Film Regulation – BBFC

Case Studies

The film Cliffhanger was given to the BBFC and was asked to be cut down to be suitable for a 15 certificate. The BBFC cut out scenes they thought were ‘unecessary violence’. The BBFC then released the film to cinemas across the UK with a 15 rating. Cinema staff reported that in many cinemas, especially a number in east London, that during a scene in which a Cockney character kills a black man, audience members cheered. This prompted the BBFC to cut the film down further still for video release.

This case shows a support for the argument that films should be restricted. If it incites racial hatred in certain audience members, then the scene in question should be removed.  However, there are many films in which there are far more explicitly racist scenes that are left alone. Is it perhaps the relevance to the plot? If a story is set in pre-civil war America on a slave plantation then racism is relevant to the plot but in a film about mountain climbing, is it relevant?

 

A common misconception is that the BBFC banned the film A Clockwork Orange but in fact, despite the abundance of casual violence, the BBFC felt the film had enough of a resolution that it put the violence into perspective. The film, as a result was released in cinemas. The film’s director Stanley Kubrick received a number of complaints and even death threats to him and his family. He subsequently withdrew the film himself. It was re-released in 1991, after his death, by his family.

Construction of Film Trailer

Once everything had been uploaded from the camera I began editing. I had had few ideas of how to arrange my trailer up to this point. I knew only that it should be quick and snappy, at least in places, to create a sense of panic and I had to have a few longer clips too, to add a slight amount of suspense before a quick set of snappy shots. With only really this in mind I set to work. As with my Jan Svankmajer project I began by taking all of my footage and chopping it up into seperate scenes, once this was done I began arranging it roughly into an order that told some kind of story. By this point I’d had an idea for music, it was a track by The Beatles called Happiness is a warm gun, there were no guns in any of my scenes but it was not the lyrics that were hugely important for my choice, it was the sound, mainly the guitar solo, that drew me to it.

So I uploaded the song into iMovieHD and set about reducing its length, this wasn’t too difficult as the song is clearly arranged into seperate sections so I cut out the sections I didn’t want. Once this was done I began cutting up my roughly arranged clips into carefully timed clips that coincided with the music. Doing this took up a good portion of time but once it was done I needed to put in title screens. I knew there should be the screen with the actual films title on it but I wanted more, somethig othe than just a title, a quote? a lyric? etc. I thought for a while then decided due to the religious themes involved in my film I would go for a bible quote, something about the eucharist. I went online to search for bible quotes, finding a huge array of websites willing to help.

Adding transitions my clips.

I chose the line ‘This is my blood, poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins’ Matthew 26:28. This I felt could coincide nicely with the film poster which does involve blood. After placing this quote in and arranging everything properly I played my trailer to a few people to get feedback. The biggest concern expressed by most people was that they didn’t really understand the storyline. I realised then that to an outside eye, somebody not previously aware of the storyline, the story was not clear at all and in fact rather than not telling a story at all, told a different story entirely. The other concern was music, whether it worked well or not. I personally thought the music did work well, it had enough of an eerie and raw sound that it helped create an horror atmosphere, the line ‘Mother Superior jumped the gun’ is repeated over and over as the music builds up towards a climax which I felt worked well in leading the trailer to its resolution. It was not to be and with the voice of the people saying get rid of it, most people anyway, I changed it. My main concern now was arranging these clips into another order so as to give a better understanding of my storyline, first I needed new scenes. I took the camera that night and filmed with a friend in my village. This new footage included a clip of somebody speaking, something I did not use the first time round. So I now set about arranging these clips into a workable order but was again struggling with the lack of music to guide me, so I roughly placed everything in an order that made chronological sense and went in search of music, it had been suggested to me when people had watched my last attempt as to what kind of music they thought would work and gregorian/ choral chanting was something tha came up, perhaps even something slightly remixed  to have more of a beat. This search took a very long time, I could not find anything that I felt would work, I asked other people what they thought of certain pieces and they too agreed that there was little that would work. I abandoned, temporarily, my search for music and tried cutting the scenes down into an interesting progression. After another attempt at finding music I came across something that worked and immediately put it into iMovie HD to cut it up. Once this was done I could set about tidying up the clips and making them coincide with the music after doing this it was suggested that there was not enough reference to the book in my trailer so I quickly

Inserting the movie title as a still frame in my trailer.

filmed a clip of a large old looking book being slowly turned by an anonymous hand wearing a large, stonemason-esque ring. I then placed this as a quick flash at various points throughout the trailer. Having done this I then realised that I had not placed back in my title screens and that by doing so I’d move the timing of my piece out by enough that i’d have to go round and sort out the timings for the music throughout. Luckily I managed to rearrange the scenes in such a way that this was avoided. So here is my finished Trailer  –

Research for film trailer

Researching Film Trailers:

When researching horror trailers I aimed for more psychological horrors as these films interested me more. However, I did choose a few non-psychological horrors as well since my questionnaire on what kind of movie to make had not yet been completed, so I couldn’t presume that people would want a psychological horror.

The Shining

The trailer starts with dialogue from the movie, this is played over several interspersed establishing shots. As the content of the dialogue becomes steadily darker it reaches its crescendo with the line ‘he killed them with an axe’. At this point it creates a moment of shock by breaking the quiet tone with a sharp rise in pitch from the violins and a loud ‘bang’ as the axe hits the door. Dialogue runs throughout most of the trailer, sometimes played with its respective clip, sometimes played over others. It does this again, the change from a slow, calm scene to a quick loud shock and a short clip. It effectively tells the story in the opening dialogue and then shows you it unfold throughout the trailer. Music fits the clips and is used sparingly.

Hide and Seek

Again, this trailer too starts with dialogue, establishing shots, calm music and then escalates as the problem unfolds. The music is calm and serene to begin with, slowly becoming more and more eerie. Then with a sudden change in pace as the action kicks in the strings rise in a crescendo followed by a final bang and silence for the credits and film title. Dialogue is used throughout and is all from within the film. It is over 2 minutes long and tells the story in a fair amount of detail from start to finish.

The Wicker Man

This trailer differs from the other two in that it does not tell the entire story, this I prefer as it does not ‘spoil’ the movie when watching it and leaves the audience to discover the story for themselves. Its use of music is different as well, where the others used fairly minimalist music that sharply fitted the action onscreen this trailer uses music that doesn’t directly fit. It starts with a bass drum beat with a harrowing voice reading what sounds like a biblical passage, it then kicks into a 60’s guitar riff and continues in the background throughout. The horror in this piece is not so much directly expressed through the music but in fact it is the juxtaposing blend of swinging 60’s music with harrowing or just bizarre footage (people dressed in odd outfits playing instruments and dancing, the main character screaming in terror or finding a dead body). The storyline is hinted at, we know he is a police officer investigating a missing girl and that weird things begin to happen, other than that nothing else is mentioned, I like this effect, it helps create more suspense also more desire to discover what was going on.

Number 23

This trailer I found quite interesting as it didn’t actually have much action or direct horror. There are no monsters, bad-guys, aliens, ghosts, no particular antagonist at all. Rather the antagonist is the protagonist and his paranoia, the story line is not hugely given away, we know he finds a book and becomes obsessed with the number 23, we don’t know why it is relevant or how it is resolved. The fact the trailer still displays that it is a horror film despite the lack of horror scenes intrigues me. The choppiness of the cuts, the lighting, the camera angles, all these play the part of the antagonist, it is this that scares you not anything on the screen.

In summary it would seem that the average length of the trailers is about 2 minutes long, this seeming to be the optimum amount of time to set the scene and tell the story. I’m not sure about this and think it could be achieved in a shorter amount of time and by giving less away, I will see what the results of my survey say when they are done. Dialogue seems to play a major role in the trailers that tell the entire storyline whereas it seems secondary in ‘The Wicker Man’ and the focus is more on the camera work, similarly with The Number 23 the use of light and dark and close-ups brings out the horror rather than telling much storyline. This is possibly something I want to try in my piece, less dialogue, not much direct action but false scares and paranoia. The music generally starts quite pleasant or silent and then works up to build tension; alternatively a song that seems happy is used against a horror scene, this juxtaposition being odd and therefore slightly uncomfortable. Generally dark scenes but a few light scenes nearer the beginning, usually ending on a dark screen with writing after a loud bang or crescendo.

Research for Film Magazine

Research Film Magazine

Total Film – Inception

When the film, Inception, was first devised it was intended as a horror, it slowly transformed into a thriller as they adapted it but it still retains some of its horror influence and the Total Film magazines Inception issue shows this. The main picture is a dark figure of Leonardo DiCaprio staring into the distance, half darkened by shadows, the expression on his face seems concerned but intent, and the fact he is holding a gun suggests his intentions are to kill. The main body of writing is across the centre of the cover stating the title of the magazines main film review ‘Inception’ and also the subsequent articles arising as a result of the films review, i.e. ‘the 27 most mindblowing films’ and ‘meet the master of mind flicks’. The premise of this edition, as a direct result of the release of Inception, is psychological movies. This can be seen with the design of the masthead which shows computer processing chips and other electronics. The cover only has three colours Red, Grey and Blue. Red for the Tag-line to this issue Blue for the lighter background and grey for most writing, some being in red or white. The title of the magazine is biggest but also blends into the background more so than the other writing. Above the masthead is the line that sets up the tone of the issue. The website, price and date are very small and just under the title. The most eye-catching text is the title of the main movie to be reviewed and it would be that that drives sales rather than the magazine itself. Some people would buy the magazine because they like the style/ writing etc. but most people will see the big title ‘Inception’ and it will be their motivation to see that movie that will urge them to buy the magazine.

Empire – Batman: The Dark Night

Large title, in red, across top of page with a strap-line giving the title of the main movie in focus. The rest of the text is either in purple or green (The colours of The Joker, who is the main picture). Instead of having the films title as the main textual focus we have the words ‘Meet the Joker’ followed by a quote ‘He’s a cold-blooded, mass murdering clown’. That quote alone would intrigue a number of people, the juxtaposed situation created from the imagery of a mass murderer and a clown is one commonly drawn on in horror (The movie ‘It’ or ‘House of 1000 corpses’). Advertising other articles and features is on the right side of the page. The quote and ‘Meet the Joker’ are in a different font to the rest of the cover.

Entertainment Weekly – Sweeney Todd

The main focus of text is directly below the masthead. This focus is not in relation to the main picture of the issue. The picture is of Johnny Depp in character as Sweeney Todd but the Title of the movie is in tiny font in brackets under the much larger heading ‘Johnny Depp’. This magazine choosing its selling point as the actor rather than the movie. There are only three coloured fonts used, either white, blue or red. There is no active background just a backdrop behind Johnny Depp. Below Johnny Depps nameis a list of all the other actors mentioned throughout the magazine, again choosing to advertise themselves through the actors rather than their movies.

Overall

Either the film or, if they are popular enough, the actor is used to promote the magazine, since none of my actors will be famous it would be better to use the film as the selling point. The title of the magazine should be the biggest text and standout but can be placed behind the main picture as long as the majority of the name is visible. Articles should be placed generally on the left hand side but whichever least covers the main picture. Should be a colour scheme for the magazine to show that it is of a particular company. Font should be generally the same changing for titles and names, changing size and colour as well.

Opinions on Horror Films

I asked a group of 11 people their opinions on horror movies and what they look for in those types of films.

1.Which style of horror film would most appeal to you?

1. Slasher – 2
   

2. Psychological – 6
   

3. Sci-fi – 2
   

4. A monster (i.e. Vampires/ Werewolves etc) – 1
   

2. Which of these concepts seems most scary to you?

1. Fear of the future – 0
   

2. Fear of ones own unconscious mind – 5
   

3. Fear of the unknown – 5
   

D. Fear of a creature – 1

3. Do you think violence and gore are crucial to a good horror film?

1. Yes – 2
   

2. No – 9
   

4. Which of these popular horror film’s style appeals most to you?

1. Saw – 2
   

2. The Shining – 7
   

3. Hide and Seek – 2
   

4. Blair Witch Project – 0
   

5. Which of these settings do you think is the scariest?

1. Abandoned house – 3
   

2. Graveyard – 3
   

3. Woods – 4
   

4. Back Alleys of a city/ town – 1
   

6. Would you say a film could be made scarier by use of black and white film?

1. Yes – 5
   

2. No – 6
   

7. Would you describe yourself as a horror fan?

A. Yes – 4

B. No – 7