Critical Investigation Proposal

The next step in our critical investigations is to develop our presentations into detailed academic proposals. You will be given a one-to-one tutorial to help you find the right angle and issue to concentrate on but first need to develop a blog post working through the following headings and tasks:
Working title
To what extent does the Fast and Furious franchise reflect a growing leniancy in Hollywood film certification?

Angle
What impact does the low age certification have on their audience? How has this changed the Film Industry today? Is this simply because we are more susceptible to violence and understand that it is not real, or because film institutions want more money?

Hypothesis
Age certification is becoming more lenient and this therefore has an effect on young audiences.

Linked production piece
Trailer on a horror or action film which includes age ratings and possible scenes/flashes of violence and things that are on the border of acceptable for young children.

MIGRAIN

• Media Language 
  In the films there are many violent scenes of fights and gun violence portrayed. There is also street races and illegal driving stunts shown.
• Institution
  The main institutions involved in the film franchise are Universal Pictures and Original Film and Relativity Media. The films are produced by Relativity Media and Original Film, but are distributed by Universal Pictures.
• Genre
  The genre of this film is action as there are many stunts and fighting scenes.
• Audience
  The audience of this film has changed overtime from much older audiences 15+ to much younger audiences 12A.
• Narrative
  The Fast And Furious is an American media film franchise based on an illegal street racing. 

Issues/Debates

Select at least five and say how each relates to your study, using the Media A-Z to help you think about this:

• Media effects 
• Moral Panics 
• Ownership and control - who controls the age ratings in the media world.
• Regulation and censorship - age ratings are becoming more lenient.
• Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century - this allows many people to access prate copies online regardless of what age. 

Theories

Media A-Z:

• Colonialism and Post-colonialism 
• Audience theories - Psychographics, what people tend to watch films as such. 
• Genre theories - Are all action movies given lower ratings due to higher demand.
• Contemporary Media Landscape - more films with increasing amount of violence are being exposed to young audiences.

Research plan (media texts, academic texts and websites)


Media texts
Fast And Furious

Other media texts
Terminator
Die Hard


TV documentaries
Empire of censors Part 1
Empire of censors Part 2


Academic texts/books

Link 1

Link 2

Internet Links

The Hunger Games age rating
BBFC Launch 12A Cinema Advert
History of British Film Certification
Why We Age Rate Films

Ignite Presentation Feedback

Movie Age Ratings/Violence

Teacher Feedback:

• Great choice of topic and potential for critical investigation here.
• immediately on to a primary text - Fast and Furious - but lack of rehearsal here - long pauses.
• Good use of images rather than text.
• Took a bit too long to get to the point - the change from 15 to 12A as the franchise continues.
• Excellent image analysis putting the two alongside each other.
• Good use of historical text - Terminator that adds to the debate.
• There are some brilliant points here but overall a frustrating lack of detail and depth to the presentation. Lack of authority in delivery.
• BUT, good selection of texts.
• Where are the media debates? Theories? So much more depth possible here. A relevant media debate but only scratching the surface here.
• Q+A raises commercial aspect - very important and not addressed in presentation. Institutional issues.
• Is there any point in age ratings in the digital world?

WWW:

• Good use of images and not text.
• Placing images side by side to compare the difference of before and after.
• Historical text was relevant and showed research had been put in.
• Interesting, and very current debate raised.
• Very good use of a film franchise.

EBI

• Rehearsed more.
• There were no long pauses between some slides.
• Got to the point faster.
• Raised different theories and points about the issue, such as commercial aspects.
• More detail put in to what the reason for these age ratings could be and about the films.

In order to turn my ignite talk into a top quality critical investigation, I would need to research further about my main media text, Fast and Furious. I could find out facts and key details such as how much money they may have grossed when the film was a 15 compared to when it became a 12A. I could also raise debates within my topic about various aspects of the films and what gives them the ratings that they do receive and whether the bbfc are becoming more susceptible to violence in movies as such.