Censorship and Regulation

Censorship: the suppression of speech, public communication or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions.

Regulation: a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority.

Regulations change throughout time as societies views on what is appropriate change. This is clear in the film 'The Wild One' which was banned from Britain for promoting 'hooliganism' at a time where Britain featured a rigid social structure. It was banned for fourteen years, but is now rated a PG. This shows the changing times in Britain and the changing views of the public.

Censorship is also used when scenes are darkened or shots changed to remove content which is deemed inappropriate. This is seen in 'Women in Love' where the censor decided a full length shot is used with two naked man, who had feelings for each other, and were naked. This was deemed inappropriate for the time (1969) but because it was considered a 'brilliant film' they suggested the scene was darkened so the nudity was not as clear. The director obliged and the film was released.

The Woman in Black is a unique example of censorship and classification. It cut out six seconds of the footage, and darkened particular scenes, in order to qualify for its 12A rating however is commonly believed to be rated too low. It received 134 complaints, which was the most for the last four years except Black Swan which received a 15 classification despite its graphic sex scenes and self harm scenes. With The Woman in Black the issue was found with the loss of a child and supernatural themes. The BBFC argued that this complaint was due to a lack of understanding in the classification system and what each rating actually means. They have however began looking into the effect of gore and violence on children, the sexualisation of women and language all of which they believe need tightened up on.

I don't believe my film will require any censorship as I  have rated it a 15 and it does not have anything that would be considered any stronger than this. If I had attempted to have the film rated a 12 the scenes featuring violence may need to have been cut and the use of weapons reconsidered.