Regulation essay

During the course of this essay, I'll be analysing how well contemporary media regulation protects the public.  The 2 main forms of media that I will be analysing in this question will be film and games which are regulated by BBFC and PEGI. 

To begin, films in the UK are regulated by the ‘British Board of Film Classification’ (BBFC) previously known as the ‘British Board of Film Censors’ when it was first established in 1912. The change in the regulators name was due to the term 'censor' sounding as if they were a restricting body. The BBFC are a non-statutory business, as they deal with regulating films without influence from the British government. Their sole purpose is to certify and classify any film that was to be released in any cinema in Britain.m, giving them ratings of: U, PG, 12, 15 and 18. 

The BBFC also used to regulate games, but in 2003, the Pan European Games Information (PEGI) was established and by 2012 they took full control of regulating games in Europe. PEGI is the game regulator for games, making them a non-statutory regulating body. Their main purpose is to assist parents in Europe when making the decision on what games they can buy their children by categorising games by their level of violence and sex; and not the games difficulty which is usually what people think it is. This categorising is done by labelling the packaging of each game with a descriptor that has either a 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18 printed onto it. 

Even though these regulating bodies are in place, there are still problems with the regulation of different media. This is mostly caused by the growth and advancement of technology. For instance younger viewers can watch or play media products that are rated above their age online in phones and iPads etc without their parents even knowing. For this reason BBFC and PEGI are trying different sorts of regulatory practices to make sure things like this don’t really happen. For example, in 2007, PEGI created PEGI online to protect younger viewers.

Call of Duty is a game that has caused a moral panic. PEGI rated the game 18 as it consists of gross violence and is really bloody, the violence being very realistic also took part in this decision. This game is very controversial as it was named a reason for the death of a fourteen year old boy. In 2011 Callum Green hung himself straight after playing Call of Duty which was rated way above his age. This is an example that people who are younger than the specific age rating of a game are still trying to find a way to play it. One could say that this shows that PEGI have a good system as they know what games wouldn’t be suitable for someone as we can see the damage it does and also how the parents can be at fault for buying these games for their young children. However, this can't be the case, as Call of Duty has affected someone who is over 18, Anders Breivik was a Norwegian mass killer who claims that he used Call of Duty to help him carry out these attacks. 

In terms of films, Blue is the Warmest Colour was passed by the BBFC as an 18 uncut. It was rated 18 for having strong sex and very strong language. The film is based on a lesbian romance between a high school student and an arts college student. This film received several complaints as viewers thought it was too explicit as it included full nudity and sex scenes that lasted for at least ten minutes. These scenes were also filmed to look very realistic to viewers, which means unsimulated sex was shown.  People thought that this wasn’t appropriate as the main fictional character was a fifteen year old and if this was to happen in reality, it would be seen as an illegal act in the eyes of the law. However others may go against this as they believe once you’re 18 you can make the decision to watch any film. As well as this the film is a French film so the acts inside it can be seen as arty and a great portrayal of romance, which is the reason why it's uncut, as the graphicness is there for artist effect. 

PEGI and the BBFC are not the only regulators who receive a lot of complaints, another form of media which is seen as being difficult to regulate is television. This job is done by OFCOM who are a statutory business. OFCOM tend to receive complaints after a show has been televised meaning they can be seen as not strict as people have been already exposed to the show, making them a reactive regulating body. For instance, Celebrity Big Brother in 2016 had a member called Winston McKenzie who brought up very homophobic and discriminating comments, saying how he wouldn't mind being around a homosexual, but he would be "backed up against the wall". This show was broadcasted and then after it received several complaints however nothing could’ve been done; they couldn’t take it off because it had already been broadcasted; the damage had already been made. 

To conclude I believe that media regulatory businesses do their bestto protect the public, but it is the public that decrease this effectiveness because they act upon everything they see, as it brings an inner desire. I also feel like in the future regulation won’t be as strict as it is now, it would only get more lenient as people are now desensitized to violence and society is becoming more liberal so different things will be normal and acceptable in films and games.

What was OFCOMs decision as the regulator for broadcast TV? What is meant by the public interest? - Lee Rigby

- received almost 680 complaints
- "While the coverage was detailed and at times distressing, we did not consider that the images were too offensive for broadcast given they were appropriately scheduled and justified by the context."
- It noted that, in the majority of cases, "various warnings were given to viewers"
- Ofcom has now set out new guidance to broadcasters, highlighting the need to give viewers appropriate warnings before broadcasting material which might cause them "offence or distress".

Evaluation Question 2

combination of all 3 tasks and how effective it is
- make up
-pose
- main image
- font
- story
- colour/colour palette
- thematic icons

1. brand identity - how e branded - colour scheme - use of images - making money out of other products - merchandising

2.  cross media convergence  - promotion - synergy

3. Franchise  - on going media production - part 2/sequel -

 7 posters for the film saw - sequels - why? because its popular -  games now because the sequels were popular - rides because the games were popular

- halloween
- resident evil
- paranormal activity
- alien
- jaws

Evaluation Q1 - Poster

To create our film poster, I looked at other examples of existing horror film posters to generate ideas of what our film poster should aspire to resemble, and also to help me follow key conventions of a horror film poster. By looking at other film posters, my ideas developed because I incorporated different ideas from other posters to create my own to high standard,


Poster Influences

By taking conventions from other zombie horror film posters and adding it to our own, it helped us to develop and create a successful film poster. As we are comparing our own film poster to existing media texts, I've broken down what we used and how we developed it further, making it our own. Doing this effectively means that we fully understand the conventions and concepts of the zombie subgenre in terms of making a film poster.

Our Poster

Conventions We Used & Developed

A convention that we followed that developed our poster further was the image used in the background. The image is a still from some footage we obtained for the trailer, which happens to be an image of London that viewers/audience would recognize

Both 28 Weeks Later and The Zombie Diaries use this convention, which is where we got the idea from. We developed this convention further by making the image appear scratchy, old and worn on photoshop, also making it black and white so the main image can stand out more. This convention shows that because the threat may be in London, it's something thats of high importance, as London is one of the biggest cities in the world; showing that if it can happen in London, it can happen anywhere else - no one is safe,

Another key convention that we applied to the poster is the what the main image is and how it should look.

Our film poster's main image are bloodied hands, curling up into a fist to show the birth of the zombies. We took this convention from the American Zombie film poster and also the Cockneys vs Zombies film poster. We developed this by adding more hands to the image, instead of using a single fist; so that the image is made to appear stronger. We also developed this further by making the hands more diverse ethnically, to show how multicultural London had become. Examples can be seen below:

 A third convention that we followed is a logo/symbol the audience can remember the film poster by, which is the bio hazard symbol.

We used this convention as it it will be the first thing that the audience would recognize, and it also acts as a trademark for the film; coming in handy if the film was to turn into a franchise. The idea for the bio hazard symbol came from looking at film posters like Zombie Diaries, and also 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later as they're part of a film franchise. Examples of what we used and how we put it into our poster can be seen below.

Another important convention that we embodied into our film poster was the use of a Tagline, which most horror posters use to give the audience a small look in to what the film is about and/or what its based on without giving a lot away, to leave room for the imagination. 

Our own film tagline is "I'm Dyin' For It" which may give away that our film is based on the zombie subgenre of horror, however it doesnt explain how its a zombie film. "I'm Dyin' For It" allows the audience to imagine and interpret how they want, and may raise questions within them, urging them to watch the film. The tagline is placed in the middle of the poster, inside the main image; most zombie horror film posters put their tagline at the top or at the bottom of the poster - making this a convention that we developed and not just used. 

Our Film Poster

Shaun Of The Dead

Day Of The Dead

Dawn Of The Dead

A key convention that we incorporated was placing the institutional blurb at the bottom of our poster, which is what all existing horror posters have. Most horror posters user a very slim font to write their institutional blurb, which is a convention that we used. The institutional blurb consists of the cast of the film, writers, producers, costume designers and sound technicians. The institutional blurb is smaller than the rest of the film titles on the poster, as it isnt the main focus of the poster. We decided to write the institutional blurb in black so that it stands out against the background.

Our Film Poster

Zombieland

Resident Evil

things to improve - 4/1/16

In this lesson, we had a team meeting. The three of us (Ellie, Daniel and I) got together to see what needed improving across all of our individual tasks.
For the poster, which was my own individual task, I just have to do some fine tuning, and tweaking here and there and on the institutional blurb.
For the film trailer, which was Ellie's task, quite a few things need improving. One of those being that the shots in the trailer are too long, and that doesn't adhere to the conventions of a horror trailer, and the trailer itself is over 3 minutes long, and it needs to be just under half of that length. Another thing is that the zombies at the beginning of the trailer aren't as active as zombies should be, they're too still and should be doing zombie-like actions.

The Flesh Eaters Final Film Poster

Astral Studios The Flesh Eaters Rough Cut