Age Certificate Analysis

Age film ratings categorise films from their content so that only a certain age range can view certain films. This is important as it stops young children watching violent and sexually explicit films. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is responsible for the classifications and censorship of films within the UK.

Universal - U

The U symbol stands for Universal and means that it is suitable for an audience of four years and older. U films do now contain high levels of violence but will allow for very mild violence such as a quick fight scene. Also U films will not contain sexual behaviour or strong language, however the BBFC do allow for kissing, cuddling and infrequent use of very mild bad language such as ‘damn’ and ‘hell’.

Examples of U rated films - Ice Age, Despicable Me, Up, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Wild, WALL-E and Toy Story.

Parental Guidance - PG

PG, or Parental Guidance, films are suitable for audiences above the age of around eight years old. Children younger than eight should have permission by their parents or must be accompanied by a parent or guardian to avoid film content upsetting viewers. Mild bad language, such as ‘shit’ or ‘son of a bitch’, may be allowed in a PG category film however if the bad language is used too frequently or is said in a aggressive manner than the film may be classed as a higher age rating.

Examples of PG rated films - Home Alone, Elf, Big Hero 6, The Grinch, Into the Woods, Brave, Tomorrowland and Minions.

Accompanied by an adult / Suitable for 12 years and over - 12A / 12

12A is similar to 12 rated films however 12A films require any child under the age of 12 to be accompanied by an adult when seeing the film. 12A is typically used is cinemas and theatres; the accompany of an adult is enforced by staff members but at home it cannot be enforced as much. This is the reason why DVD’s and Blu-ray’s have the 12 certificate rather than the 12A certificate. Strong language such as ‘fuck’ and ‘bitch’ can be present in a 12 of 12A film however, aggressive uses of strong language may result in the film being rated as a higher age rating. Sexual behaviour can be briefly shown in a 12 or 12A however verbal references to sex is not suitable for this age rating. Sometimes verbal references to sex may be allowed if used for a comedic purpose. Any uses of discriminatory behaviour or language against sex, race, sexuality, religion, disability ect..., will not pass for a 12A and 12 rated film.

Examples of 12A and 12 rated films - The Martian, Ant-Man, Maze Runner, Jurassic World, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek Into Darkness, Interstellar and Everest.

Suitable for 15 years and over - 15

A 15 rated film is only suitable for an audience over the age of 15 and can contain strong violence, strong language, sexual nudity, discriminatory behaviour and language and used of drugs. 15’s are allowed to show people taking drugs but may not be allowed to show misuse of drugs or highly dangerous substances such as aerosols and solvents. In a 15 film, there is no limit to how many times they can use strong language such as ‘fuck’ and ‘bitch’, however they can only occasionally use what the BBFC rate as the strongest term - ‘cunt’. If the strongest term is used frequently or in an aggressive manner then the film could be put in a higher age rating category.

Examples of a 15 rated film - The Hangover, Zombieland, The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Step Brothers, Due Date, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Kick-Ass and Jackass.

Suitable only for adults - 18

An 18 rated film will contain similar content to a 15 but will be allowed to use as much strong language, discriminatory terms, portrayal of sex, nudity, and uses of drugs. Even though 18 are allowed to use as much nudity and non-sexual education content - 18 films can fully be just a sex film. 18 films are rarer than U, PG, 12A, 12 and 15 as the majority of people don’t prefer to watch films with considerably more violence, sex strong language.

Examples of an 18 rated film – Sin City, Saw, Fifty Shades of grey, Spring Breakers and The Human Centipede.

Restricted - R18

Restricted 18 is a special category that is rarely seen but is used to classify very explicit sex scenes or strong fetish material. R18 films can be shown in specific licensed cinemas.

Our Film Institute - 'Whitehorn Productions'

I created our film institution in Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. Firstly I created it in Photoshop to get everything looking the way we wanted it. Then I took the file into Adobe After Effects and composted every layer into a 3D object. This was so that the intro will contain parallax between the cloud layers and text to give the illusion that it is 3D.

The sound effect I that are present in this are comprised of two different sound effects. These sound create a very cinematic and movie feel.
(all sounds used are non-copyrighted)

Institution Research

20^th Century Fox

20^th Century Fox is an American film Corporation which was first founded on May 31^st in 1935. 20^th Century Fox is one of six major American film studios and headquartered in Century City in Los Angeles, California. 20^th Century fox was created by a merger. This means that two companied got together to create a larger company. The two founders Joseph M. Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck left United Artists over a dispute and created the company ‘Twentieth Century Pictures’. They then merged with ‘Fox Films’ to create what we all know now – 20^th Century Fox.

Films that 20^th Century Fox are known for are Ice Age, Titanic, Avatar, Die Hard, Home Alone, Night in the Museum, the first two Star Wars trilogies and Fantastic Four. Genres that 20^th Century Fox are well known for producing are normally family films such as The Simpsons Movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Ice Age.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures is a film studio company and a motion picture distributor - first founded in 1912 by the ‘Famous Players Film Company’. It was not until 1914 when ‘Paramount Pictures Corporation’ opened up by Jesse Lasky, William Wadsworth Hodkinson and Adolph Zukor. Paramount Pictures is the fifth oldest surviving film studio in the world and is the last major film studio with their headquarters still situated in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount is Americas the oldest running film studio, first founded in 1912.

Some of Paramount Pictures well known films are the Transformers, Start Trek, Titanic, Forest Gump, Iron Man and Kung Fu Panda. Many of Paramount’s films are action, adventure films.

Lions Gate Entertainment

Lions Gate Entertainment is a Canadian/American entertainment corporation, famous for its films such as The Hunger Games and Divergent. Lions Gate headquarters is located in Santa Monica, California and was founded in 1997 on the 3^rd of July. The main founder is Frank Giustra however Avi Federgreen was also an important person as they helped fund the start up of Lions Gate Entertainment.

Lions Gate Entertainment is famous it films such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Day After Tomorrow, Saw, Kick-Ass and Rambo. Much of their films are action, thriller and adventure genres.

Universal Studios

Universal Studios is a well known American film studio with is headquarters located in Universal City, Los Angeles, California. Universal Studies is not only well known for its movies but also its Universal Orlando theme park. Universal studio was founded by eight people - Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, and Jules Brulatour. It was founded on June 10^th 1912, and is the second oldest American film studio still running – just beaten by Paramount Pictures by several months.

The movies that Universal Studios are well known for distributing is Jurassic World, Ted, Jaws, The Mummy, The Grinch, Dumb and Dumber, Hulk, ET and Lone Survivor. The genres related to Universal Studios are similar to 20^th Century Fox. These include comedy, action, thriller and family films.

Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar Animation Studios is an American computer animation film studio, well known for mainly creating c.g.i, Computer Generated Images, animated kids films – created by Pixar’s RenderMan. It was founded in 1986, February 3^rd, by Edwin Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith.

Pixar are well known for creating many popular kids’ films such as Cars, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Up, Monsters Inc, The incredible and WALL-E. Nearly, if not, all Pixar films are created using computer generated images and the genre they tend to go for is animated, adventure, family and comedy films.

 Warner Bros. Picture

Warner Bros. Picture was founded by four brothers Harry Warner, Albert Warner, Sam Warner and Jack Warner, hence where the company name originates from. These four brothers founded the company on April 4^th, 1923. Today, Warner Bros is located in Burbank, California and is a division of Time Warner Inc.

Films that Warner Bors. Pictures are known for distributing is Inception, The Dark Knight, Max, Mad Max: Fury Road, Interstellar, Gravity, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Happy Feet. The main genre of films that Warner Bros. Distribute are Adventure, thrillers and actions, as well as a few family films.

Our Film Institute

For our film institute, we decided upon the name ‘Whitehorn Productions’. We wanted to create a logo that was similar to Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment and 20^th Century Fox as their films may have similar genres to our film – which maybe an action, thriller and war film.

Own Film Treatment

Plot

In the near future, a large group of antagonists have been successful in bringing war, crime and drugs into much of UK. They’ve seized control of the government and much of the countries resources. Thousand of military personal and fighters have been sent in order to stop them but everyday, they gain more and more power and become increasing harder to defeat. As the country gone into turmoil, a small, highly skilled, group of individuals have been formed by what’s left of the government. A secrete alliance (with the help of other major countries like the US) has been created in order to shut down the evil that has been created.

Opening

The opening starts off with two protagonists running towards a small base camp in the woods - run by the antagonists. The Alliance believes that there is a high-value target situated there and capturing him will give them key information. However, on their way their, they are met by several guards patrolling the compound. As the protagonists covers are blown, this leads to a small fire fight which results in the death of one of the two protagonists. After and while, the still alive protagonist gets shot and injured, and then gets captured by an antagonist.

Middle

A bit later, after the protagonist gets captured, he then gets rescued by several other members of the Alliance. After his rescue, they find valuable information in the base camp.

During the film, there are a lot of action and fire fights that occur throughout. As the film progresses, the Alliance find more and more key information and they are able to start to piece together the whole reasoning behind why the antagonists are doing this. Through this information, they are able to stop the protagonists.

End

The end scene set at a funeral, where several Alliance members (including the alliance member at the start of the film that got captured) are carrying a coffin for the protagonist that sadly died at the beginning. This end scene is meant to make the audience feel emotion after all the Alliance has been through. We then see several shots of the country rebuilding its self and becoming a better place.

Initial Film Ideas

The image above is shows our first brainstorm and initial ideas of our film. We were initially thinking on creating a horror or an action but we soon ended up on making an action / thriller.

Progress Targets

On return we begin the post production stage of our journey and editing begins from the onset - make sure you are video blogging and keeping your page relevant and up to date.  Make sure you have evidenced all the following areas of focus over the break to maximize your marks for research and planning.  The numbers reflect the amount of posts expected, at least.  You are capable of exceptional attainment here - grab it!

Research

- Genre Research 10

- Soundtrack research (non copyright music) 1/2

- Costume and location research – Google Earth and pictures you’ve taken. 1/2

- Actors and props photos and interviews 3/5

- Audience Research and Profiling (typical audience member and similar films) 1

- Uploaded YouTube videos of openings – analysed 15/20

- Opening titles analysed in detail – font researched 1

- Analysed Film Openings from your genre in particular 5/10

- Institution research (Paramount etc) 1

- Certificate research 1

Planning

- Own film idea brainstorm 1

- Own film treatment 1

- Relevant Online Tutorials and Comment 4/5

- Documenting of influences on production 1

- Shot lists 1

- Consideration of representation in your film and stereotyping – use theory from G322. 1

- Questionnaire (and feedback) Get some feedback on your initial ideas!

- Diary of filming/editing etc with photos and screen grabs

- Mood board 1

- Script 1

- Practice titles created and uploaded 1

- Storyboard – animatic. 1

Progress Target Setting

In order to complete and evidence all of our research and planning my group needs to turn the storyboard into an animatic, take pictures of the locations, props and costume

In order to make progress towards completion of my research and planning I need to complete the storyboard ind creation of the animatic.

Genre Analysis - Thriller

Target Audience
Unlike action or thriller films where it is primarily aimed towards one specific gender, thriller films are aimed towards both males and females - usually around the ages of 15 - 22. Thriller films are appealing to all genders because they contain things that the audience can relate to, such as characters and location, but also contain unusual/abnormal things that may not actually exist. This makes the audience want to watch thriller films as it takes them away from their daily lives.

Thriller Movie Analysis
(Jurassic World)
(Sicario)
(Zero Dark Thirty)
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