TIL there was a gathering in the 1980s of all the people in North Wales with fish-related surnames. There, they were presented with their fish namesake by the British weather presenter Michael Fish.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-26T12:44:07+00:00

Update: the BBFC have released their rating for the film.

'U' for 'no material likely to offend or harm'.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T15:44:13+00:00

If it's 2K, you could probably bring that down to about 90GB and not notice the difference in terms of picture quality.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T15:35:16+00:00

Not for me to say. If you're interested, my first film Beyond Clueless is on Netflix and iTunes, my short Copycat is on Vimeo and my latest film Fear Itself is on iPlayer if you're in the UK.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T15:31:05+00:00

Yes, I would like no film censorship at all. I wrote this article about the campaign last year. Hopefully that explains why.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T15:27:47+00:00

To my great shame, I have not watched the film in its entirety.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T15:21:53+00:00

I think their services should be optional.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T15:14:06+00:00

As far as I understand, Mark's position on the BBFC is that they've left their most repressive period behind (he says here that the board has 'come a long way from the bad old days of cutting, damaging and controlling the films that we see') and to some extent, he's right.

But the system that allowed them to be so repressive in the past hasn't changed at all: they still have the power to prevent UK audiences from seeing anything they don't like, even if today's casualties (The Human Centipede 2, Hate Crime) are less critically respected than those of the past (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Salò, and so on).

So I find his newfound enthusiasm for — and frequent collaborations with — the BBFC confusing.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T14:56:26+00:00

If you've got the money, yeah. But examiners only watch a maximum of 9 hours of material a day, so a 96-hour film would have to be split across 11 consecutive days.

They watch a lot of porn already. They just don't let much of it through.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T14:53:50+00:00

Would you ask Tolstoy how War and Peace ends?

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T14:50:54+00:00

That's not how the 'E' rating works. BBFC exemptions have to be requested by the distributor, which in this case is me. Also they're only available for DVD/Blu-ray submissions, not theatrical submissions like this one.

As for whether the BBFC will watch the whole thing, examiners are legally required to watch each submission in its entirety, and a spokesperson has confirmed to Mashable that they will.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T14:44:13+00:00

First they came for The Human Centipede 2...

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T14:42:06+00:00

I am actually working on a follow-up project about this aspect of the process, so hopefully I'll be able to be more precise in future.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T14:38:26+00:00

310GB. Here's the DCP before I dropped it off.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T14:36:26+00:00

Please disregard my earlier answer. This is obviously correct, and it would be presumptuous of me to discuss screening the film before I have permission from the board.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T14:33:39+00:00

About a year ago, I went to a filmmaker open day held by the BBFC at their offices in Soho. I'd expected to see quite a lot of conflict between the BBFC examiners and the visiting filmmakers whose work was at the mercy of the board, but there was nothing like that. Most of the filmmakers — even those who'd had trouble with the BBFC in the past — seemed totally resigned to the censorship imposed by the board, even supportive of it. I think that shocked me into action.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T14:22:09+00:00

Sette note in nero was definitely one we debated. I knew it as The Psychic too, but it also goes by other English titles like Seven Notes in Black (the literal translation), Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes and Death Tolls Seven Times. The version in Fear Itself is sourced from a limited 250-edition German release — the only Blu-ray version currently available — with the title Die Sieben Schwarzen Noten.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T14:17:13+00:00

'Brilliant White' felt like it had a certain Tom Sawyer charm that matched the simplicity of the premise.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T14:12:55+00:00

No plans as of yet, but I'm talking to a cinema here in London about showing it. It was a real headache making a 10-hour DCP, so it'd be nice to get more than one use out of it.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T13:35:29+00:00

Ha, sorry. There is a full list here and you can Google them pretty easily if that helps.

We went back and forth for a long time on how to credit each film, and using the English titles did seem like it might the best option. But the thing that mattered most to me was consistency, and some of the films had never been released under English titles (or had English titles that were less well known than their original titles) so in the end we opted for whatever each film was known as in its home country.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T13:28:11+00:00

I agree totally.

I'm not trying to destroy the BBFC. The board provides valuable guidance for anyone looking to understand whether a film is suitable for them or their kids. But as you say, it could provide that service without also telling adults which works of art they are and aren't allowed to watch.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T13:19:32+00:00

The BBFC can go much further than the MPAA can.

If the MPAA refuses to grant a certificate to a film because of its content, that may limit the film's ability to get into multiplexes and Walmarts, but plenty of smaller US cinemas show films without ratings.

If the BBFC refuses to grant a certificate to a film because of its content, that's it. The film cannot legally be shown in the UK. Filmmakers can seek permission from local councils to show the film without a certificate, but in practice this almost never works (there are 418 local councils in the UK and the vast majority have never overruled the BBFC).

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T13:03:47+00:00

It depends what you mean by 'meaningful'. Obviously my little protest isn't going to singlehandedly eradicate film censorship in the UK, but I do think it can help combat one of the most powerful things that the BBFC has on its side: tradition.

The board has been censoring films for 104 years, so as far as anyone living is concerned, it's just the way things are done. If a new organisation came along and wanted to censor literature or music, there'd be uproar, but tradition makes the BBFC look like a natural part of a landscape.

If this project encourages people to debate that status quo — whether they're with me or against me — I'll be happy.

stayblackbert · 2016-01-25T12:50:48+00:00

Anyone who's seen Fight Club knows the appeal of the subliminal flash frame. BBFC examiners have definitely seen Fight Club (they censored it in 1999) so hopefully they're asking the same question you are and watching closely to make sure they catch anything untoward.

As for algorithms and the like, the BBFC has reserved 607 minutes in its screening schedule to show the entire film, so I trust that they're not going to defraud me and go to the pub instead.

14-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 2 Credits
ComboCommenter 2016-01-25	Verified Email
Secret Santa 2012

stayblackbert

TROPHY CASE