Age Certificating Research

With our trailer being of the horror genre, our group wanted the opportunity to have the freedom to use more intense scenes and imagery within our content, for example the use of fake blood and violence and with frightening images, with our leading antagonist being a clown, many younger audiences would find the character alone very disturbing, but to really create a professional horror film image, we want to have the intense and frightening scenes that would make this happen.

With this in mind the thought of having the age rating of a 12/12a seems like a less likely option due to the bbfc stating on their website that "No promotion of potentially dangerous behaviour which children are likely to copy. No glamorisation of realistic or easily accessible weapons such as knives. No endorsement of anti-social behaviour." which would make our horror an incredibly difficult task to fit into, as our horror being of slasher style and gorish instead of paranormal. The BBFC also state specifically that gore, violence and blood shouldn't be emphasised, and with our overall aim to emphasise and scare our audience make it extremely difficult to fit into this category.

Therefore our group are feeling extremely compelled to opt into having an age 15 certificate of our film's trailer, this is due to the BBFC stating under the threat section of the 15 certificate rating that "There may be strong threat and horror", which would make the scenes that our group want to film a lot easier to access and film without worry of being to much with gore under a 12 or 12a rating. Although it is specified that "Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable", which our group may or may not decide to follow in theme, as we want to have the opportunity to use both paranormal and slasher style if we choose to,depending on the footage we get.

An age 18 certificate rating, This rating gives our group a a large amount of freedom to involve a lot of our footage that may not be acceptable for an age 15 or 12 rating, although we are given a lot of freedom to include almost anything, whether it be frightening or gory, Although we would have a major limit on who our viewing audience would be, as the major target audience for is young working class teens and adults, seeking thrilling fun, whereas older adults aren't as interested in being frightened.

In conclusion, our group is going to go for a an age 15 certificate rating in order to achieve a more realistic and professional looking horror trailer.