Public Information Films (PIFS)

[darren]

Re: Public Information Films (PIFS)

Ive never seen any of these films.


But they seem pretty good some rather frightening and they cover a variety of different subjects.

[staffslad]

Re: Public Information Films (PIFS)

Thank you for the information, Marc, I didn't know about the parachute packer's liability for 'chutes that failed to open. The example of the girl in the PIF packing the parachute seemed to be rather an odd one to choose and relevant to a fairly small proportion of the population, and I was at the time a bit puzzled by it. I wonder if it was initially made for the armed forces and subsequently released more widely.

Darren, I remember them being shown very frequently on TV back in the 70s and 80s. Yes, many of them made uncomfortable viewing, the rationale being, I suppose, if you scare them enough, they won't do it. A prime example, I think, would be the 'Don't die of ignorance' AIDS PIF in the mid-80s. Anyone who remembers that time will also remember the lack of information and understanding of AIDS, allied to the fact that at that time an AIDS diagnosis meant certain death, so I think those hard-hitting PIFs were specifically made to scare people into taking their health seriously, because at the time that's all the authorities could do to combat the disease. Even 30 years later, and with effective treatment for HIV, that PIF is still scary.

[staffslad]

Re: Public Information Films (PIFS)

I seem to remember a PIF about a child being run over by a combine harvester while playing in a field. I thought I might have been confusing it with a scene from 'Apaches' but if memory is correct this was a short--1 minute or so--film, shown during commercial breaks. Does anyone remember this? In my mind I can see the threshing blades and the child screaming.

[darren]

Re: Public Information Films (PIFS)

Was watching bad tv of the seventies and it showed a clip of one of them.

Where a fella slid down a bank into the water.

I must say it makes me remember those films.
Very frightening indeed.

[zabadak]

Re: Public Information Films (PIFS)

Was watching bad tv of the seventies and it showed a clip of one of them.

Where a fella slid down a bank into the water.

I must say it makes me remember those films.
Very frightening indeed.

I watched that! Yeah, those haircuts were scary!!!

[darren]

Re: Public Information Films (PIFS)

Yeah so was the voice saying dont go near the water.

Can see why these films where scary.

i watched that! Yeah, those haircuts were scary!!!

[Semi42]

Anyone recall PIF of and old guy sitting in his chair, fag in hand, recalling the day he’s just had .
”I’ve worked with horses all my life” we hear .
his dog end falls from his hand and starts a fire.
looked on YouTube but can’t find it

[Victoria O'Keefe]

jokey description: Small female child paying the price for saying she hopes Gorbachev will wet his trousers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYziG_oAzd8

[George 1978]

I used to have a phobia about fire in the 1980s and the PIFs about lit and discarded cigarettes onto polyurethane-filled armchairs and sofas was enough to give you nightmares, a la the 1979 World in Action episode on YT. The Coronation Street Rovers fire episode from 1986 didn't do much for my fire phobia either!

There was one with a woman going to bed, her cat following her, and then left a cigarette on a sofa or an armchair with a voiceover saying "she'll never see that again" or something. More nightmares.

[Victoria O'Keefe]

[catflap]

Got one of these shirts for Christmas

[George 1978]

When I recorded Mary Poppins on its first ITV transmission between Christmas and New Year 1991, I remember one of the (Central region) ad breaks towards the end of it, had a PIF about adoption or fostering disabled (or handicapped as they said then) youngsters which looked very old at the time; almost mid to late 1970s seeing how it was filmed. Anglia overnight off-airs circa 1988 was full of them.

I always wondered why back then PIFs looked older than the adverts in the same break, we now know that they were older and not made with the most recent technology.

[Richard1978]

I remember a similar thing with the Children's Film Foundation films where shown by CBBC in the late 1980s, as the 1970s fashions looked very out of date a decade on.

[George 1978]

I actually thought that PIFs looked old from the outset as a way of saving money when they were made.