
Filmmaker Forcing UK Board of Film Classification to Watch Paint Dry - dnetesn
http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/film/2015/11/filmmaker-forcing-british-board-film-classification-watch-paint-drying-hours
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cperciva
I'm not sure I really see the point of this. Despite the headline, this is
less _forcing_ the Board of Film Classification to watch paint drying than it
is _paying_ them to watch paint dry.

If someone wants to pay me 425 GBP/hour (640 USD/hour) to watch paint dry, I'd
be happy to do it.

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medecau
It should be obvious the intent is not to pay someone $640/h to watch paint
dry on a cinema screen but instead to bring attention to the process required
to publish a movie.

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mschuster91
Awesome troll. Really awesome.

Film (and games) classifications are practically useless these days. Even when
I was a young kid I had practically unlimited access to all kinds of porn and
gore, either directly through the Internet or via friends. And hey, I turned
out to be a pretty decent human despite watching literally months of stuff
that conservatives label as "it makes your kids go full-blown Taliban/amok
runner/sex addict/rapist".

It is always a matter of education, and those who believe the "system" should
take over the responsibility of raising and educating their kids should be
relieved of their children. For the safety of the children, because kids never
exposed to anything "out of the order" do not grow up to be independent,
robust adults.

I am FUCKING SCARED what happens when the current generation of kids, raised
by helicopter parents and unable to withstand ANY KIND of external stress,
grows up and loses the support of their parents.

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mikeash
I think classifications are useful. If I see that a film is rated PG or R or
whatever, I have a basic idea of what to expect from it. This is useful.

What's not good is when the ratings are enforced by the government. Let people
decide for themselves (or for their children). But giving them additional
information to decide with is fine.

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slavik81
It's bad when it's enforced privately too. 'AO' is the rating for games
equivalent to 'NC-17' for movies. You'd think they're be treated similarly,
but no console manufacturer will license AO games for their platform, nor will
most stores carry them. This has created a de facto ban. There are literally
only 27 games that have ever been rated AO [1], because the only real choice a
developer has is to censor the game enough to release at a lower rating.

Sure, movies do censor themselves for financial reasons too, but they may
later release an uncut edition. For games, even that is simply impossible.

[1]
[http://www.esrb.org/ratings/search.aspx](http://www.esrb.org/ratings/search.aspx)

~~~
mikeash
I'd say that's an argument for open platforms, not against ratings. I'd bet
there are about seventeen million PC games that would be rated AO if they
bothered to get rated at all.

~~~
slavik81
I have no problem with ratings themselves, only with ratings enforcement.

Open platforms would solve part of the problem, and I love the PC, but
unfortunately closed platforms simply are a huge part of the industry today
and for the foreseeable future.

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nn3
I wonder if the drying paint movie could be marketed as meditation aid. Need
to put "mindfulness" and "artisan" somewhere in the description.

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theoh
Well, I sat through a couple of hours of different colours of paint being
applied and then let dry at a film festival a few months ago. The film is
called "The Extravagant Shadows" and it was made by the artist David Gatten.
So paint drying is definitely something people can get enthusiastic about in
an aesthetic sense.

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justincormack
The BBFC is famous for such rules as "ilooli" and the Mull of Kyntire test.
They are worthy of ridicule.

[http://www.biggerpictureresearch.net/2012/11/bbfc-
at-100.htm...](http://www.biggerpictureresearch.net/2012/11/bbfc-at-100.html)

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nothis
So I'm getting a little wary of activist stunts like these but dammit, this is
pretty much flawless. I see no way this does not either a) force the Uk Board
of Film Classification to actually sit through this mind-melting exercise or
b) force them to rethink the time/money wasted that goes into this. And it's
also quite funny at that, "I tip my hat to that guy!"-levels of funny.

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chriswarbo
> force the Uk Board of Film Classification to actually sit through this mind-
> melting exercise

Why would it be mind-melting? I don't imagine they're forced to sit in a
cinema from start to finish, remaining quiet with their eyes fixed on the
screen. It can be broken up into any number of parts; it could be played in
the background during meetings or other "proper" work; it could be split up
into 100 pieces and sent to 100 people; it could be scanned with software to
detect if there are any large discrepancies between frames; etc.

They only need to view it at all to confirm that the creator hasn't snuck in
some "indecent" content halfway through, which would be pretty easy to spot if
the rest of the thing literally is just paint drying.

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viraptor
Unless they say at some point there's a few seconds of reflection of people
having sex in one blob of paint.

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toyg
Meh. In the age of the internet, the BBFC is a relic from a bygone age.
Trolling them is like throwing stones at the window of the old biddy with "no
ball games" signs near her house.

In fact, I would leave them well alone, just in case some bright spark in
Parliament decides it's a good model for the internet.

