Controversial film: Case study

Case study on controversial film in the horror genre: Attack the block!!

Film information

• Attack The Block
• Director: Joe Cornish
• Status: 15 uncut
• Year: 2011

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Science Fiction

Summary 

 Attack The Block is a British horror movie directed by comedian Joe Cornish. It is set in a South London housing estate and follows a group of teen muggers, who form an unlikely alliance with a nurse they have robbed, when aliens attack their tower block.

The film was submitted to the BBFC with no category request in March 2011,and  it is clear from the characters, the tone of the work and the general address, that it had strong appeal to older teenage viewers. The film was not suitable for younger kids as it contains frequent strong language from the start, with over 50 uses of 'f**k' and some uses of 'motherf****r' throughout. Under current BBFC Guidelines, where only infrequent strong language is permitted at 12A, the work was automatically therefore a 15 category within the first reel.

There was a huge amount of violence, gore and threat in the film which was strong, with some scenes of bloody injury as human characters are bitten, scratched, attacked and killed. In some scenes it there’s exposure to allot of blood where it’s pumping from characters’ mouths. The strongest moments include a man seen in a lift full of bloodied bodies, himself dripping with blood; close up shots of injuries; and sight of a young adult’s face ripped up by aliens.

The film contains:
-Knives

-Mugging

-Guns and weapons

-Fireworks used as weapons

-Drug use

After discussion with senior examiners and the BBFC’s Director, David Cooke, that the work could be contained at 15, where the film’s appeal lies, and where it sits alongside other works which include reference to drugs and sight of drug use - not least as there are no clear elements that glamorise drug taking for younger audiences.The film was passed at 15 and the BBFC insight  explained to the public that it contained strong language, violence, gore and soft drug use. It was selected for National film school week  in 2011.

Why is the film controversial?
-This is because the film frequently used bad language containing frequent and strong language from the start, with over 50 uses of f**k and some uses of motherf****r throughout.Moreover, the use of weapons used in the film as the BBFC must take note of available weapons and particularly mindful about how these weapons are used especially in films aimed at children and those passed at U, PG and 12A. In my opinion i believe that the film is suitable for a classification of 15 as the film doesn't contain no sadistic violence and gore where the guidelines state "violence may be strong but should not dwell on infliction of pain or injury". This information was useful on taking into account when producing my own film as I am clearly aware of the guidelines of a 12A classification films and to what extent violence and gore is and not allowed. This horror genre is represented in the film I have chosen as this film refers to violence, gangs and terror and conflict which all go relate to the genre of horror as teenage gangs get up to danger and trouble with the use of weapons, gore and blood!

This information was useful as we are now aware of the aspects in which are not suitable for a 12A  film so we should be cautious of what we add and how much violence or weapons we include. We should also consider how much violence or gore will be shown as it is not suitable for 12A films due to the regulations. 


Source: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/case-studies 

BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification.

Background:

-Is an independent, responsibility of cinema for hundred years and over video DVD since 1985, which was established by film industries.It was set up to perform uniformity and create a body to make judgments nationally such as film certification on deciding what age groups are allowed to view the film. The BBFC  have statutory powers on film, and over rule decision and play a huge rule of debating whether or not a film fits the right classification. To preserve its independence, the BBFC's income is derived solely from its fees it charges for its services, calculated by measuring the running time of films, DVDs/ videos and other works submitted for classification. However power on film remain with local council as they may overrule any decisions made by BBFC such as banning films that they passed, altering categories or banning films they have passed.The video recording act (1984) - stated that video recordings must be classified by authority (be a certain age to buy the product) the key issues that they focused on was violence, drugs, sex, and that cause harm to the audience. Furthermore, the BBFC annual report provides a review of the activities and classification decisions of the Board over the calendar year.

What are their guidelines?
The BBFC play a huge role in meeting classification standards which are in line with what the public expects. Moreover, its decisions should take into account and consideration of what the public finds acceptable at each age category. The BBFC also if needed, adjusts its standards and criteria in response to the public views. 
The BBFC has two key principles, laid out in Guidelines such as "To protect children and vulnerable adults from potentially harmful or otherwise unsuitable content" and "To empower consumers, particularly parents and those with responsibility for children, to make informed viewing decisions".

Timeline

-Legalisation (1909)

-Chart the key legal milestones that have informed the BBC’s role over the years.

- The cinematography Act arrives giving local authorities the power to provide or withhold licenses for cinemas in their region.

-Violence and weapons (1947)

-Have been key concerns in films over the years.

- Critics as “nasty and sensationalist” attack Brighton Rock but are a success at the box office.

- (1954) the BBFC reject the wild one on the grounds that it presents an “unbridled spectrum, of hooliganism” it was not rated until 1964.

- (1955) the BBFC requires cuts to Rebel Without A Cause to remove a knife fight.

-Drugs (1868)

-Drugs have been significant concern of the BBFC since its early days. (1868) Pharmacy acts restrict use of opium in England, however (1900) drugs such as cocaine and opium are widely available. In (1916) BFFC’s grounds for deletion extended to include “the drug habit, e.ge Opium, Morphia, Cocaine, etc.

-Sex (1916)

- Although public opinion on sex on screen has changed over the decades, it is still a concern over the lower age group. 

-(1916)  Director of the BBFC lists 43 grounds for deletion. They include the “unnecessary exhibition of under clothing” and “excessively passionate love screens”

-Sexual Violence (1914)

-Sexual violence continues to be a source of concern for the public in modern times

- “Outrages on women” is added to BBFC’s list of concerns.

-BBFC’s list of expectations of revised to include “girls” clothes pulled off, leaving them in scanty undergarments, “drugging and ruining of young girls” and criminal assault of girls”

Film Classification for 12A

-Films classified 12A and video works classified 12 contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under the age of 12.

-No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult.

- Adults planning to take a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child. 

-Any discriminatory language or behavior will not be endorsed by the work as a whole.

-Sex may be briefly and discreetly portrayed at 12A or 12. Verbal sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers.

-Anti-social behavior should not be endorsed.
-Examples of 12A horror films include "The women in black", "it" and "Gremlins" 

Film Classification for 15

-No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

-In a 15 rated film any of the following could be shown:

•  strong violence
•  Frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
•   portrayals of sexual activity
•   strong verbal references to sex
•   sexual nudity
•   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
•   discriminatory language or behaviour
•   drug taking 
• Examples of film certification of 15 is films like "Orphan", "The Possession" and "Mama."

All this information of requirements of film classification is important as it raises awareness whilst we are making our film as we know the restriction for the age group so we are careful about what type of violence is allowed to be viewed and how much is allowed such as not showing the weapons physically hurting the victim as its not required for a 12A film.

SOURCE:  http://www.bbfc.co.uk/  

INTERVIEW WITH FILM PRACTITIONER !

We reached out to a film practitioner to get ideas and views on what we expect in a horror film. We sent him an email and are still awaiting for a reply.

Horror film poster survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C5WDKJ6

PROFILE PERSON

GROUP MEETINGS

GROUP MEETING- 23/09/14
TIME: 12;00PM- 12.15PM
WHAT WE DISCUSSED:
The age group for our film should be teenage girls aged 13 and over so the film will be the classification of 12A. The type of sounds we want in our horror film is a child crying, wailing, little giggle sounds and laughter as well as creepy lullaby music in the background whilst portraying the evil child. We decided that for the mise en scene we would like to focus our film on a creepy doll that a little girl always carries around with her to show her innocence but reveal the devilish side behind the meaning of the doll. We also wanted the little evil girl to have weird, horrific makeup such and messy hair to illustrate how she is not a ordinary child! We decided to include camera shots such a tracking shot by taking the action along with the audience, a point of view shot from the evil characters point of view so we see exactly what she is plotting, long shot and establishing shot to show the scenery and narrative of the place. In the next meeting we will discuss what we will name our characters that will play in our film and how many characters are needed. 

GROUP MEETING- 1/10/14
TIME: 11:00- 11:10
WHAT WE DISCUSSED:
-In this quick group meeting we discussed how many characters will be in our film and we thought it should be a group of 4 teenage girls going camping and we needed a evil character named "Naila" so we used one of our group members little sister. We also will decided to use Nailas group of friends to show how they used to hang out together in the playground as part of a flashback. We decided that the names of teenage girls would be Inayah, Lana, Sahila and Zahrah. In our next group meeting we will discuss editing techniques used in our film such as a flashback or a fade in. 

GROUP MEETING- 26/10/14 
TIME: 2:12pm


During this wassap conversation we was deciding what type of editing technique to use when showing the doll to the audience. We came up with using a focus editing technique to portray how the doll is an important aspect to the horror movie and we decided that the camera will turn close focus on the doll whilst a showing a character. We also discussed how the doll will be haunting the girls in the camping trip as the doll will be popping out of a girls camping bag to show shes lurking around and haunting the girls!

GROUP MEETING- 
3rd November 2014 
TIME-10:50 
WHAT WE DONE: 
we went to the primary school where we are going to film in for our flashback. As well as visiting the place we handed out the permission letters for the young girls participating in our film and handle the permission letters to the teachers. We also went and visited the location of the park we are going to use by looking and we looked around to see if the location was well suited for what we wanted to film. The location was good as it swings which was the main prop needed as we are going to use Nailia the young girl who will be swinging on the swing at the end of our film. 

Meeting 5- 10/11/14
What We Discussed:
We received a call back from Wellington Primary School with the news that we will not be able to film there as the parents of the children will be against it. Due to this we had to decide on a different school playground setting as soon as possible as the time for our filming was nearing. After much consideration we opted for Malmesbury Primary School which is a 5 minute walk away from our school so it would be very convenient for us. After visiting the school we managed to get permission for the filming. This led to another problem as we had recruit four new young actresses for the flashback scene as parents of the students at Wellington would not allow their daughters to travel to Malmesbury for our film. We then decided to recruit our relatives who are around the same age as the character of Naila. 

Meeting 6 - 20/11/14
Time 12:40 - 1:30
What We Discussed:
We got together to discuss what we want our poster to look like. The poster survey results we did earlier were of great use at this point as it outlined what our target audience want to see in a horror film poster. This led to the decision that the main image will take up the entire poster and the writing on top will be in pastel colour dripping blood. The rest of the poster will be very gloomy using white black and red font colour. To be on the safe side each of us created our own posters so we were left with three to choose from at the end.

Meeting- 7/1/15
Time:12:00- 12:15
Today we presented our offline edit so far to our target audience they thoroughly enjoyed watching it and gave us some improvements these include.

1. Lana will press play so the music starts so we know where the music is coming from

2. Music ends when Lana’s phone rings

3. Close up shot of Lana putting on lipstick so we have a range of camera shots 

4. Point of view shop of the bullies running around Naila in a circle to show how irritating it is for her to be bullied in this constant circle 

5. Flashback colour change, so it would represent an unhappy time, the colour red which will be used links back to the horror genre 

These improvements will be added on to ensure our target audience are satisfied with what they are watching. 

Group Meeting 8
10/1/15
TIME: 3:30-4:30
Today we met up after school to have a makeup trial on our villian Nailah. We had to decide on the makeup look we are going to do on her to make her look as scary as possible. We started off by deciding that she will be wearing all white so she picked out a simple white dress to wear. We also added scratch marks in her face to give her appearence that something is wrong with her. We gave her black under eye patches and made her look dead with a pale face. We finished off by making her hair very messy like and untamed to give her a viscous and dangerous appearance. 

Horror Film Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/L92ZYF5

Analysing focus group while watching child horror film of Orphan!

FILM REVIEW- PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

FILM REVIEW: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2!

 Paranormal Acitivity 2 is a haunting film directed by Todd Willaims and produced by Oren Peli  and the Characters include Katerina and her husband Daniel, with their stepdaughter Ali, the baby Hunter and a dog – are freaked out by a mystery break-in and install spy cameras. Katerina has suspicions that the haunting may be connected with her sisters Katies childhood incidents. All the expected phenomena take place (including one good shock in broad daylight), but most of the action happens at night and midnight where conventions of horror usually take place at that time. Doors open and close by themselves, shadows hover, a sensitive dog is targeted and characters are dragged by unseen presences all these aspects are good codes and conventions of horror that the film portrays as many things are going to go bump in the night, viewed from a variety of fixed-angle CCTV cameras, in the Southern Californian home of a four-strong family. The movie establishes a recurrent surveillance pattern with a sequence of shots, culminating in the baby’s bedroom, where the demonic prowling ultimately feel targeted. Moreover, the use of the CCTV cameras make the audience feel more close and part of the action as we are seeing what is happening through our point of view of the characters making it more tense to watch! The narrative of the story is in a huge american house which reflects the horror genre (codes and conventions) as everything is bound to get creepy in a big haunting house! Moreover, the mise en scene of the story is set at night time where creepy things bump in the dark, objects move around and things smash on the floor. There is good uses of silence in the film as during the night time when everyone is asleep the CCTV cameras is all we see and the silence of everything still builds up suspense and tension as something always pops up in the screen frightening  the audience and making them jump. It has us scanning the frame for minutes on end, listening for tell-tale thumps up the stairs, and then watching for that inexplicable thing that’s surely about to happen in one murky corner of the screen. Moreover, the static shots of empty rooms are held so long that your eye wanders all over the frame looking for the intruder or the movement. The movie is again set in a big beautiful house where unexpected things happen like it did in first one, so for some people the freaky actions that take place can be predictable for some people as they know what is expected. The film definitely fits the genre of a typical horror film as it is based around ghosts lurking around a haunting house patronizing the humans living in it through the use of the banging noises of the doors, floor boards creaking and objects moving!

If you liked the original Paranormal Activity, you'll like this one as the the mood, atmosphere and creepiness was full of intensity so i rate this film 7/10 stars!! 

CONVENTIONS OF CHILD HORROR

This information of codes and conventions of child horror is useful as it helped us gather information of what props to use for our own movie. For example by using the scary prop of a "doll" that is evil and plays the bad, haunting character will be used in our film to make the film more creepy as dolls have a scary atmosphere specifically when they come to life and haunt people with their spirits. Moreover we will be using specific sound codes of horror such as scary chilrens lullaby music to again reflecting back to child horror and we will use to show a sign of death and revenge from the scary doll that will be used. Moreover, sound codes such as giggles and laughter coming from a young girl will be used to show how she succeeded in her bitter revenge and shows how she is plotting danger. We will also intend to use a scary narrative scenery to film our scary movie as it is seen as major horror convention as if the scenery is scary then automatically the audience will get a frightening atmosphere!

FILM REVIEW

Film review: Orphan (Child horror)

Orphan is a 2009 American physiological  horror thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. The film is about a couple who, after the death of their unborn child, adopt a mysterious nine-year-old girl Russian girl called Esther played by Isabelle Furhman who  is from a local orphanage  who turns out to be like not the usual and ordinary child. A young orphan with nothing more than chaos and murder on her mind couldn't pick a better family to adopt her than the Colemans.  Vera Faminga as Kate (wife) and Peter Sarsgaard as John(Husband) have two kids a death-mute daughter (Max) and their son (Daniel). Max builds a good sisterly bond and relationship with each other; however Daniel is less welcoming of Esther. As soon as Esther begins to act strange Kate suspects that there might be problems in Esther's background- the strange ribbons, the mysterious Russian background, and the especial fondness for daddy, should have been a clue. The film uses good conventions of horror such as the film being set in the winter time when its cold and gloomy and low key lighting of the atmosphere in winter time reflects the scary mood. The film uses mise en scene of how Esther is dressed traditionally and old fashioned to portray her weirdness and unusual character reflecting how she indicates shes evil and cunning up to something. The way Esther dresses as sweet and innocent goes against her hidden devlish character that she plays in the film as shes plotting murder. This is a good convention of horror as it shows how the evil characters true identity is hidden in the start but will slowly be revealed. 

Her suspicions of something not normal of Esther deepen when the Esther seriously injures another girl who had bullied her and ends up killing and using violent towards many other characters during the movie such as hammering a woman to death and putting Daniels tree house on fire and he ends up in hospital. Kate identifies that that something is very wrong with Esther, but John does not believe her. Attempting to find out more about Esther, Kate finds the girl's hidden Bible and discovers that it came from the Saarne Institute in Estonia, which she eventually learns is a mental hospital and her aim is to get with men she desires, but if the men reject her, the only way to escape her pain is by killing them.

 Certain shots and sequences in Orphan have higher production value and cinematography than are regularly found in horror films. Two examples stand out: One is the Coleman’s home at night as lighting flashes and the other is during the finally confrontation at a frozen lake at night. Great camera placement and set up both times, especially during the latter.The director makes use of the material by filling scenes with abrupt noises, visual shocks and sharp music cues even before Esther arrives. Moreover, the production has enough of a professional sheen—the film uses the frigid cold of its Eastern Canadian locations to good advantage, this holds audience attention until the bloody de rigueur showdown between Esther and the overwhelmed family. If you are looking into fostering this may not be the film for you but an interesting, exciting and cracking for everyone else!

The development of horror genre overtime!

Overall development of horror genre! 


Horror films in the 1920's:
-This is the time where silent films was made and there was large focus on the imagery and the visual appearance on horror films making the audience more intrigued and made horror films visually realistic as there was no background music or audio to capture the audiences attention. Overall, horror films have significantly changed overtime, with no sound to sound  and even without sound in the 1920's horror films was still able to portray and conduct a narrative to entertain (uses of gratification theory). During this time, mise en scene was very effective such as the lighting  as it was used to distinguish between the good and bad characters (Binary opposition).

Horror films in the 1930's:
-In this time sound was introduced and the dreamlike imagery was made more modern. The music in the background was used to build tension and suspense (enigma) to the audience. The films started to focus on costume, hair and  full on heavy makeup to contribute to the theme of horror by focusing it on the genre of horror allot more. During this time there was still no colour so they had to focus on binary opposition though black and white to demonstrate the good vs evil characters in the film. When sound was introduced to the horror industry it gave horror films a whole new dimension where more hybrid and sub genres was introduced giving it a new outlook. 

Horror films in the 1940's
During this time the horror films had to focused on the intersession of  the horror market where horror film characters had peoples animistic peeking through. This then created a new aspect of the horror genre with escapism (uses of gratification theory) that the audience was able to attach to the supernatural features. Binary oppositions such as good vs bad portrays within the themes of horror film as the almost message seems to be revenge or murder or people getting possessed.  

Horror films in the 1960's
In the 1060's horror films brought in a different kind of horror called physio-graphic horror which gave a new sort of thrill to horror movies. Also during this time they was more open to open screen nudity, bloody violence, as well as other aspects that challenged the social morals of society.From the 1960's films took an edge from physiography horror where it illustrated the scene of belief and religion was introduced where they free the person of the possessed.The themes of horror genre give off suspense which represents the theory of enigma.

Horror films in the 1980's
In the 1980's the special effects started to take more importance when filming the movie with violent and gory scenes in the movies. Sound effects played a huge part in capturing the audiences attention (Theory of enigma). Also technical advances in the field such as liquid foam latex meant human frame could be distorted into a whole new dimension on screen and realistic close ups. The appearance of wolves in horror films also became very dominant and a convention of horror as wolves was seen as dangerous.

Horror films in the 2000s
This is the century where public opinions of horror changed as films had to become more scary by changing the type of villains such as monsters had to be changed and altered to fit in the modern society. Moreover, in the past the horror films  showed a dramatic focus on the dramatic/evil characters where the audience was able to identify who was the clear villain, however, nowadays horror film tend to illustrate hidden villains where the villains end up to be the one that was not expected.

HORROR FILM POSTERS