MisinforMation

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

COI + Mordant Music = MisinforMation

MisinforMation is the result of the BFI asking mysterious music makers Mordant Music to re-score an array of 70s and 80s public information films and documentary shorts produced by the Central Office of Information (COI); a serendipitous meeting of sound and image that has produced one of the BFI's most startling and uncategorisable DVD releases.

When the BFI took over management of the COI film collection it inherited hundreds of time-coded VHS compilations of the films. Musty and outmoded the format may be, but these tapes (compiled over the space of ten years) were, and still are, the main source of reference for the vast collection. Now housed in one of the BFI’s old nitrate viewing rooms (on floor 5½ at Stephen Street), it was here that Mordant Music’s Baron Mordant was brought in to scroll, trawl, stumble, wind and re-wind his way through some of the wonderfully diverse films that now make up this DVD release.

Some of the films are well known – AIDS: Iceberg (1986), Magpies: House (1987) – and some are from the early career of now famous filmmakers, such as Peter Greenaway’s Inkjet Printer (Living Tomorrow 245) and The Sea in Their Blood. Others, such as Illusions, a film on solvent abuse (1983) and New Towns in Britain (1974) are here seeing the light of day for the first time since their original distribution.

Baron Mordant explains the process:

"The cordial gentlemen of the BFI led me blindfolded onto the roof at the BFI HQ Stephen Street and left me propped against an obsolete Steenbeck with instructions to sniff my way to the nearest nitrate room, ruMMage through the VHS mountain and not leave until I'd misinformed at least one reel of usable DVD in earnest...in the midst of ruptured telecine transfers and squealing reels a selection of COI films, redolent to my youth, unearthed me and I duly smeared them with my detritus...I imagined sounds & characters leaving one film & cropping up in another and that's the way it eventually spooled...a narrative manifested itself and 'a return to the sea' would appear to be the iMMediate answer for future spores..."

Film materials for this release have been made available by the BFI National Archive and the COI film collection.

MisinforMation will be on sale at www.boomkat.com, www.mordantmusic.com and the BFI Filmstore from 6 December 2010

RRP: £14.99 / cat. no. BFIVD898 / Cert 18
UK / 1970-1987 / colour / 101 mins / original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / Dolby Digital stereo audio (320 kbps)

[ola t]

Interesting! Will the disc also include the films in their original form?

[Duncan Hopper]

I think I'd only be interested if the original versions are also included.

[MichaelB]

It does not include the original versions.

But don't knock it - I've just laid my hands on a review copy, and on the evidence of the first few minutes it's a really bizarre and fascinating piece of work. The first minute, for instance, makes this crime-prevention campaign ad considerably more sinister by replacing the original soundtrack and ditching the voiceover, so instead of crudely Herrmannesque shrieking strings it creates a sense of escalating panic that climaxes with the windows suddenly and inexplicably locking themselves.

[zedz]

Sounds fascinating. Does that sales info at the bottom mean that this won't be available through usual channels such as Amazon, Moviemail etc.?

[MichaelB]

I'm now about halfway through, and think it'll be right up your street.

Sometimes the films are shown in their original (visual) form, sometimes they're mashed up with others. Most of the time the soundtrack consists purely of electronic music, but occasionally reprocessed sound samples from COI voiceovers peep through. In general, the music serves to emphasise the incongruity (bordering on surrealism) of some of the images, especially when they're removed from their original context.

Overt satire is generally avoided, though there's a delicious exception in the form of a voiceover that originally accompanied a film about appalling slum housing conditions being laid over footage of assorted middle-class types living a life of luxury - or at least what a 1960s/70s COI film would regard as "luxury".

Oh, and to answer your main question: yes, exclusively those outlets for the time being.

[Jonathan S]

Although this sounds a bit too modernist for my taste, I do find a fascinating parallel with the discoveries I made when compiling music tracks for silent films: that I could alter the entire mood and even the meaning of a scene, or of a character, by choosing different music. That may sound rather obvious but it was only when I actually started experimenting that I realised the degree to which it could be done. Since then, I've become wary of trying to appreciate any silent film with only one accompaniment, even when it's one I personally enjoy.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Anyone interested in this might want to track down -40, which is roughly the same concept applied to NFB docs. I believe it was a limited edition but there's still copies out there (for example, someone on Discogs is flogging theirs for $11).

[MichaelB]

Yes, going from the description that sounds like a very similar project.

[MichaelB]

The Digital Fix - I was hoping Anthony Nield would review this, as he's one of the few writers I can think of who's knowledgeable enough about the source materials and sympathetic enough to the reworking they've had here to write something really thorough.

[MichaelB]

An excellent Guardian piece on public information films in general segues into a description of MisinforMation and an interview with the man behind the project.

[MichaelB]

One of the shorter sequences, 'A Double Room in a Single Bed', has just been published on YouTube.

[antnield]

The Telegraph

[MichaelB]

This will finally be available from normal retail outlets from August 13.

[antnield]

The Quietus.

[antnield]

Chris Petit (Radio On) and Baron Mordant talk to the Quietus about their new collaboration and how it was instigated by MisinforMation.