Welcome to another edition of "Acts of Cultural Vandalism" and and the spray can is today pointed to (if you haven't worked out from that clip above) the subject of health and safety. To be more precise, health and safety films (and their parodies).
To begin with, here's an example of a health and safety film made before the 1950s. This film is from the US version of the Great Northern Railway and is typical of most safety films of this time.
It's boring! Its footage of men at work with close-ups of hands and feet and an over-domineering authoritative voice-over. The only piece of entertainment in that film was the (obviously) model train crash near the end of the film demonstrating an engineer not paying attention to the signals. Its like the brief had the line "This film must not be entertaining to watch" in it. The people who commissioned them (who kind of still viewed their employees as expendable organic robots) could have thought that entertainment was a luxury (like extended tea breaks). They saved the entertainment for promotional films (for business clients, managers, and customers) to show that everything's "fan-dabby-dozie." I mean, to employers, health and safety is no laughing matter. Accidents in the workplace cost time, resources and (of course) money.
After this drab period, things begin to pick up (and I don't just mean the use of colour). Thanks to the work of many researchers and time-motion studies, danger was taken more seriously in the workplace. But they also found new possible dangers. And a lot of them were found in places that were previously thought of as "cushy." Until the 1950s it can be assumed that working in an office or a shop was safer than, say, a ship builders yard. But it turned out that a lot of work time was lost through trips and falls. And their was new equipment to deal with as well. With these new dangers in existence, health and safety films had to change.
For offices and shops, health and safety films were (what you might say) "friendly." They weren't places you might expect dangers (no one has ever lost a finger in the platen of an electric typewriter (compared to the electric mangles at the time)). The following film (made by Xerox (of photocopier fame)) is typical of this fashion.
To begin with, here's an example of a health and safety film made before the 1950s. This film is from the US version of the Great Northern Railway and is typical of most safety films of this time.
Why Risk Your Life? (1940s)
It's boring! Its footage of men at work with close-ups of hands and feet and an over-domineering authoritative voice-over. The only piece of entertainment in that film was the (obviously) model train crash near the end of the film demonstrating an engineer not paying attention to the signals. Its like the brief had the line "This film must not be entertaining to watch" in it. The people who commissioned them (who kind of still viewed their employees as expendable organic robots) could have thought that entertainment was a luxury (like extended tea breaks). They saved the entertainment for promotional films (for business clients, managers, and customers) to show that everything's "fan-dabby-dozie." I mean, to employers, health and safety is no laughing matter. Accidents in the workplace cost time, resources and (of course) money.
After this drab period, things begin to pick up (and I don't just mean the use of colour). Thanks to the work of many researchers and time-motion studies, danger was taken more seriously in the workplace. But they also found new possible dangers. And a lot of them were found in places that were previously thought of as "cushy." Until the 1950s it can be assumed that working in an office or a shop was safer than, say, a ship builders yard. But it turned out that a lot of work time was lost through trips and falls. And their was new equipment to deal with as well. With these new dangers in existence, health and safety films had to change.
For offices and shops, health and safety films were (what you might say) "friendly." They weren't places you might expect dangers (no one has ever lost a finger in the platen of an electric typewriter (compared to the electric mangles at the time)). The following film (made by Xerox (of photocopier fame)) is typical of this fashion.
You and Office Safety from Xerox Films (1950s)
In heavy industry, the feel of health and safety films were a bit more "scary" and "macho" (the idea of women operating heavy machinery was still unthinkable at the time, remember). The following film is a typical example. It was commissioned by Caterpillar in 1970, featuring the voice-over of Johnny Cash?
Shake Hands With Danger (1970) from Caterpillar
However, by the 1970s, it was found that humour was a better at educating workers than just showing the worse case scenario. The following film from the US Union Pacific Railroad (presented by Glen Roper (an Archie Bunker look-alike possible turn elderly stuntman)) makes good use of freeze-frame, a boxing punching bag, a crash test dummy and a wooden leg in explaining why you should get on or off moving trains with "the right foot." (No high-vis jackets, though.)
Getting off on the Right Foot (c1972)
But by the 1990s, humour alone wasn't cutting it. They were endanger of becoming "boring." They needed some.. "spice." Something to get their attention and make them watch. The obvious answer was blood and guts.
The film that can be said that started this tread was this German parody of a 1980s work safety film called (translated from the original German title) Forklift Driver Klaus - The First Day on the Job. This film is very convincing for a parody, with the voice of Egon Hoegen as the narrator (a well known voice in German road safety films), but increasingly becomes ridiculous and gory.
Staplerfahrer Klaus – Der erste Arbeitstag <Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job> (2000)
Now here's how to make a health and safety film. Its no surprise that this film has been shown in real heath and safety briefings in Germany as a way to make them a bit more fun. No wonder it won many awards.
After 2000 (possibly thanks to this German film) health and safety films dramatically moved away from the quaint style of earlier times. Thanks to advances in computer-generated graphics, health and safety filmmakers were able to go extreme in their visuals. The only limits now were budget and taste. Although the budgets of such films are usually low, the decreasing costs of CGi has made even the most shoe-string-made films can have Hollywood level effects. But if that's the case, imagine what you might get with a huge budget?
After 2000 (possibly thanks to this German film) health and safety films dramatically moved away from the quaint style of earlier times. Thanks to advances in computer-generated graphics, health and safety filmmakers were able to go extreme in their visuals. The only limits now were budget and taste. Although the budgets of such films are usually low, the decreasing costs of CGi has made even the most shoe-string-made films can have Hollywood level effects. But if that's the case, imagine what you might get with a huge budget?
The best example of this trend has been this series of ads from the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board of Ontario, Canada.
Prevent-It.ca ads (c2007)
A year later, they made this dramatic ad. Ohh... the tension mounts.....
Prevent-It ad - Machine Shop (2008)
Damn and blast! They fixed the emergency switch! How could they (I imagine you saying mentally to yourself if this is the first time you saw this ad).
This Prevent-It campaign is unique in it's application in getting the message across. I bet after seeing the ad I placed at the start you'll never forget it. That's what happened to me when I first discovered that ad a few months ago. Its no surprise that the ads became a subject of parody. They are a few on YouTube, but this one in particular is my favorite. Not only it parody's the ads, it also comments on the recent financial crisis.
It was so good, here's the final sketch....
Well, that's it for now. But I'm pondering if I should do an edition about safety in the home. I mean, compared to workplaces (where safety is taken more seriously) the home is (statistically) a huge wide-ranging death trap. The possible dangers are endless. Chip pan fires, flammable upholstery, carbon monoxide poisoning, lead paint, mercury vapour from broken florescent bulbs, rugs on polished floors, loose carpet edges, exploding aerosol cans, incorrect fuses, loose electric wiring, candles.....
This Prevent-It campaign is unique in it's application in getting the message across. I bet after seeing the ad I placed at the start you'll never forget it. That's what happened to me when I first discovered that ad a few months ago. Its no surprise that the ads became a subject of parody. They are a few on YouTube, but this one in particular is my favorite. Not only it parody's the ads, it also comments on the recent financial crisis.
Prevent-It ad parody - Investment Banker and Loan Shark Christmas (Uploaded December 2007)
It was so good, here's the final sketch....
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