Beware the dog

STOP LOOK LISTEN
The Magazine's Public Information Film festival

Every day in February, the Magazine is featuring a classic public information film from the past 60 years, concluding with a vote to find the nation's favourite.

Today's film is a short animation which, though full of fear and threat and playing on people's worries, is a work of art.

Enter our competition - make your own Public Information Film

The fear of rabies was keenly felt in the UK, and as the country became politically closer to its European allies, many proudly defended Great Britain's island status and strict quarantine as the only and best barriers against rabies.

STOP LOOK LISTEN Stop Look Listen is the Magazine's festival of Public Information Films, with the National Archives and the COI

The simplicity of these images, from this 1983 film, and in particular the use of a shadow dog, almost makes one think it is a phantom threat. But the clear, almost matronly, tone of the voiceover is clear.

If you're bitten, or scratched, or even licked by any animal when you're abroad, take no chances - it could have rabies. Wash the wound immediately, and then get urgent medical aid. If you wait until the symptoms of rabies appear, you've left it too late. Rabies kills.

Despite its art, the message here is a touch confused. However conscientious people are, they may well end up finding it hard to know what the right thing to do is.

Look at the script again - "if you're bitten, or scratched, or even licked... wash the wound immediately and then get urgent medical aid". Wound? I've only been licked! Medical aid? That's going to make me look good in front of a foreign doctor - he'll think I'm a paranoid Brit who's just scared of being abroad.

Enter our competition

It's easy to poke fun at such efforts, but could you do better yourself? Here's your chance to try. The Magazine is inviting readers to make your own 60-second films.

Your brief is to celebrate the art of the public information film. This means you can make a film which warns of modern danger in a contemporary style, or you can produce one in the style of films of old. It's up to you.

You've got until the end of the month to make the film and get it to us. Instructions for sending them to us are at the bottom of the page.

For those of you looking for tips on how to make your film work, BBC Video Nation editor Rosemary Richards says the key thing to consider is what the audience would like to see.

Ms Richards says it's always best to get out to different locations and take lots of pictures so you can illustrate your film well - but don't overdo it.

"Keep it simple," she says. "For example, you might want to use actors but perhaps your friends and family are not great actors. It might be best to just speak straight into the camera yourself. "You should also make sure you don't film your subjects next to windows and that you use the microphone(s) appropriately. And while hand-held camera can be used to good effect, it's usually best to make sure you have a good supply of steady shots.

"However great your creative idea is, the film can't be used unless we can see and hear what's on it," she says.

Also, if you want to get your film on the web or on TV, you must make sure all the work - including the music - is your own or copyright cleared.

So keep it simple, make sure the images and sounds are clear and, of course, get a good story.

Click here for more filming tips from the Video Nation website

Instructions for sending films

Films should be 60 seconds maximum. Please submit your films to us via e-mail or by post.

E-mail attachments should be sent to [e-mail], subject line STOP LOOK LISTEN COMPETITION. Attachments should be no bigger than 10Mb - you may be able to compress the file by zipping it.

If your film is above 10Mb, you can either upload it to your own personal webspace or free online storage sites (such as www.ourmedia.org) and send us an e-mail telling us its address.

Alternatively you could use free online file transfer services - see this Creative Guy blog posting for a list of 50 such services). Again, please address these to [e-mail], subject line STOP LOOK LISTEN COMPETITION.

If you want to post the file to us, please burn them on to a DVD or put them on MiniDV, and send them to:

The Magazine
BBC News Interactive
Room 7540
Television Centre
London
W12 7RJ

Here's some small print.

Terms and conditions If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's Terms and Conditions.

In contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way that we want, and in any media worldwide. This may include the transmission of the material by our overseas partners; these are all reputable foreign news broadcasters who are prohibited from altering the material in any way or making it available to other UK broadcasters or to the print media. (See the Terms and Conditions for the full terms of our rights.)

It's important to note, however, that you still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News and that if your image and/or video is accepted, we will endeavour to publish your name alongside it on the BBC News website. The BBC cannot guarantee that all pictures and/or video will be used and we reserve the right to edit your comments.

At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

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Stop Look Listen is compiled by Giles Wilson

Add your comments on this story, using the form below.

We moved to Egypt when I was 7 and my parents were so keen to make sure that my sister and I didn't touch stray animals that we were shown a video clip of a man dying from rabies in an isolation ward. It did the trick needless to say, and even made me stop biting my nails and sucking my thumb just in case.
Poppy Burgess, Mauritius

Another rabies film had the announcer explaining, in a chillingly matter-of-fact voice, that the wages of rabies is "death. Death in a manner that is beyond description." I was dubious, looked it up in an encyclopaedia, and remember being quite impressed that he wasn't exaggerating.
Nimrod Gently

Now I know why I was in such a terrible state when a dog licked me on a school exchange trip to Germany in 1984. I was absolutely terrified that I had caught rabies and did not sleep until I got home. After two further days of being in a terrible state, my mother (who thought the whole thing was hilarious) took me to my GP, who was very calm and reassuring but who also thought that I had taken the whole thing a little too seriously.
Tina Dickens, Letchworth, UK

I got bitten by a stray cat in Germany back in 1995. I was so paranoid about rabies that I went to a German doctor. He laughed at my paranoia and said I was more likely to die of tetanus and proceeded to give me a top up jab.
Lindsay Clark, Daventry

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