The Miners' Campaign Tapes

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MichaelB
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The Miners' Campaign Tapes

#1 Post by MichaelB » Tue Nov 03, 2009 8:32 am

Full specs announced:
The Miners’ Campaign Tapes

These six short films, released for the first time, are a crucial document of a cataclysmic episode of British history 25 years ago.

A testament to solidarity and activism, the Miners’ Campaign Tapes tackle issues which continue to occupy us today: the right to demonstrate, police tactics, political double-speak, the role of the media.

In 1984 a group of independent film and video makers decided to show their support for the miners’ strike using the tools they had available: their cameras.

On the picket lines, at the marches and in the soup kitchens, they recorded the testimonies of striking miners, their wives and supporters, in a fight against the anti-strike propaganda dominating the mainstream media.

The videos that they produced are now available for the first time since the close of that devastating dispute. Among those that appear are Arthur Scargill, Dennis Skinner and the late Paul Foot. Music comes from popular artists of the time; Heaven 17, China Crisis, Kirsty MacColl, Joe Jackson and Linton Kwesi Johnson.

1 – Not Just Tea and Sandwiches
2 – The Coal Board’s Butchery
3 – Solidarity
4 – Straight Speaking
5 – The Lie Machine
6 – Only Doing Their Job?

Special features

Illustrated 22-page booklet with essays by Chris Reeves of Platform Films – discussing the making and distribution of the Tapes; by Julian Petley (co-author of Media Hits the Pits: the Media and the Coal Dispute and Shafted: the Media, the Miners’ Strike and the Aftermath and by David Peace, author of GB84, the Red Riding thrillers and The Damned Utd.

Release date: 30 November 2009
RRP: £12.99 / cat. no. BFIVD847 / PG
UK / 1984 / colour / 92 mins / optional subtitles for the hearing-impaired / DVD-9 / original aspect ratio 1.33:1

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Zazou dans le Metro
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Re: The Miners' Campaign Tapes

#2 Post by Zazou dans le Metro » Tue Nov 03, 2009 8:52 am

MichaelB wrote: Illustrated 22-page booklet with essays by Chris Reeves of Platform Films – discussing the making and distribution of the Tapes; by Julian Petley (co-author of Media Hits the Pits: the Media and the Coal Dispute and Shafted: the Media, the Miners’ Strike and the Aftermath and by David Peace, author of GB84, the Red Riding thrillers and The Damned Utd.
Do you know if the essay by David Peace is the one he wrote for new Statesman at the time of the the publication of GB84 which is wonderfully heartfelt and moving or has been newly commissioned ?

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MichaelB
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Re: The Miners' Campaign Tapes

#3 Post by MichaelB » Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:36 am

I've just checked with the producer and can confirm that the David Peace essay is indeed the original New Statesman piece. The Chris Reeves and Julian Petley essays are newly commissioned.

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Zazou dans le Metro
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Re: The Miners' Campaign Tapes

#4 Post by Zazou dans le Metro » Tue Nov 03, 2009 2:25 pm

MichaelB wrote:I've just checked with the producer and can confirm that the David Peace essay is indeed the original New Statesman piece. The Chris Reeves and Julian Petley essays are newly commissioned.
Thanks very much for that and welcome to your new day job as BFI/Forum interface.

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Re: The Miners' Campaign Tapes

#5 Post by MichaelB » Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:55 pm

Zazou dans le Metro wrote:Thanks very much for that and welcome to your new day job as BFI/Forum interface.
Actually I've been doing it for some time...

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Wu.Qinghua
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Re: The Miners' Campaign Tapes

#6 Post by Wu.Qinghua » Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:16 pm

That was one of my main reasons for registering!

O:)

Oh, no trolling intended ...

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MichaelB
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Re: The Miners' Campaign Tapes

#7 Post by MichaelB » Tue Nov 17, 2009 11:02 am

I now have a final production copy, though there's very little to add to the above - the soundtrack is 320kbps PCM, presumably to wring as much out of this material as is realistically possible.

Unusually, there's a picture quality warning on the back of the box, reading:
The Miners' Campaign Tapes were made on an analogue video format from a range of video sources; the image and sound quality reflect the characteristics of videotape material of this age and type.
The booklet goes into more detail:
The Miners Campaign Tapes were transferred from 1-inch video masters for this release by the Video Preservation Unit at the BFI National Archive.

These videos were originally made on U-matic, using material compiled from a range of video sources. The image displays a degree of softness, and some instances of minor breakup, which is expected in videotape material of this age and type.

We have used the best surviving materials and present these films at the highest quality possible. We sincerely hope that these technical issues do not detract from the overall enjoyment of these historically important works.
...but absolutely none of this should come as a surprise: anyone buying a collection of 1980s guerrilla videotapes expecting a pristine HD-quality picture frankly needs their head examined.

There's one more detail worth highlighting: one of the reasons for the delay to the release (originally planned to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the start of the strike last April) was that the BFI had to retrospectively sort out the rights to all the music featured in the tapes. Unfortunately, The Clash's 'Police and Thieves' proved impossible to clear, so it's been replaced by Linton Kwesi Johnson's not dissimilar 'Fite Dem Back' (featured elsewhere on tape 6, so there is at least some continuity). This only covers the opening seconds of the relevant tape, so it's not a big change - and in fact this is a useful illustration of the challenges of commercially reissuing material that was originally intended for other purposes.

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MichaelB
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Re: The Miners' Campaign Tapes

#8 Post by MichaelB » Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:31 pm

DVD Outsider:
For those of you who question what you read in the newspapers and see on TV and the often biased manner in which stories are reported, shaped and even fabricated, The Miners' Campaign Tapes provides a rare alternative viewpoint to the one that was presented by the mainstream media of the period and is sustained by the tabloid press of today. The tapes are valuable documents in themselves, and would be an excellent kicking off point for debate on a range of social, historical and political issues, and as such have considerable educational value as well. On that basis the disc comes warmly recommended.
Beaver:
Perhaps the first thing that you’ll notice when looking at the caps is the relative low quality of the image. Don’t be deterred by this. The image, while weak, is the result of the original video that was used by the documentarians. Given the original source, this is the best that we could have hoped for. Moreover, the quality of these helps to encapsulate them as a real document from a specific time period. I, for one, have no complaints about the transfer. The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack works quite well, as I suspect that the aural aspects of the transfer have been significantly improved over the original video. The dialogue is always clear and some of the song used here really rock.

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Wu.Qinghua
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Re: The Miners' Campaign Tapes

#9 Post by Wu.Qinghua » Mon Dec 07, 2009 5:46 pm

Whopee ... So this is, if Brian is right, the perfect release for me? But why have I preordered it at amazon's? Are the postal workers still striking? I won't complain about that ...

bamwc2
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Re: The Miners' Campaign Tapes

#10 Post by bamwc2 » Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:07 pm

Wu.Qinghua wrote:Whopee ... So this is, if Brian is right, the perfect release for me? But why have I preordered it at amazon's? Are the postal workers still striking? I won't complain about that ...
That's a pretty big "if". This release will certainly appeal to a smaller minority than some of the other releases from the BFI that I've covered recently. Out of curiosity, what makes you think that it's perfect for you?

Oh, and in case you're interested, they've sent a bit from their back catalog recently. I should have a review of one of the most important documentaries ever made up in the next few days...

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Wu.Qinghua
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Re: The Miners' Campaign Tapes

#11 Post by Wu.Qinghua » Tue Dec 08, 2009 1:48 am

bamwc2 wrote:That's a pretty big "if". This release will certainly appeal to a smaller minority than some of the other releases from the BFI that I've covered recently. Out of curiosity, what makes you think that it's perfect for you?
Oh, I had a look at your review where you wrote: "For those interested in the politics of labor or the history of Thatcher’s UK, then this is the perfect release for you." And these are two of the topics I am interested in. But apart from that, I have been waiting for the DVD since the day it was announced in the "Portrait of a Miner" thread ...
It's a pity that amazon hasn't started shipping yet, but well, as I've written before, I do not complain if this is due to the postal workers' strike.

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