50 Shades of Deadpool

Regulation exists for the purpose of controlling and protecting the vulnerable in society from any form of media that is too explicit or vulgar, and therefore seen as inappropriate for viewing. Film and Regulation isn't affected due to postmodern technological devices and software enabling people to bend the rules of regulations upheld by regulators such as the BBFC, and watch the supposedly inappropriate content. Since the 1980s regulation has been much more tamed, and has become very liberal, decreasing its efficiency, and allowing more explicit content to be pumped into the minds of the member of society. As such, these audiences have become desensitised to the violent and sexual content the have been exposed to. Although, some Conservative theorists argue that regulation in the Film and TV Industries are ineffective and need to be reinvigorated. Due to the introduction of new age ratings (such as he 15 certificate) regulators have been over-indulging in the regulation of the Film industry, and have therefore neglected the regulation of the TV industry. This has led to television pumping out more sexual/violent content, and the younger generations that (nowadays) venture into the unfiltered, unadulterated internet to watch these television series have become far more desensitised - especially the ones that use more-modernised software, such as Netflix, which is unregulated and at the mercy of its millions of customers.

Should society or the individual or an educated elite decide what is an appropriate level of sex and violence to expose children to?

Regulation is there to help and protect people from viewing the wrong things and harming themselves viscerally. Active Audience theorists would argue that an individual has the innate ability to decide what levels of sex and violence they wish to receive, and that as a person we know our own limits. as much as this theory is correct it can also be flawed, as not every individual is able to stop themselves from watching the content, and may even become addicted to it, even when they've reached their limits. Anyone standing from a Liberal perspective would say that people can think for themselves, as we know right from wrong, but a Conservative would argue that people must be guided, as we are psychologically imperfect, and must look to regulators for the stability and order we need.A recently regulated movie is 'Deadpool'. This movie, which contains scenes of; graphic violence, sexual references and strong language, was rated a 15 by the BBFC. The MARVEL movie was quick to draw attention, however, when audiences suggested that this movie was not suitable for younger audiences. The BBFC clearly states that no cuts were made to the movie and that everything was in the correct boundaries as gore, violence and sex were kept to a minimum and did not take up the majority of the movie. This shows how audiences can not necessarily make the right decisions, as they decided to take maters into their own hands and argue the certification given to this movie, so the regulators had to step in and explain why they gave the movie the rating they did. Another film regulated for its overly saturated sexual content was '50 Shades of Grey', a film which contained a high concentration of sex and nudity, as well as erotic role play based on domination and sado-masochism. This film was deemed an 18 by regulators BBFC, as the audiences were far more offended by the display of bosoms than violence. 

EXEMPLAR ESSAY

1. General definition, information The BBFC and PEGI are the two organisations who certificate and rate media products. The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) was set up in 1912 to protect the public from media material that may present harm risk.  Originally the BBFC only classified cinema films until the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984 when it started regulating videos/DVDs. In 1984 the BBFC began to regulate video games as well. From 2003 the responsibility of regulating video games was passed from the BBFC to PEGI (Pan European Game Information). The BBFC are an non-government regulatory body to which films are submitted for classification based on their content. They aim to protect the public by providing them with information that allows them to make a more educated decision when selecting a media products. The BBFC also provide verification for as to why they have awarded media products the certificate that they have. Like with the BBFC video games are submitted to PEGI to be given appropriate age ratings. These age ratings are in place to give guidance to the video game customers, particularly parents. The age ratings given to video games are awarded based on their content and suitability, not their difficulty. PEGI used descriptors that are placed on the back of the video games packaging. These descriptors explain the main reason behind why games have been given a particular age rating.
2. Specific points/debates  For example, it is not illegal for a person who is of age to buy a particular media product for a person who is under the age certificate of a product and allow them to view it. In this respect organisations such as PEGI and BBFC are carrying out the service that they hope to provide by informing the buyer of the content and the potential harm that such products may cause to a consumer who is not of suitable age to be subjected to the media product.
3. Thesis statement
4. Point Although these regulatory bodies are in place there are problems with the systems that prevent them from being used as a means of protection, for the public, from the media
5. Evidence/Case Study Example   A Serbian film is a prime example of a film where by the BBFC have taken precautionary measures in an attempt to prevent the public from being exposed to potentially harmful media content. The film, directed by Srdan Spasojevic, was eventually passed after four months of negotiation with the BBFC for release on the 10th December 2010. The BBFC required forty-nine individual cuts, across eleven scenes, before classifying it ’18’ for very strong sexual violence, sex and violence. Cuts were required to remove elements of sexual violence that tend to eroticise or endorse sexual violence. However, even after cuts the film was still seen to be disturbing, offensive and shocking to some adult audience members.
   The Woman In Black was passed by the BBFC with a 12A classification following cuts and was later released uncut on DVD with a 15 age certificate. The film was directed by James Watkins and was released on the 10th February 2012. The BBFC received 134 letters of complaint following the cinema viewing.  
   
   
6. Analysis/Argument This was as a result of the film being aged at a young age group to attract audience members who would watch the film as a result of it being Daniel Radcliffe’s first post Harry Potter film. The film was cut by 6 seconds in order to secure a 12A rating on release. This was as a result of the film being said to hare been “too scary” for the 12A certificate in its first-submitted form. In an attempt to satisfy both the audience members and the film producers the BBFC suggested the cuts in an attempt to release the film with a certificate that would be deemed appropriate by both parties and to prevent causing offence and harm to the younger audience members and their parents.However, the letters of complaint that were received suggest that the audience members and their parents did not feel that the BBFC did a sufficient in preventing the film for potentially causing harm.
7. Theory
8. Historical Context
9. Future PredictionIn this respect organisations such as PEGI and BBFC are carrying out the service that they hope to provide by informing the buyer of the content and the potential harm that such products may cause to a consumer who is not of suitable age to be subjected to the media product.

300 Word Essay

There are two sides to every argument. In the case of regulation they are whether it is in place for the protection of society, or in order to control society. My belief in the use of regulation today is quite liberal, as I do feel like regulators do exercise their power far more often than needed be; however, regulation is needed, and has always been needed, in order to protect society from threats. Over the decades the needs and reasons for regulation have changed. Regulators such as BBFC and OFFCOM are incredibly and unnecessarily strict when regulating movies. Approximately 20/30 years ago regulation was in place as there was too much exposure to sexual and violent content, but nowadays in a postmodern era, where technology has advanced exponentially we have gained accessed to a vast variety of ways of accessing media texts and consuming it to their heart's content - this is partially a reason for why as a society have grown to become a passive audience, and have been desensitised by the media. Due to this desensitisation people have developed the need to experience even greater visceral pleasure, as they do not get the same thrill from watching horrors now that they used to. Due to this, production companies are producing (sometimes unreasonably) gorier films with more blood and violence. Films such as The Human Centipede 2 which was banned by the BBFC for being "sexually violent and potentially obscene", and then eventually unbanned, given an 18 certificate is an example of why films are unnecessarily regulated. The regulators hear some negative responses from the public and instantaneously assume that no one should be allowed to watch this as the audience will copy what is shown. This is proven to be untrue as when the movie was watched illegally people were not compulsed to go and reenact the horrified scenes. The biggest reaction to the scenes were most likely out of disgust due to the repulsive images shown. It has also been shown in society that age certificates are a phoney system, as people far below the allowed age have consumed the texts and have been unaffected by it, due to their sense of reality and the knowledge of the gravity of the consequences of being consumed by the media; such as children. Most male children will have played a violent video gas such as grand theft auto or call of duty nowadays, despite the graphic content and age rating of the games being 18. These children are unaffected by this and play these games knowing that it's only a game. It is the adults that grow over protective and


the internet is unregulated.
nowadays discrimination has become the major issue.
points for and against.
"moral panic"
scapegoating
no examples or case studies
be able to address the question and how necessary regulation is.
synthesise both sides of the arguments.
2 points for, 2 points against.

Regulation

Self-assessed feedback (trailer)

The poster is able to perfectly balance the house theme of the project with its uniqueness through the simple, but carefully thought through decision of adding a background that would catch the audience's eye, added to that, the main image being dark and ominous as if it is phasing through the background to connote the supernatural tone of the poster; the continuity of the font between the masthead and the tag line; the clear boldness of the age certificate so that any underaged audiences aren't enticed. However, billing block could have been had the titles of the jobs overplayed on top of one another. Overall, the poster is well-balanced and uses conventions wisely and mostly effectively. 6/10.

RMT

Digital technology is software/hardware that is used to aid me in the creative process of completing my media assignment to the highest standard. These devices are manipulated to enhance our heights of inspiration and standards at which we assimilate modern pieces of media text and recreate it into something new and refreshing. Through and applications such as YouTube, Weebly, Final Cut Pro, and Adobe InDesign & Photoshop, we are enabled with the tools that allow us to experiment with our ideas and create a piece of work that is original but recreational. Due to the development of the internet and the media I am able to access social networks such as Instagram, where there are communities based on your preference or methods of creativity, and people are allowed to critique others' recreational ideas. Bricolage is the process of selecting certain characteristics and parts of other people's pieces of work and incorporate it into your own to make a never-seen-before piece of work. Hyper reality is a form of escapism for those

In the audience that want to briefly take a break from the stresses and boredoms of reality. My trailer contains this with the use of the supernatural subgenre. Aesthetics are the aspects of the work you make that are visually pleasing. 

During the brief time spent in my AS preliminary task my skills were extremely limited as it was the first task was ever given to complete on my own. The RMT I used for this task was Internet Explorer to search for examples of what college magazines looked like and use that as a template for my preliminary task. Adobe InDesign was used to copy the layout for my front cover, contents page and double page spread, add pictures from the internet and edit and enhance the typography of the work to help it better-resemble the college magazine I was basing my work off of. Due to the fact that my knowledge and skills in the use of Adobe software was little to none, I was given a photocopy screenshot of the application and labels to explain the use of each tool, easing the difficulty of the task. After completing this task, the end result was not as clean and professional as my work is currently. Since my skills were limited, so was my creativity, I wasn't able to questions the conventions I was portraying and experiment with different layout to improve the result. However, I do feel about of the access to social media and other online sources, my skills have developed further as I have used these resources to help educate myself and to inspire me for my current and future work. 




The AS music magazine I produced was incredibly better than the preliminary task I made, mainly due to the fact that I was able to develop my skills as the course went on and utilise the RMT given to me to the best of my ability, rather than directly copy someone else's work without fully understanding and analysing the conventions which was part of the research and planning I had to do during the course. However, even though I was able to analyse the conventions and understand why certain things went where, I had to go against some of the rules associated with the conventions in order to make my work unique, but this ended with me not following what my audience wanted, but what I wanted. More over, because my ability to use RMT was  not as restricted as it was with the preliminary task. 

Conventions

Conventions are a set of rules that are to be followed in order for the type of media text you are creating to be recognised by the target audience for what it is. They can be either followed or broken down and moulded into something similar, but are usually just followed in order to be identified for what they are. They are sometimes broken, however, and can be turned into a bricolage with other conventions from other subgenres in order to invent something that is a refreshed version of what others have previously followed, as audiences will tend to grow tired of producers of their genre constantly reusing the same material over and over again in each consecutive movie. An example of a bricolage would be crossing over the monster genre with slasher to create a monster/slasher hybrid. Over the course of my two year course I have tried to meet the expectations of my audience but be unique and give a refreshing version of the common conventions.

In AS, my brief was to create a music magazine. To complete this I had to identify the common conventions found in real music magazines in relation to the layout and structure, which involved placement of the masthead, cover lines, images, and so on. I analysed exemplar magazines such as ‘VIBE’, ‘Complex’ and ‘XXL’ (associated with the rap subgenre) as they are the magazines associated with my target audience, and what conventions the target audience would recognise on those magazines is what I should put in my own. Conventions such as the dominant image were iconic in the subgenre I planned to recreate as this was the convention which the target audience would be able to recognise easily as the model for the image would be someone famous, asserting their dominance in that particular genre through aggressive poses or flashy jewellery, connoting a form of respect in that target audience’s community. I used conventions like this in order to authenticate my magazine. This, however, did not show my understanding of conventions as the only reason I used them was because they were in similar places as the ones looked at in the real music magazines.

In A2 my task is to create a horror teaser trailer. My genre is supernatural, and in order to recreate the subgenre I had to research the conventions found in the supernatural genre, such as the subtext of priests, low key lighting, religion, and child possession. Horror movies such as The Exorcist and Carrie provided excellent insight as to what conventions the target audience will expect. The low key lighting provides anonymity for the antagonist and pent-up suspension throughout the trailer, the use of religion provides the haunted individual/collective with a sense of false security, as they will expect all their problems to be solved by the (usually masculine) religious figure, and the use of child possession gives parental viewers a frightening feeling, as they will be terrified by the fact that someone’s child was possessed by an evil spirit and made to be out of control, and would wish for the same to not happen to their own child. I wish to incorporate these sort of conventions into my trailer to give it a more meaningful idea, as without them my supernatural trailer wouldn’t be supernatural, it would just be a badly produced one minute clip.

In conclusion, I believe that my skills in the use of conventions has improved massively as I am able to identify key conventions, break them down, and apply them to my own piece of work. I also understand how to mould different conventions from different subgenres and turn them into a bricolage. I have acquired the knowledge needed to use conventions for my own media text in full.