On Tuesday the 29th of July, Year 12 and 13 Media Studies, as well as Ms Hayward and Ms Joyce, headed down to Reading Cinemas for the annual “Censor for a Day” event. Censor for a Day is an event hosted by the New Zealand Classification Office, where senior Media Studies students participate in discussions to critically evaluate films and other media based on legislative criteria. The Classification Office is responsible for rating and classifying every film that is released in New Zealand. We all headed down to the cinema to meet with other like-minded schools around Otago. After purchasing some much-needed snacks, everyone filed into a theatre to get going. 

They started with a question: “What was the first film that scared you as a kid?”. This really got everyone thinking about what films impacted them the most from a young age. They then took us through their process and a quick guide about how they classify films, books, video games and other publications in New Zealand. They specifically look for distressing content, like Horror, Crime, S*x, Cruelty, and Violence. This gave us categories to look out for when watching films in the future. 

We had a quick stock-up on snacks, and then began watching a movie, giving us a chance to practise analysing aspects of the film in order to give it our own rating/classification. We watched ‘The Surfer’, a 2025 film featuring Nicolas Cage as the lead. The film followed a man who returns to his childhood beach in Australia with his son, aiming to reconnect through surfing and reclaim his family's home, only to face violent opposition from a local surf gang, leading him into a psychological spiral of obsession and madness. The film received an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, despite the very mixed opinions coming from our room of ‘critics’. 

After a free pizza lunch and some mingling with the other schools, everyone came back into the theatre for one last conversation about the film. We went through the 5 categories of content, and their intensity levels that we picked up on throughout the duration. After a very opinionated discussion, we came to the conclusion that the film was R16, with warnings of Violence, Suicide, Offensive Language, and Drug Use. We finished with a Q&A with the team from the Classification Office, and were able to get some valuable information about how young people can get involved in Media. The day was a success, and the experience not only deepened our understanding of film classification, but also inspired many of us to think more critically about the media we consume every day.