Film Classification

• There are five different age ratings for films in the UK, these are...

= ''Suitable for All''

A 'U' film should be suitable for audiences ages four years or older. 'U' films should be set within a positive moral and the film should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror.

= ''General Viewing''

Some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A 'PG' film should not disturb a child ages around eight or older. Parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger children.

Both symbols mean the same thing, the material is only suitable for those aged 12 and over. Works classified as these may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them. The 12A category exists only for cinema films, nobody younger than 12 may see a 12A film unless accompanied by an adult. An adult may take a younger child if they feel that it will be suitable for them. The 12 symbol exists only for video works.

The above symbol means that no persons younger than 15 can see or rent this film. Films which are 15s often contain drug taking but must not promote of encourage drug use. Horror may also be used but must not be sadistic or sexualised. There may also be constant use of strong language and sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail.

The above symbol means that no persons younger than 18 can see or rent this film. Films that are 18 often have strong themes that run throughout and are unsuitable for anybody under the age of 18.



Flight
Getting our film classification right is key. We must not isolate our audience by making the rating too high but also must not expose younger children to scenes which may upset them.
We have decided that our film rating will be a 15.
Our target audience is 16 - 24 year olds, for this reason we want our film to be a 15 certificate. The reason our film is a 15 and not any lower is because our production contains the mild theme of drugs which may be inappropriate for younger viewers. Our production is not of the 18 clarification because it does not promote or glamorise the use of drugs.

Target Audience

I have done some research into who the target audience for our film would be. I firstly researched productions similar to mine looked at their film classifications and thought about who their target audience is.

Fish Tank

Film Classification: 15

Target Audience: I would say that the target audience for Fish Tank would be primarily teenagers to young adults. I feel they would appreciate and understand the underlying themes in Fish Tank. Teenagers may also relate to Mia as she herself is just a teenager and they also may also empathize with her troubles and situation. Fish Tank had a restricted release meaning that it was only available in a few cinemas, this caused Fish Tank to only appeal to specialist audiences as it was not widely promoted.

Girl, Interrupted

Film Classification: 15

Target Audience: I feel that the target audience for this production is primarily teenagers. The film narrative is based around nineteen year old Susanna and many audiences comment that one of the films strengths is that ''everybody whose been 19 years old can relate to Susanna'' this means audiences, particularly teenagers, will be influenced to watch this film as the diegesis revolves around an average 19 year old going through issues which many teenagers can relate to.

Black Swan

Film Classification: 15

Target Audience: The audience for Black Swan would be young adults. I feel that this is the target audience due to the complex themes which run throughout the production. Black Swan is a dark and complex film and initially only appealed to a niche audience before it received critical acclaim, now Black Swan has gained greater appeal from audiences who once would never have even considered watching the production.

Sweet Sixteen

Film Classification: 18

Target Audience: The target audience for Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen is young adults and above, this is confirmed by the film classification of 18. Sweet Sixteen covers issues such as broken family life and crime. These issues may be upsetting for younger views hence why this film is targeted at a more mature audience. 

As you can see from my research above the majority of drama films have a classification of 15 or higher. This is because children under the age of fifteen may not understand and may not be able to grasp the themes which run through the majority of drama productions. Our film will also fall under the 15 category due to the mild use of drugs featured at the end. I also feel that children under fifteen would not be mature enough to understand the concepts we are trying to show within our production. I feel that the films above mostly target teenagers and young adults because they cover situations which are most relevant to that age group, they can empathize with the character and may be familiar with the situations in the narrative. The target audience for our film Flight would be 16 - 24 year olds. Like the films above we also will try to target an audience of teenagers and young adults who may empathize with the main character and the issues she goes through. 

Changes to film after feedback

We have taken into consideration the feedback from our first storyboard feedback and the changes we have decided to made include:

• Getting rid of 'obvious' shots, for example, the turning on of a light switch. We have decided to do this because we feel these shots are unnecessary to have and excluding these shots will make our film flow a lot better.
• We have changed the bedroom scene around and added more to add depth. We decided to do this because we received a lot of comments about how the bedroom scene lacked a point, we decided to add more sequences relating to Sophie and why she has decided to turn to a hedonistic lifestyle.
• Changed the ballet costume of Sophie due to being unable to locate a leotard and ballet shoes.
• Evanna's mum and the dialogue within the first scene. We have decided to get rid of the dialogue within the first scene because we also felt this was unnecessary and would not develop our film narrative.

The Axing of Evanna

We decided to get rid of the character Evanna (Sophie's mum). This is because we felt that our production needed focus on our main character and her emotions and feelings rather than her mothers and because we also struggled to find a suitable actress who could comply with our strict filming schedule. Evanna's scenes will be replaced with Sophie forcing herself to dance and become successful. We also felt that having ''a mother pressure her daughter into a life she doesn't want to lead'' would be too stereotypical and this was picked up within our audience feedback, hopefully by changing this element in our narrative our final production will be more unique and edgy.

First Draft Animatic and Feedback

Below is our first draft photographic storyboard for 'Flight'. By creating this rough storyboard we have gained a feel for the kind of production which we wanted to produce. Doing this exercise helped us envision the shots which would be included within our short film. This was particularly helpful in the scenes with the dance room mirrors, as we got to see where the camera would be positioned to avoid it being in shot. 


Jack took the photos for the storyboard and below I put the photos together and turned them into an animatic, I also added annotations to the video explaining each shot.

We then showed a range of people to gather constructive criticism and opinions.

''After seeing your storyboard I am looking forward to seeing the final product. I'm really interested in your choice of music as I feel that having classical music all through and playing with the tempos/pitch and adding different sounds over the top will be really effective.''
- Alexander Cowan

''I really like that you are going to use animation within your production as I think this will put an interesting twist on the film and make your production more unique. However I think you should consider taking away the dialogue in the ballet scene as the dialogue seems very cliche. Also some of the shots seem a little obvious, such as the turning off the light switch, I don't think you need to show the audience that as they will understand without being shown.''
- Rachel Emery

''Looking at your first draft I really like the idea and the issue explored. Some of the shots (particularly the first one of the light and the corridor) are really effective and interesting. One thing I suggest though is developing the bedroom sequence as at the moment it seems very weak and unnecessary compared to the ballet and street scenes.''
- Mrs Seaman