Film Certificates

Film Certificates

Film certificates identify the minimum age that you have to be to watch such film. When making a film this is incredibly important as you need to make sure your film can be seen by your desired target audience.

A film with this sticker means that anyone over the age of four can watch it. This called Universal. It's over four years old because you can never really tell how a child will react to any film that you show them, even without violence and gore. However Universal films don't normally feature any violence or gore, and no reference to sexual or drug like themes. We are not aiming for Universal because it's no where near the typical noir target audience.

A film with this sticker means that any child that watches should be accompanied by a parental guardian of sorts. Hence the title PG. While it may seem like they are, PG's are not always aimed at children films, sometimes adult targeted films are PG's but are given the rating because there isn't really any reference to sexual themes or to drug abuse either. We aren't aiming for PG because children should not be watching our film even with Parental Guidance.

A 12A is often aimed at anyone over the age of twelve years old, meaning that anyone over twelve can see in the cinema. The themes may be more violent and there may be several references to sexual themes and possible drug use. However if someone under twelve does want to see the film they can be accompined by an adult to see it in the cinema. A 12A is closer to what we want, but the target audience is still too young for our final production.

A 12 is what an 12A becomes when it is released on DVD.  This is because you cannot say who can and who cannot watch a film once it's at home so they decided not to sell the DVD's to anyone who is under the age of twelve.  It's practically the same as a 12A just changed to suit the home environment instead of the cinema environment.  A 12 is the same as a 12A, it's closer to what we want but still isn't quite what we're aiming for due to our suggestive themes.

A 15 film cannot be seen by anyone under the age of fifteen in the cinema, and cannot be bought in the stores if you under fifteen.  These films will always feature a considerate amount of violence and sexual themes, as well as drug reference. It's rated fifteen because some of those under the age of fifteen could possibly find the content in the film disturbing. We are going to aim for a fifteen as we're going to a fair amount of violence and sexual themes, but nothing overly persistent.

Finally an 18 film, you have to be eighteen to see it in the cinema and to buy it on DVD. This is because it has much more explicit and has much more violence, sexual themes, drug reference and obscene language. It's more frequent and more likely to disturb any viewers who is under the age of eighteen. Our film isn't suitable for an eighteen certificate due to the fact while we do have sexual and violent themes they will not be persistent throughout the whole film.



In conclusion, my group have decided as a group that our film is going to be a fifteen. This is because our OTS is going to feature small reference to drug abuse and murder, and if they were going to complete the entire film there would be a large amount of violence and definitely references to sexual acts and drug abuse. For this reason our film is going to be a fifteen.