Is the NVA a legitimate law?

The video recordings act was introduced and enforced in 1984, after the moral panic introduced by the right wing newspapers. The legislature passes this bill when the Conservative government was in office. The Bill stated that no one should see these video nasties, due to its immoral behaviour. However the moral panic focused on the availability of these video nasties and how easily accessible it was for children to watch them. The act did prevent children from watching video nasties and unregulated films, which made it successful and morally right. However this bill blocked the civil libities and freedoms of an individual over the age of 18 who is more than capable to decide wether or not to watch these films, thus making this  a morally iligitmate law. 

Notes on the 'video nasties' video

Mary Whitehouse was mates with Margret Thatcher, due to similar views regarding politics. And Christian traditional views

Mary Whitehouse would meet with high police figures to discuss campaigns to ban them. Obscene publication squad - police squad.

Had natural allies in right wing newspapers

'Rape of our children's minds' - daily mail newspaper article title. Propaganda videos and press to turn minds  

All very Christian views, hated these demonic and satan possessive films

Video nasties were used as scrape goats for all crimes. "Experts link street riots and child abuse to diet of filth fed to our young" - daily 

mail.

Videos started to get incinerate 

47 children replied ( 6 year olds ) 3 said they had seen these video nasties. They had seen 17 films between them. This equated to 40% it then became front pages news "sadism for 6 year olds" - daily mail

2/3rds of children in Birmingham claimed to have seen films that don't even exist

We're not worried about intellects, as members of Parliament started to defend them.

Shop keepers were getting fined

Started to arrest shop keepers and distributors for seeking video nasties, but shop keepers didn't know what they could and couldn't sell. Distributors were taken to court at the old Bailey 

Judges were bias as they two were against video nasties 

Quiz

1. 1978- 1984

2. Evil dead was significant as it was very gratuitous and actually got banned because of its content 

3. They pushed for video nasties to be banned and stirred the moral panic

4. They were afraid of imitable behaviour and the moral panic they used the video nasties as a scrape goat of the economic problems

5. The BBFC was an independent board which regulated the content of films, it decided to ban evil dead

6. The video recordings act was where all films that were considered to be a video nasty had to be sent to the BBFC for regulation 

Essay 1: What factors led to the decline of town or city centres cinemas in the kate 1970s and early 1980s?

"What factors led to the decline of town or city centres cinemas in the late 1970 and early 1980s?"

3 factors social technological and economic 

Point 1: coming out of a recession, film companies created sfx films as they made money, and these films were not distributed to flea pits.

Point2: the development of vhs led to the decline of cinema attendance and the only way to attract audiences back was to show sfx movies 

Point 3: the main demographic for cinema attendance was teenagers, they wanted to see the new state of the art films in the new state of the art cinemas, something a flea pit could not do.

Point4:  Mass marketing attracted these kids, which was then only shown in the multiplex. This created the event movie which was only available at multiplexes

There are three factors that led to the decline of town or city cinemas, more commonly known as fleapits. Social decline among adults through the global recession and the rise of the teenage demographic, technological advancement such as the reoccurring use of special effects and the development and popularity of VHS and finally the economic fall due to the recession.

As the UK was coming out of a global recession, economic standards among adults dropped significantly as they did not have disposable income to spend on trips to the cinema. Production companies were aware of such factors are were not willing to the take the risk of creating a character driven film which could potentially not make significant income if not none. This led to the formulaic creation of SFX driven movies such as E.T, these style over substance films were then only distributed to multiplexes which had more screens and seats with better quality sound and visual effects screens and equipment. This meant that fleapits were not being given the rights to show these SFX driven blockbusters which was generating the most income, subsequently putting them out of business and raising the audience attendance at multiplexes.

During the late 70s and the early 80s the development of VHS was a major breakthrough in the technology of film, it allowed families to watch newly released films in the comfort of their own home, it also enabled them to have money in the long run as videos were cheaper than a cinema ticket. Although this was a great jump in the entertainment industry it did lower the audience attendance in local cinemas. This was done by two factors, one, any films that would be shown in a fleapit could be easily purchased on VHS and  two the hollywood production and distribution companies were aware that to receive the best possible experience (sound and visually) you would have to see it in a state of the art cinema e.g a multiplex. So it would create these blockbusters to attract back the audiences. This led to the demise and neglect of the fleapit as it could not compete with the superior state of the art multiplexes with its formulaic but successful style over substance films.