 'kiss' and 'kill'." (P3)
Pauline Kael: Film Critic



BATMAN Ratings and Content Criticism

Batman Dark Knight & Dark Knight Rises Rated 12A

Telegraph Article:

"The most recent Batman film, The Dark Knight, was the subject of much dispute in the UK in 2008 after being handed a 12A certificate despite its powerful adult themes."-  Jenny McCartney

Someone younger than 12 could watch a 12A film if 

"An adult may take a younger child if, in their judgement, the film is suitable for that particular child. In such circumstances, responsibility for allowing a child under 12 to view lies with the accompanying adult."- BBFC

"Throughout time, parents have worried about the stories their children might be exposed to, fearing that some of these stories might have a negative influence on them."

A plainly terrorised child is threatened at gunpoint by a man with a melted face. It is all intensely realistic. Oh but don't worry, folks: there isn't any nudity.

The Dark Knight, however, has been rated 12A by the British Board of Film Classification, which means that although the BBFC believes it is best suited to children aged 12 and over, any under-12 can see it provided he or she is accompanied by an adult.

Casino Royale (2006), the most recent James Bond film, was also given a 12A certificate: young boys in particular are attracted to Bond just as strongly as adults are.

Parents and their open-mouthed children found themselves watching a scene in which a bloodied Bond, stripped naked and tied to a chair, is tortured by having his genitals beaten with a length of rope. 

in the 2005 film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the intensity of the scenes involving the evil Lord Voldemort and his servants the Death Eaters caused the BBFC to upgrade its rating from a PG to a 12A.

"That a degree of violence is an unavoidable force in cinema, as it is in life"


Is there a link between screen violence and actual violence? Fans of violent films will tell you – frequently in the most aggressive terms – that there is not

And we know that entertainment aimed at young people is becoming markedly more violent. 



Quentin Tarantino was the edgy enfant terrible of Hollywood. Now he is a member of its establishment, encouraging younger, mainstream "torture porn" directors such as Eli Roth to push the boundaries of explicit, ingenious cruelty ever further.

Increasingly, extreme screen violence is used not as a necessary adjunct to a greater point, but as the pleasurable point in itself.

The more violent the source of entertainment, 

So anyone under the age of 12 could watch the film if accompanied by someone older than 18.

Debate over link to Shooting in Colorado




http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/the-most-controversial-12a-films.html

The question is though, with scenes of kids (some as young as 10) slaughtering each other with spears, throwing knives and - at one point - killer bees, should youngsters even be allowed to watch it?

‘The Hunger Games’ is rated 12A by the British Board of Film Classification, and the success of the film has once again ignited the debate over this most controversial of movie certificates. 

it was really stretching the 12 rating” with one child becoming “so distressed” that they had to leave the cinema.

12A (or lower) became the certificate every blockbuster needed to be successful

but after looking through the BBFC’s archives, the vast majority are reserved for 12A films that were felt to be grown-up for the age bracket.

Exhibit A was ‘The Bourne Identity’ - the first flick to get a 12A on its theatrical release. It featured a scene where Matt Damon’s forgetful CIA killer stabs an assassin with a biro before breaking his arms and legs... and neck. 

One of the most high profile examples that followed was Bond flick ‘Casino Royale’, with the BBFC receiving 82 complaints over the violence and a few sexually suggestive scenes 

other 12A movie that sailed close to the shores of a 15 was ‘Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines’ - which got the most complaints in 2003 (54).

The debate over the 12A rating was undeniably fiercest however in 2007 after the release of ‘The Dark Knight’. As we’ve already reported, the Batman sequel is the most complained about movie of the last decade in Britain, with 364 complaints

But many would still question if very young kids should be allowed to watch the film, even if they had mum and dad with them.


Institution Pressure or BBFC's Fault

Article: Censorship or Greed- Simon Dillon

If 12 were a mandatory rating like 15 or 18, then there would be less of an issue

Anyone who has read the Hunger Games trilogy (which incidentally is something I would highly recommend doing) will tell you that the blood and gore is absolutely integral to the entire point of the story. To censor it demonstrates a remarkable lack of artistic integrity

"But in spite of the flaws of the 12A certificate, the main problem isn’t with the BBFC but with the studios, who are allowing this watering down to cash in on the tween market."

"irresponsible parents can (and do) bring screaming three year olds into films entirely inappropriate for them"

"One thing is certain: whilst Hollywood continues to greedily try and maximise profits in this way, stories aimed at grown-ups will continue to suffer."

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-dark-knight-rises

"Like its predecessors, The Dark Knight Rises features ultra-violent scenes of torture and death that are too intense for younger kids used to the nearly comic, stylized action violence of other superhero films. A disturbingly high body count is achieved via massive explosions, kidnappings, neck breakings, shootings, and hand-to-hand combat."

Hunger Games- (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2121303/The-Hunger-Games-rating-Shocked-youngsers-walking-movie.html)

• Psychologists, child health professionals and parents yesterday joined calls for The Hunger Games to have its rating raised to a 15 because of its violent content
• The movie – about teenagers in a totalitarian future being forced to kill each other in gladiatorial combat – was initially given a 15 certificate by the British Board of Film Classification but this was lowered to a 12A after producers agreed to make several cuts.
• An especially brutal part of the 142-minute film depicts a bloodbath in which many of the young contestants die at the start of the games.

Iain Duncan Smith
“I was astonished that the board could have seen fit to allow anyone under the age of 15 to watch the film. Unlike past Batman films, where the villains were somewhat surreal and comical figures, Heath Ledger's Joker is a brilliantly acted but very credible psychopathic killer, who extols the use of knives to kill and disfigure his victims during a reign of urban terrorism laced with torture”

Is the 12A still valid?-   http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/is-the-12a-certificate-still-valid/

• What is important to note is that potentially anyone of any age can watch a 12A movie, providing that they are accompanied by an adult.
• the 12A rating has become a contradiction of requirements and increasingly insensitive to the material it inflicts on such a broad audience.
•  As an arguably arbitrary extension of the PG rating, and boasting at least one example of double standards, perhaps we should return to simpler times and bring the 12 rating back to cinemas before the line is blurred further and the harder ratings get any ideas of their own.

Extreme cases where violence in film has been linked to violent crimes

• The motives of a 24-year-old suspect in a Colorado shooting that left 12 dead remain unknown.

• Some observers are wondering about the film's content and whether it played a role in the suspect's motives.

• One expert says that some people may think it could be okay to kill given the level of violent images that saturate our society.

Fight Scene in Batman Dark Knight Rises ( From 1.32mins)

This scene may not be suitable for anyone under 12 because its an ongoing fight scene which caries on for a couple of minutes. It focuses highly on how much each character is being harmed and leads to one of them about to die. 

Under the 12A rating a 6 year old would be allowed to watch this if he is accompanied with someone 18+. This is certainly not suitable for anyone at that age.

Theories

Media Effects Theory- exposure to violence can make people become violent
Moral Panics

A quote from Telegraph, Allyson Pears

"At least, unlike the previous Dark Knight film, this one didn’t have a pencil being driven into someone’s eyeball by a demonic Joker."


Effects exposure to violence can have on children

Childhood Exposure to Media Violence Predicts Young Adult Aggressive Behavior, According to a New 15-Year Study

Link: http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2003/03/media-violence.aspx

Critical Investigation Proposal

Critical Investigation Proposal

Potential Title:

    “Has Hollywood Production Standards Dropped or Has Audience Film Desires Changed ”

Different Angles

·         This critical investigation will focus on how film standards have changed over the years.

·         Over the past decades the overall standards of Hollywood films has changed and what is tolerable in films has completely changed.

·         My investigation will emphasise on the changes in film (how they have changed and who revolutionised the film industry)
Do Hollywood producers rely too heavily on over sexualised scenes

• 
  

·         Who: From my research I have understood that one of the most influential people who revolutionised film is Hitchcock. He pioneered the use of camera forcing viewers in engaging in a form of voyeurism. An example of this is the film Pscho. 

As you can tell by the poster it relies on voyeurism due to the camera shots.

·         My investigation will also look at the standards of Hollywood films and the context of films made today.

Media Texts

·         American Pie

·         Psycho

·         Scream Sequels

Production Piece

A possible production piece could be a radio styled production were standards and quality of movies would be discussed. It will pay attention on audience and what they expect from films today. Also what audience now feel is acceptable to watch in terms of age ratings.

Has what is allowed to be shown in movies rated 15 changed? Today films such as American Pie have nudity which is technically according to the age ratings acceptable for children to watch.   

Research

·         Books

·         Documentaries

·         Articles

Top 5 Videos

Video Evaluation

For my video I believe that to make it better I could have included a conclusion on how technonlogy is affecting us today. The editing could have also been improved as there was an issue with some of the slides not being properly synced. To make these improvements to my video I could possibly use a better software to edit the video rather than using Windows Movie Maker.

My Video



Analysis of Documentary DVD Cover- World War II

This is the cover of a documentary about World War II. This Documentary was created to give people who didn't experience the war and people who did an insight of how it was in the 1940. So therefore, this documentary would appeal to a very wide audience due to the popular topic being documented. However, stereotypically this would appeal to older audience because of the serious topic which older audience would be appealed to. The demographic could be all of them because rich and poor people can all relate to the war.

The image on the cover shows a soldier looking at the war scene. This connotes that the DVD will be showing the war through the eyes of soldiers. So therefore, this would certainly appeal to former/current soldiers because they can relate to them. Also people who aren't involved in army would be appealed because they can sympathize with the soldiers, see their brave actions and have a better understanding of the history of their countries. The cover doesn't really show many colors and images. This is done to empathize how serious this topic is and by having many colors and images would connote a happy scene, which it certainly wasn't. 

The DVD instantly gives out the genre and meaning of the documentary because of the codes and conventions used in the war genre. This is very important in this genre because this genre has a niche audience that would most definitely be interested in purchasing this. The color and font used on the title. 'WWII' is very simple. This connotes that this documentary doesn't need colors and editing because it isn't a subject which needs that.

This documentary is an E (everyone) rated DVD. This is done because children, adults, male and females would all gain something from watching this because they will learn something from their history and have a better understanding of what war life is.

The barbed wire could represent a message that shows that the soldiers a restricted to do certain things when they are in war. This creates sympathy towards the soldiers from the audience because they will feel sorry that they are living that kind of life. Also the fact that the soldier in the cover is facing the 'WWII' (second war world) connotes that the soldiers are in a mission to win the battle. Also there's a 'WWII' in front and behind his head. This connotes that serving in war is the soldiers destiny as he cannot avoid it.  

To conclude, I think this cover followed many very important codes and conventions in this genre which is vital if they are willing to attract people to watch this type of film. Also the use of simplicity on the cover certainly made sure that they keep this genre as serious as possible.

Textual Analysis Questions

Textual Analysis

Batman Dark Knight Rises Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yh6SriAjdE


Codes & Conventions:

What techniques does the trailer use to persuade the audiences to watch the film?

Representation

How is gender represented in the trailer?


Audience:

Who is the target audience and how are they encouraged to watch this film?


Institution:

How will the films institution benefit from this Batman franchise ending?



Q1)
The trailer uses a range of different codes and conventions to grip the attention of its audience. One of them is their use of star appeal. The film 'Dark Knight Rises' has got an all-star cast of actors like Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman who are all winners of numerous awards. This will grip the attention of audience because they will immidiately expect an amazing performance from each of the actors. Another convention the trailer uses is the use of title shots. The trailer use phrases such as "The Legend Ends" and "The Epic Conclusion". These title will encourage viewers to watch the film because following the success of the Batman films fans will certainly want to know how the trilogy will end. The trailler also has its own composed music that fits the film. This will give audiences the knowledge that a lot of money has been put into this film and also the the success of 'Batman Begins' and 'Dark Knight' will persuade them to watch this film. Finally the mention of the director Christopher Nolan will persuade audiences to watch it because he's a very succesfull director who's won many awards such as Academy Awards, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. This will give audiences the understanding that this film will be a guaranteed success.

Q2)
The sequence represents gender in very contrasting ways and also very stereotypical at times. The trailer shows the female protagonist (Anne Hathaway) in a very dominant role in this film as the female villain. She is represented as a very sexy female who uses her sex appeal to do evil. This is shown in one of the scenes where she is seen whispering into Batmans ear and it shows that she is in control of her sexuality. However, the appearence of Anne Hathaway could be represented negatively as it is very stereotypical as she's just there tp be voyeured on.

In contrast men are represented very stereotypically as strong and powerful characters. This is shown through the performance of Batman being very physical and depending on his strength. This is also shown throught the male villain who depends on those similar attributes. A negative representation could be argued that the film is representing men as the dominant sex.

Q3)
The target audience for this film would stereotypically be males between the age of 14 to 25. This can be identified through the typical conventions this film has that would attract this audience. This film has features like: vioolence, explosions and loads of action. Also this is about an iconic character (Batman) that is very often associated with the male audience. They are encouraged to watch this film through the success of the previous Batman film especially the prequel, Dark Knight which is one of the most successful film of all time. Also the fact that this is the ending to the franchise, fans would thereofre want to know how this franchise would end. Batman is  very successful brand that has been going on for decades so that would encourage audiences immidiately and also comic book fans who follow Batman would certainly be interested. The secoundary audience for this film is females. This is because unlike the prequel this film is also starring a female villain so that would engage female audiences to see how this film would represent them. This film also targets both genders through the sex appeal of the very famous cast of this film, with the like of Anne Hathaway, Christian Bale, Liam Neeson etc.


Q4)
The film institution of Batman will benefit from this franchise ending because looking at the record of the previous Batman film from this franchise the films has been getting better and more successful each time. This film is almost guaranteed success because a lot of money has gone into this film to make it as successful as it can be which will attract audiences to watch it and increase the films popularity. Also from the previous films viral marketing has been extremely important in the success of the Batman films as it attracted many viewers in the prequel and this happening again is very likely. The fact that this is the ending of this franchise will encourage many people to wonder how it will end therefore increasing the amount of money this film will make.