I had no idea until I Googled it two minutes ago that VHS stood for video home system. Slightly ironic as this entry is about my appreciation for the format.
In my apartment, I have an office appropriately referred to as ‘The Nerd Room’. I spend 85% of my time at home in there. It’s my quiet place to write scripts, edit our flicks and update the websites. It’s also the home of my mildly large DVD collection. What you won’t see when you walk into the room is a VHS tape. They are hidden in a large dresser which houses my entire collection which I started years ago when I first became obsessed with films.
I grew up just outside of Sudbury in a town called Hanmer. It sounds tiny but it has a mall and in that mall is Popcorn Video. The store that started it all. I firmly believe that there isn’t a film geek on the planet who doesn’t have a soft spot for their original movie fix. Mine was a 5-7 minute bike ride away and I was there weekly renting movies and old school Nintendo games.
Then came the day they started selling VHS movies for 10 bucks. Until that point, the only way I could own a flick was to wait for holidays or tape it off television. My parents still have a massive drawer full of the original ‘pirated’ movies. Very quickly, I had more tapes than shelf space and so began a time in my life where I bought at least 2-3 movies a week. I used to buy movies just to boost the numbers. If I had 59 movies, I had to buy another one just to round off the number. The result is an incredibly diverse collection of movies that remain hidden in my office.
The other day, I opened the top drawer and Remember the Titans jumped out at me. I immediately popped some new batteries into the VCR remote and travelled back to the days before 16:9 high definition video presented in 5.1 surround sound. It was just a movie with scratchy lines and video noise I haven’t heard in years. Remember the snow before the movie began? The old ‘Coming Soon to Own’ promos? The experience is almost like finding a toy you haven’t seen in a decade. To this day, I have a box of Ninja Turtles with me at all times. They’re in storage but they are always there when I need them. I could never play with a newer action figure for fear of betraying my old friends. I think the same can be said about VHS tapes. I just don’t think it would be the same experience on DVD or Blu Ray.
Next up, I’m going to watch my old copy of Sneakers with Robert Redford. Back when I was a really nerdy Qbasic programmer (yes it’s true) this movie continually kicked my ass. It was so high tech! Clearly that’s not the case today but I’m still entertained watching that movie.
According to my quick Google search, VHS officially died December 31st, 2008. Some people may think it was a lot earlier than that. To me the format is still very much alive.
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