1
00:00:02,759 --> 00:00:07,440
Speaker 1: Ephemeral is production of my Heart three D audio for

2
00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:13,480
Speaker 1: full exposure. Listen with that phones. If you were wind

3
00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:17,400
Speaker 1: to the nineteen eighties and nineties, video stores were everywhere.

4
00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,400
Speaker 1: They came in different shapes and sizes, states of cleanliness,

5
00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:24,640
Speaker 1: and levels of cool. But they had one thing in common,

6
00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:30,200
Speaker 1: racks and racks of videotapes. But now, with thousands of

7
00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:32,600
Speaker 1: titles available to stream at the click of a button,

8
00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:36,199
Speaker 1: what does a physical store they have to offer? A

9
00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:41,960
Speaker 1: shopping destination, a bit of nostalgia, just a memory Today.

10
00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:47,680
Speaker 1: Ephemeral producer Trevor Young traces the rise, fall, and potential

11
00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:54,480
Speaker 1: future of the video store. When I was about eight

12
00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:57,080
Speaker 1: or nine, my mom started taking me to a local

13
00:00:57,160 --> 00:01:00,960
Speaker 1: video store in Austin, Texas called I Love Video. Up

14
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,920
Speaker 1: to that point, my idea of cinema was Star Wars,

15
00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:08,319
Speaker 1: The Phantom Menace. I've been wondering, what are mini chlorines?

16
00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:13,480
Speaker 1: The Iglorians are a microscopic life form that resides with

17
00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:19,600
Speaker 1: an old living sounds. I don't understand, but I love video.

18
00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:23,480
Speaker 1: I was exposed to a vast library of old timey classics.

19
00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:28,280
Speaker 1: But what about us? We'll always had Paris horror flicks,

20
00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:36,360
Speaker 1: ethereal dramas. Mr Malcolm, I think I can explain, Yeah, explain.

21
00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:39,960
Speaker 1: We operate a little business here that simulates for our

22
00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:44,560
Speaker 1: clientele the experience of being you actually and all sorts

23
00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,000
Speaker 1: of movies, so that by the time I was in

24
00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:49,800
Speaker 1: high school, I had developed a deep love for cinema.

25
00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:53,120
Speaker 1: I always credit I Love Video for that. The place

26
00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:56,240
Speaker 1: meant a lot to me, and without a doubt, I'm

27
00:01:56,240 --> 00:02:03,000
Speaker 1: not alone in my experience. It's hard to overstate the

28
00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:06,360
Speaker 1: importance of the space of the video store. Whether it

29
00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:10,239
Speaker 1: was a shabby place, or whether it was a glitzy blockbuster,

30
00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:13,840
Speaker 1: or whether it was a kind of quirky, artsy, fartzy

31
00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:18,120
Speaker 1: place with memorabilia or whatever. The space of the store

32
00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:22,200
Speaker 1: is hugely important because it's a social space and a

33
00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:27,480
Speaker 1: physical space, creating this new sense of a physical relationship

34
00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:32,760
Speaker 1: of shopping with movies. My name's Daniel Herbert, and I'm

35
00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:36,400
Speaker 1: an associate professor at the Universe of Michigan in the

36
00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:39,480
Speaker 1: Department of Film, Television and Media, and i am the

37
00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:43,880
Speaker 1: author of Video Land, Movie Culture at the American Video Store.

38
00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:48,280
Speaker 1: Dan's book, Video Land taps into something many of us

39
00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:51,320
Speaker 1: have likely felt at some point that going into a

40
00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:56,919
Speaker 1: video store is unlike any other movie going experience. At

41
00:02:56,960 --> 00:02:59,480
Speaker 1: the movie theater. You would go and you know, you

42
00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:01,320
Speaker 1: might shot up to the extent that you pick one

43
00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:03,160
Speaker 1: of the four films that are playing in the theater,

44
00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:04,400
Speaker 1: but then you buy a ticket and you sit down

45
00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:08,040
Speaker 1: and you kind of have this consumption experience, whereas you

46
00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:10,400
Speaker 1: don't watch a movie at the store. The store is

47
00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:15,079
Speaker 1: all about shopping and contemplation and interacting with the physical

48
00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:18,120
Speaker 1: objects of the shelves and the tapes, interacting with the

49
00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:22,000
Speaker 1: physical bodies of the other shoppers and the clerks, and

50
00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:26,440
Speaker 1: interacting socially with whoever you're there with, your family, your date,

51
00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:31,160
Speaker 1: other shoppers seeing what they're watching. In terms of transforming

52
00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:36,800
Speaker 1: movie culture, it made movies shoppable. Come to the warehouse,

53
00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:39,600
Speaker 1: movies you want what do you want them? With? The

54
00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:45,480
Speaker 1: warehouse movie Rebel Garotte. The retailing of movies creates a

55
00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:50,240
Speaker 1: public forum for that kind of evaluation of movie taste,

56
00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:54,200
Speaker 1: and sometimes that's announced right when you're talking. So much

57
00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:56,280
Speaker 1: of that was also invisible that you'd like walk and

58
00:03:56,320 --> 00:03:58,280
Speaker 1: you look at a tape and you say that's not

59
00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:02,560
Speaker 1: for me, And that's like this momentary, ephemeral interaction with

60
00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:07,400
Speaker 1: an object in a store like me. Dan also has

61
00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:11,120
Speaker 1: fond memories of his childhood video stores, even if some

62
00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:14,720
Speaker 1: of them were a little readier than others. I grew

63
00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:17,000
Speaker 1: up in a small kind of working class town on

64
00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:19,880
Speaker 1: the south side of Detroit, and we got a video

65
00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:23,520
Speaker 1: store there actually quite early, like eight three, eight four,

66
00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:28,760
Speaker 1: and this was a classic junkie mom and pop shop

67
00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:32,960
Speaker 1: and a totally beat up strip mall. That particular place

68
00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:37,040
Speaker 1: had carpet on the walls and it was just gross,

69
00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:40,920
Speaker 1: and the shelves were like, you know, handcrafted wood with

70
00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:43,960
Speaker 1: stapled carpet on him. And I remember like it was

71
00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:46,599
Speaker 1: totally fascinating and amazing to go in there and to

72
00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:49,599
Speaker 1: see all the boxes, especially because in those days horror

73
00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:52,360
Speaker 1: films were big, cheap action films were big, and those

74
00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:56,640
Speaker 1: things had crazy lurid covers. The following movie is rated.

75
00:04:56,800 --> 00:04:59,680
Speaker 1: Are so just to being a kid with very protective

76
00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:03,479
Speaker 1: parents seeing like slasher movie covers and like action movie covers,

77
00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:06,520
Speaker 1: I was like, this is a world of amazement my family,

78
00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:10,560
Speaker 1: Like every other family, movie rental just became habit. Every weekend,

79
00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,760
Speaker 1: two or three movies, if not on week days. I'm

80
00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:16,440
Speaker 1: gen X and I grew up in a suburb without

81
00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:18,920
Speaker 1: an art house theater. So like my introduction to like

82
00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:24,400
Speaker 1: quality cinema, specialty cinema, indie stuff, foreign films, like my

83
00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:28,400
Speaker 1: kind of cinephilia was fed by videotape rather than by

84
00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:32,080
Speaker 1: an art house theater. When I saw things like eraser Head,

85
00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:39,479
Speaker 1: Oh you are ship? Or drug store cowboy guys got

86
00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:43,120
Speaker 1: new blues? Well, no, you know how odd it is

87
00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:46,600
Speaker 1: to get blues these days, David, how about some morphine?

88
00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:49,520
Speaker 1: I got some good old morphine, and I first saw

89
00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:52,599
Speaker 1: the glimmer that film could be more than just Arnold Schwarzenegger.

90
00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:59,400
Speaker 1: All right, everyone, You know that's set a trajectory for

91
00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:01,800
Speaker 1: my whole life, making me think, like eventually that I

92
00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:05,400
Speaker 1: could study films as a kind of serious thing. You'll

93
00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:08,320
Speaker 1: hear Dan mentioned David Lynch's a racer Head a few

94
00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,400
Speaker 1: times throughout this episode, and there's a reason for that.

95
00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:15,200
Speaker 1: A racer Head demonstrates one way in which home video

96
00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:18,440
Speaker 1: was so valuable to film culture. I mean, it's a

97
00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:22,200
Speaker 1: super weird movie, like even by weird movie standards. I

98
00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:25,919
Speaker 1: had an operation on my arm here. Doctors said I

99
00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:28,680
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to use it. What the hell do they? Know,

100
00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:31,640
Speaker 1: I said, And I rubbed it for a half hour

101
00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:35,839
Speaker 1: every day, and pretty soon I had my arm back again.

102
00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:39,480
Speaker 1: But I also think the history of that film in

103
00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:43,239
Speaker 1: terms of its being so exclusive, right, like it played

104
00:06:43,279 --> 00:06:46,520
Speaker 1: in midnight screenings in l A and New York, and

105
00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:49,640
Speaker 1: then you know, it's this kind of underground thing, like

106
00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:51,360
Speaker 1: how do you get access to it if you're not

107
00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:54,240
Speaker 1: in a big city, if you don't have like a

108
00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:58,279
Speaker 1: midnight movie screening, And with home video you could see

109
00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:03,280
Speaker 1: a racer head if you lived in suburban Detroit. There's

110
00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:07,200
Speaker 1: lots of cases to from the eighties, even where you

111
00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:11,400
Speaker 1: have things that were failures in theaters, but home video

112
00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:16,320
Speaker 1: provided this lifespan. Officer k D six Stash three dot seven.

113
00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:23,080
Speaker 1: Let's begin, ready, we sell your base and blood and

114
00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:26,320
Speaker 1: black nothingness began to spin like we would not have

115
00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:31,400
Speaker 1: Blade Runner if it weren't for home video, because Blade

116
00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:35,920
Speaker 1: Runner did not do well in theaters, but home video

117
00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:40,040
Speaker 1: kept it alive. We create a cushion pillow for their

118
00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:45,240
Speaker 1: emotions and consequently we can control them them memories. You're

119
00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:48,240
Speaker 1: talking about memories, and then then you have a director's cut,

120
00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:50,200
Speaker 1: so there'd be a new home video release and so

121
00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:54,000
Speaker 1: you have a film that was absolutely a failure in theaters,

122
00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:58,400
Speaker 1: but whose legacy has been enormous, and that's entirely because

123
00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:01,520
Speaker 1: of home video and the way home video can increase

124
00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:05,800
Speaker 1: reputations even for films that did badly in theaters. But

125
00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:09,000
Speaker 1: nowadays you can probably find a racer Head and Blade

126
00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:12,880
Speaker 1: Runner on some online streaming service. It's likely a surprise

127
00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:15,440
Speaker 1: to no one. The video stores have been closing down

128
00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:19,640
Speaker 1: left and right for over a decade. According to USA Today,

129
00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:23,080
Speaker 1: between two thousand seven and two thousand seventeen, the number

130
00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:27,600
Speaker 1: of US video stores dropped eight from over fifteen thousand

131
00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:31,040
Speaker 1: to just two thousand. Dan saw this coming a while

132
00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:36,160
Speaker 1: back and knew that someone had to document this. Two nine,

133
00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:42,080
Speaker 1: it was clear that the industry was changing dramatically. Netflix

134
00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:45,600
Speaker 1: had just begun streaming in two thousand eight. One book

135
00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:48,680
Speaker 1: came out, a very good book by Joshua Greenberg called

136
00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:53,480
Speaker 1: from Databacks to Blockbuster. But I knew that, like, I

137
00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:55,400
Speaker 1: could do a very different kind of book, and I

138
00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:57,760
Speaker 1: wanted to do a very different kind of book. So

139
00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:00,400
Speaker 1: I don't know that I knew immediately that I was

140
00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:03,640
Speaker 1: kind of documenting something that was on its way out.

141
00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:06,400
Speaker 1: But I had the sense that it was like timely,

142
00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:10,400
Speaker 1: and so then by like two thousand ten or eleven,

143
00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:12,160
Speaker 1: when I really did know that this was going to

144
00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:15,160
Speaker 1: be a book. By that point, you know, Hollywood Video

145
00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:17,719
Speaker 1: Movie Gallery went on a business, and so I did

146
00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:21,400
Speaker 1: know that in fact, what I was doing was documentary,

147
00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:25,240
Speaker 1: something that was still vibrant but certainly didn't have a

148
00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,840
Speaker 1: lot of life left. So there was an urgency to

149
00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:31,959
Speaker 1: the research. Urgent because it was clear that like everything

150
00:09:32,040 --> 00:09:34,839
Speaker 1: was changing very dramatically, and people were adopting streaming more

151
00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:40,160
Speaker 1: and more, and video stores were just disappearing. Dan's research

152
00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:42,960
Speaker 1: went all the way back to the beginning of home video.

153
00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:46,760
Speaker 1: It all started with one of the first home video formats,

154
00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:50,680
Speaker 1: Beta Max, which came around in the mid seventies. But

155
00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:56,640
Speaker 1: home video at that point was something very different. In

156
00:09:56,640 --> 00:09:58,840
Speaker 1: those early days of Beta Max and then a couple

157
00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:02,400
Speaker 1: of years later with vh Yes, those things were marketed

158
00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:07,800
Speaker 1: and conceived of as being for television, for recording television

159
00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:11,680
Speaker 1: programs and playing them at your own convenience. People could

160
00:10:11,679 --> 00:10:14,000
Speaker 1: watch soap operas in the evening rather than during the day,

161
00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:16,360
Speaker 1: or one could watch Magnum p I, you know, on

162
00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:19,280
Speaker 1: a Saturday morning rather than on Thursday night and you

163
00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:27,240
Speaker 1: can fast forward to the commercials, which, of course is

164
00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:29,720
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why Hollywood was so upset by it,

165
00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:34,760
Speaker 1: because it disturbed a business model. The manufacturers didn't necessarily

166
00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:40,520
Speaker 1: think of these things initially as vehicles for delivering prerecorded

167
00:10:40,559 --> 00:10:45,120
Speaker 1: movie content, but quickly entrepreneurs in the United States thought

168
00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:50,080
Speaker 1: of that. One of those entrepreneurs was Andre Blair. Blay

169
00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:53,120
Speaker 1: is often credited as the father of home video, and

170
00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:55,760
Speaker 1: as it turns out, Blay lived and worked in a

171
00:10:55,800 --> 00:10:59,839
Speaker 1: place not far from Dan Incidentally, very strange that I

172
00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,319
Speaker 1: up in the same town that Andre Blais was operating.

173
00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:05,480
Speaker 1: Actually here in southeast Michigan, in a town called Farmington,

174
00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:08,040
Speaker 1: where I lived. He had already been in the business

175
00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:11,360
Speaker 1: of kind of magnetic tape like duplication for like the

176
00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:15,040
Speaker 1: auto industry, doing like educational videos and things like that. Now,

177
00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:18,199
Speaker 1: let's see what would happen when driving under the influence

178
00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:23,199
Speaker 1: of alcohol. Let's imagine you're driving and haven't taken alcohol.

179
00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:27,360
Speaker 1: Watch out for that deliverymand Your rapid perception of the

180
00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:30,800
Speaker 1: situation and quick break reaction prevented what could have been

181
00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:34,720
Speaker 1: a fatal accident. Part of his insight was that he

182
00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:37,080
Speaker 1: was already in the business of selling prerecorded content to

183
00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:40,600
Speaker 1: a certain market, but that prerecorded content was not Hollywood movies,

184
00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:46,880
Speaker 1: and the market was not general consumers. In seventy so,

185
00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:50,079
Speaker 1: the same year that the VHS format hits North America,

186
00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:53,840
Speaker 1: he approached all the Hollywood studios saying, I'd like to

187
00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:57,640
Speaker 1: put your movies on tape and sell them to individuals,

188
00:11:57,920 --> 00:12:01,240
Speaker 1: like private consumers. The only studio that I heard from

189
00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:04,880
Speaker 1: was twenty century Fox. We had a nice conversation then

190
00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:08,080
Speaker 1: he hadn't been a list of a hundred motivase and

191
00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:11,200
Speaker 1: said that we've cleared the home video rights to these.

192
00:12:11,559 --> 00:12:15,240
Speaker 1: I made them. We had fifty titles, and we released

193
00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:18,480
Speaker 1: all fifty titles at once. He paid like hundreds of

194
00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:21,240
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars for the right to put a bunch

195
00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:26,679
Speaker 1: of old Fox movies on tape, and he tried to

196
00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:29,240
Speaker 1: mandate that people could not rent them because he really

197
00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:31,400
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of keep control of the sale and

198
00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:33,000
Speaker 1: make it a a kind of a direct sale thing. And

199
00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:36,120
Speaker 1: these things were like eight hundred bucks. But still people

200
00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:40,400
Speaker 1: kind of defied him, and video stores immediately appeared in

201
00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:43,560
Speaker 1: southern California and New York City and in southeast Michigan,

202
00:12:43,640 --> 00:12:46,840
Speaker 1: there was a place called Thomas Video, and they remember

203
00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:51,840
Speaker 1: driving across town and getting tapes directly from Blade. It's

204
00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:54,160
Speaker 1: fun to think about what the first video store was.

205
00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:58,720
Speaker 1: Different people claim that, but they all pop up very quickly,

206
00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:01,880
Speaker 1: one after the other instead seven, and then that sets

207
00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:05,160
Speaker 1: the whole thing in motion. So it was certainly an

208
00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:08,080
Speaker 1: exciting thing, and people were opening video stories left and right.

209
00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:13,000
Speaker 1: But the industry really exploded in a D three after

210
00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:16,200
Speaker 1: the VCR prices they dropped from like seven dollars to

211
00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:18,280
Speaker 1: three dollars, which, of course in a D three was

212
00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:21,960
Speaker 1: still very expensive, but affordable to a middle class, working

213
00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:26,199
Speaker 1: class family. While video stores were starting to spring up,

214
00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:29,560
Speaker 1: there was still debate about which video format to use.

215
00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:33,360
Speaker 1: Most of us think VHS when we think about video tapes,

216
00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:37,000
Speaker 1: but in those early days of home video, Beta max

217
00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:41,679
Speaker 1: was still dominant, if only for a short period. Beta

218
00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:45,720
Speaker 1: tapes were smaller than vhs, and the first Beta tapes

219
00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:49,120
Speaker 1: were only an hour long, kind of conceived of to

220
00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:53,640
Speaker 1: again record television programs, but they put movies on them

221
00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:55,920
Speaker 1: and you would rent and it would come with two

222
00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:59,600
Speaker 1: Beta tapes. VCRs were these top loading things. The thing

223
00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:02,480
Speaker 1: would like lift up in this clunk and then you

224
00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:04,480
Speaker 1: put it in and then it's like sync down into

225
00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:06,199
Speaker 1: the machine and it was like, you know, almost like

226
00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:09,319
Speaker 1: a real to real playing inside there, spinning the dials

227
00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:13,840
Speaker 1: inside the tape. The format war between VHS and Beta

228
00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:15,480
Speaker 1: was real. And so you go into a video store

229
00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:20,600
Speaker 1: in those days and they might have a thousand videos total.

230
00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:25,040
Speaker 1: Four hundred would be BEATA and six VHS. It was

231
00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:28,400
Speaker 1: a real kind of debate for store owners and for renters,

232
00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:31,600
Speaker 1: and certainly for people who were dropping hundreds of dollars

233
00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:34,200
Speaker 1: on the machines trying to guess, like what format is

234
00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:37,640
Speaker 1: the right format. Thanks to Sony's revolutionary Beta Max deck,

235
00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:39,960
Speaker 1: which hooks up to any TV set, now you can

236
00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:43,320
Speaker 1: automatically videotape your favorite show even when you're not home,

237
00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:46,280
Speaker 1: and watch it any time you would. Good morning, gentlemen,

238
00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:50,280
Speaker 1: I'm going home to watch the Light show. Beta Max

239
00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:54,680
Speaker 1: was a higher fidelity visually and sonically right, so the

240
00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:58,200
Speaker 1: picture quality was slightly better than VHS and the and

241
00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:00,200
Speaker 1: the sound quality was better, and that was part of

242
00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,720
Speaker 1: their claim to fame. But eventually VHS just kind of

243
00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:06,640
Speaker 1: took over, and then the network effect kicks in and

244
00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:10,960
Speaker 1: more stores have more VHS tapes than data VHS, the

245
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:14,960
Speaker 1: four hour system from Panasonic and other leading companies. If

246
00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:16,920
Speaker 1: you're a consumer, you're thinking, well, I'm not going to

247
00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:19,720
Speaker 1: buy a beta tape because I only have these options

248
00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:23,480
Speaker 1: as opposed to VHS, which has these options. The video

249
00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:27,080
Speaker 1: store market took off fast. According to the Associated Press,

250
00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:32,440
Speaker 1: there were over fifteen thousand video stores in the US alone.

251
00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:36,920
Speaker 1: Home video the VCR and having a movie on tape

252
00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:42,040
Speaker 1: transforms the movie viewing experience in incredible ways. One it

253
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:44,400
Speaker 1: puts it in the home. Of course, people have been

254
00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:48,240
Speaker 1: accustomed to watching movies at home on television, but movies

255
00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:51,920
Speaker 1: didn't appear when you wanted them necessarily, and so home

256
00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:56,480
Speaker 1: video exploded. The idea that consumers had this kind of

257
00:15:56,680 --> 00:16:01,080
Speaker 1: amazing control over what they watched, when they watched, and

258
00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:04,000
Speaker 1: the convenience of watching it at home in the video

259
00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:09,360
Speaker 1: store plays into that because with the rental model, these

260
00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:14,160
Speaker 1: were kind of temporary transactions but offering tons of choices.

261
00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:17,320
Speaker 1: If it had been a cell through model only, then

262
00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:19,920
Speaker 1: people would have been like kind of stuck with whatever

263
00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:24,680
Speaker 1: hundred tapes they bought. But with the rental stores, you know,

264
00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:28,200
Speaker 1: even the worst video stores had five hundred titles or more.

265
00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:31,880
Speaker 1: This week, the warehouse guarantees you can rent a Big Crocodile,

266
00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:34,520
Speaker 1: Dundee Too, and Cocktail starring Tom Cruise. If we don't

267
00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:36,560
Speaker 1: have a copy available, we'll give you a coupon for

268
00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:38,760
Speaker 1: a free rental for one of these three hit movies.

269
00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:44,360
Speaker 1: That sense of catering to individual tastes and desires that

270
00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:48,000
Speaker 1: really comes about with home video and the video store

271
00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:54,880
Speaker 1: being the literal market for taste. Consumers could get what

272
00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:58,440
Speaker 1: they wanted, when they wanted, where they wanted. That was

273
00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:03,320
Speaker 1: a transformation, I mean your transformation. Not only did video

274
00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:06,520
Speaker 1: stores offer a new sort of convenience, they were also

275
00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:11,240
Speaker 1: unique spaces in themselves. The early video stores, they were

276
00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:15,560
Speaker 1: just reflections of the quirky personalities of the people who

277
00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:19,040
Speaker 1: owned them. High Video Sam's got exciting news for you.

278
00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:21,600
Speaker 1: You can now rent a video over night and high

279
00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:25,760
Speaker 1: are these great movies from only nine cents Video Sam's

280
00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:30,320
Speaker 1: libraries and convenient to you. They were just small, little

281
00:17:30,320 --> 00:17:34,200
Speaker 1: retail shops, often rapidly put together by people who might

282
00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:37,720
Speaker 1: not have had any previous experience in business. Now there

283
00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:40,359
Speaker 1: were lots of things that tried to professionalize the business,

284
00:17:40,359 --> 00:17:42,880
Speaker 1: and like there's a whole industry around people who made

285
00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:45,359
Speaker 1: shelves for video stores and sold it to individuals, and

286
00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:48,880
Speaker 1: there were people who you know, specialized in security systems

287
00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:51,600
Speaker 1: for the doorway and things like that. The point is

288
00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:55,119
Speaker 1: is that prior to Blockbuster, there was a huge range

289
00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:57,480
Speaker 1: of what the stories would look like. Some were super clean,

290
00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:05,159
Speaker 1: kind of corporate looking. Others were just totally funky and weird.

291
00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:14,320
Speaker 1: You've come around ALREADYO per parad or neary you are,

292
00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:18,040
Speaker 1: and so it really depended on the individual owner. You

293
00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:22,280
Speaker 1: have those independently owned stories that really did try to

294
00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:28,880
Speaker 1: foster eclecticism as its own special value. You know, those

295
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:33,720
Speaker 1: art house video stores would hold everything from ed Wood

296
00:18:35,119 --> 00:18:39,280
Speaker 1: a fiend I am a soldier of our planet, I

297
00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:54,000
Speaker 1: a fiend to Felini. It's about those stories that had

298
00:18:54,480 --> 00:18:59,080
Speaker 1: huge selections, way beyond Blockbuster, and not just huge, but

299
00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:03,960
Speaker 1: intention the outside of the mainstream alternative I guess. And

300
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:07,720
Speaker 1: that alternative might be highbrow, and that alternative might be

301
00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:11,040
Speaker 1: super low brow. But it would only be a matter

302
00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:24,720
Speaker 1: of time before corporate movie chains entered the business. For

303
00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:27,400
Speaker 1: a short period from the late seventies to mid eighties,

304
00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:32,879
Speaker 1: independent video stores were thriving but then the most iconic

305
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:37,920
Speaker 1: video store emerged. Imagine the perfect video store. It would

306
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:42,560
Speaker 1: have a great run right over, ten thousand videos, three

307
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:46,560
Speaker 1: evening rows, so no rush, no hassles cha, twenty four hour,

308
00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:50,840
Speaker 1: quick drop return, open late every night. Well, the perfect

309
00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:56,600
Speaker 1: video store. Blockbuster really hits the scene starting eight seven

310
00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:05,240
Speaker 1: and then taking off through blow And they've got this

311
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:09,760
Speaker 1: kind of cookie cutter model that every Blockbuster might be

312
00:20:09,840 --> 00:20:12,560
Speaker 1: slightly different in terms of arrangement, but they all look

313
00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:15,160
Speaker 1: the same. They've all got the same color scheme, they've

314
00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:18,200
Speaker 1: all got the same sign and so this idea as

315
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:20,800
Speaker 1: we enter the ninety nineties that there's a kind of

316
00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:26,600
Speaker 1: standardization of the aesthetics of the stores themselves. An individual

317
00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:29,080
Speaker 1: Blockbuster store would have like six thousand, eight thousand tapes,

318
00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:34,280
Speaker 1: so that's a lot of variation potentially, but still they

319
00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:36,960
Speaker 1: kind of sold themselves as having that kind of middle

320
00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:41,119
Speaker 1: of the road, nothing too far afield. If you want

321
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:44,760
Speaker 1: the thing that everybody wants, then we've got that thing

322
00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:48,440
Speaker 1: that everybody wants. But Dan says the sort of soulless

323
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:52,800
Speaker 1: perception of Blockbuster and other major chains wasn't entirely accurate.

324
00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:56,280
Speaker 1: It's a weird thing the way that history is remembering

325
00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:59,720
Speaker 1: Blockbuster as just only being this corporate store that killed

326
00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:03,719
Speaker 1: video stores and movie culture, because in fact, when they

327
00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:06,840
Speaker 1: hit the scene, they had way more movie options than

328
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:10,440
Speaker 1: the typical mom and pop shop. It's because of financing.

329
00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:14,000
Speaker 1: If you're like an individual entrepreneur and you're investing in

330
00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:17,200
Speaker 1: tapes based on your revenue, that's limited. But if you're

331
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,160
Speaker 1: like a publicly traded company like Blockbuster and you can

332
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:23,240
Speaker 1: just flood a space with six thousand tapes, that's what

333
00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:26,520
Speaker 1: they did. Nobody has the movie I want. Hey, if

334
00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:29,000
Speaker 1: it's on video, Blockbuster probably hasn't. I mean, we have

335
00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:33,040
Speaker 1: over ten thousand videos, and so they sold themselves on

336
00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:37,280
Speaker 1: having more choices, and Hollywood Video they had like ten

337
00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:40,840
Speaker 1: thousand tapes. Only Hollywood Video has Star Wars the Fanto

338
00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:42,880
Speaker 1: Menace for five days, so you can watch it again

339
00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:47,639
Speaker 1: and again. Welcome to Hollywood Hollywood Video. I remember even there,

340
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:51,120
Speaker 1: this big corporate store had like a cult movie section

341
00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:55,000
Speaker 1: and a foreign film section that was pretty impressive considering.

342
00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:57,639
Speaker 1: And no joke, there was a Hollywood Video in Albuquerque

343
00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:00,919
Speaker 1: that had like a wall of anim a. It was

344
00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:03,359
Speaker 1: like the place to go in the nineties if you

345
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:07,520
Speaker 1: wanted to watch Japanese animation. The historical record needs to

346
00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:11,320
Speaker 1: remember that those places did actually offer lots of options.

347
00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:20,800
Speaker 1: Contrary to what you'd expect. The rise of corporate stores

348
00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:26,080
Speaker 1: wasn't all bad for indie stores. The more alternative stores. Actually,

349
00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:29,399
Speaker 1: a number of them pop up because of Blockbuster. When

350
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:32,240
Speaker 1: the whole video industry starts to really kind of grow

351
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:35,600
Speaker 1: more corporate and homogenized in the later half of the

352
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:38,479
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, that's exactly when you see places like Videos

353
00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:43,080
Speaker 1: open up, Scarecrow in Seattle opens up. They realized that,

354
00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:47,480
Speaker 1: oh yeah, okay, Blockbusters kind of taking over the mainstream game,

355
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:51,399
Speaker 1: but they don't have eraser Head. We can actually do

356
00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:55,479
Speaker 1: quite well right next to Blockbuster because we're doing something

357
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:59,440
Speaker 1: pretty different. When you walking down the street and you

358
00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:04,879
Speaker 1: see little ghost what you're gonna do about ghost pastas?

359
00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:08,159
Speaker 1: What what? What is that? That's the Ghostbusters theme song. No,

360
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:10,680
Speaker 1: And that's how we're going to sell ourselves as the

361
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:16,640
Speaker 1: alternative to mainstream movie culture. That wasn't by I don't

362
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:19,800
Speaker 1: think that they were threatened by Blockbuster necessarily, because they

363
00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 1: were effectively differentiating themselves based on product and clientele. Indie

364
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:29,600
Speaker 1: stores were also kept alive by the people Dan mentioned

365
00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:33,560
Speaker 1: earlier who tend to frequent more quirky stores, the cinophiles,

366
00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:36,000
Speaker 1: you know. La Tripe always said that, you know, the

367
00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:38,119
Speaker 1: best scripts don't make the best films, you know, because

368
00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:40,640
Speaker 1: they have that kind of literary, you know, narrative thing.

369
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:42,359
Speaker 1: You know that you're sort of a slave to. The

370
00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:44,560
Speaker 1: best films, you know, are the ones that aren't like

371
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:50,280
Speaker 1: tied to that slavishly. Some people who thought of themselves

372
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 1: as having kind of distinctive tastes would still go to

373
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:58,960
Speaker 1: a Blockbuster on occasion, but would probably pride themselves on

374
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,679
Speaker 1: going to the cool store in town. And the cool

375
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:06,560
Speaker 1: stores definitely did all that they could to maintain that

376
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:11,760
Speaker 1: sense of loyalty, almost like a cult community, because yeah,

377
00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:14,160
Speaker 1: if you don't have that, then you get out of business.

378
00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 1: And so there's no single way to characterize who cinophiles were.

379
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:22,840
Speaker 1: What is true is that the kind of art house

380
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:28,760
Speaker 1: video stores were in places either in big cities or

381
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 1: in places with highly educated populations, so college towns. Those

382
00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:38,440
Speaker 1: environments helped build and sustain video stores that had more

383
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:44,600
Speaker 1: kind of artistic leanings or eclectic tastes. Now we land

384
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:49,280
Speaker 1: in the nineties where things started to change the industry

385
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:54,680
Speaker 1: really hits a big excellent plateau from like ninety three

386
00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:59,840
Speaker 1: through the late nineties, and there's ups and downs right

387
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: and various changes, like increasingly Hollywood did actually priced tapes

388
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:09,160
Speaker 1: for a cell through audience rather than rental, pricing things

389
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,560
Speaker 1: at twenty bucks rather than eighty, and so people did

390
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:16,280
Speaker 1: buy tapes campveryone's just dying before Jason, and now his

391
00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:20,879
Speaker 1: latest stab at Terror has been slashed to just Roddy

392
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:26,360
Speaker 1: the thirteenth, Art seventh. The new blood, especially kids movies,

393
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:30,439
Speaker 1: right like Disney creating those straight to video sequels to

394
00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:36,159
Speaker 1: their cartoons. They're the baddest, the wildest about funny. His

395
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 1: characters in the Pride right now that we all know

396
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:42,160
Speaker 1: each other sad bare back and give the Lion King

397
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:48,960
Speaker 1: too simplest Pride on video today. But DVD hits in

398
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:58,919
Speaker 1: this is d v D, and this is what happens

399
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:04,560
Speaker 1: what you watch d v D. And the studios all

400
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:07,040
Speaker 1: kind of knew that things were done, and so if

401
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:09,399
Speaker 1: you wanted to kind of be able to sell new

402
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:14,320
Speaker 1: hardware and re energize the whole home video business, it

403
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:18,919
Speaker 1: was going to take a different format. Warner Brothers worked

404
00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:22,760
Speaker 1: with I think it was Tashiba On the DVD launches

405
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:29,600
Speaker 1: in and two thousand it becomes the fastest adopted consumer

406
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:32,359
Speaker 1: electronics in the history of the planet up till that time,

407
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:38,000
Speaker 1: which tells you, or tells me, that the appetite for

408
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:42,159
Speaker 1: home videos was never diminished, It only grew stronger. And

409
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:47,000
Speaker 1: so DVD tapped into an excitement for home video that

410
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,840
Speaker 1: was already there and just said now it's even better.

411
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:55,440
Speaker 1: So DVD and it doesn't totally wipe away VHS immediately,

412
00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:58,320
Speaker 1: But you know, I think the last Hollywood tape released

413
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:00,480
Speaker 1: on VHS was either two thousand five or two thousand

414
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: and six. One format displaces another in six years. I

415
00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:09,639
Speaker 1: actually have had conversations with the guy at Warner Brothers

416
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:13,680
Speaker 1: who ran Warner Home Video at that time, and their

417
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:17,360
Speaker 1: whole plan was to create what he called it direct

418
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:22,240
Speaker 1: to consumer product. They just wanted more direct access to

419
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 1: that revenue, and that meant selling rather than renting. The

420
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,760
Speaker 1: DVD was designed as a sell through product that it

421
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:34,280
Speaker 1: was cheaper to manufacture plastic discs than the magnetic tapes

422
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 1: on plastic cases, and DVD was promoted as being better

423
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:43,240
Speaker 1: visuals and better sound, which is true. The picture he

424
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:47,879
Speaker 1: is twice as sharp as VHS. The sound is infinitely clearer.

425
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:50,920
Speaker 1: It looks and sounds like you're at the movies, but

426
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:56,840
Speaker 1: you can experience it at home. We today in can

427
00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 1: too easily say that Netflix streaming killed video stores. The

428
00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:06,879
Speaker 1: first attack on video stores was the DVD because it

429
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:10,720
Speaker 1: really shifts the whole business model away from rental to

430
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 1: direct sales, and that means people instead of going to

431
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 1: Blockbuster are now going to Walmart and Target, and it

432
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:23,360
Speaker 1: displaces video stores significantly. Alongside the DVD came the Internet,

433
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:28,600
Speaker 1: the Net too long time users. Internet is a whole

434
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 1: group of networks. The Net is made up of some

435
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:36,760
Speaker 1: twelve thousand individual computer networks. And with the Internet came

436
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 1: a little website called Netflix. In today's busy world, going

437
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 1: to the video store is a hassle. With Netflix, you'll

438
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:46,320
Speaker 1: just make a list of the movies you want to

439
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 1: see and you'll get your first DVDs in about one

440
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 1: business day. Founded in, Netflix marketed itself as the first

441
00:28:55,200 --> 00:29:00,600
Speaker 1: online DVD rental store. The Netflix model, you would get

442
00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 1: on a computer and rent things by clicking them, and

443
00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 1: they would get mailed to you and you could have

444
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 1: like three discs at a time. Or something like that.

445
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 1: There's a lot happening with Netflix that's really innovative. One

446
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 1: this idea of no late fees. You could keep the

447
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:18,880
Speaker 1: disc for as long as you wanted, You just couldn't

448
00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:21,320
Speaker 1: get a new one until you mailed it back, keep

449
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 1: them as long as you owned without late fees. Return

450
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,320
Speaker 1: one and this prepaid envelow and the automatically send you

451
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:31,480
Speaker 1: another movie from your list. To this kind of elimination

452
00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:34,560
Speaker 1: of physical store as a shopping site. You didn't have

453
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:37,920
Speaker 1: to go anywhere to shop for movies anymore. Well, this

454
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 1: is the last time I grant here. Hey, you're not

455
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 1: allowed to rent already now. The other innovation is a

456
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:51,200
Speaker 1: subscription pricing model. It's comparable to HBO. People paid a

457
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 1: monthly fee for cable and having Hbo h no, let

458
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:04,920
Speaker 1: Hbo be your kick it to of those stars. But

459
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:08,240
Speaker 1: the idea that you would have a monthly subscription fee

460
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 1: for a movie rental store was kind of ludicrous. In

461
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:16,440
Speaker 1: one stroke, Netflix changes a lot of different things, and

462
00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:20,240
Speaker 1: I think the thing that subscription models did is it

463
00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:25,520
Speaker 1: removes the sense of value from the specific commodity, the

464
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:29,480
Speaker 1: individual tape or disk. Like at the video store, you

465
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:32,760
Speaker 1: would pay four bucks to rent a tape or three

466
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:37,320
Speaker 1: fifty to rent a disk. But subscriptions suddenly say you

467
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 1: pay us fifteen bucks a month and it has nothing

468
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:43,440
Speaker 1: to do with how much you watch. The individual movie

469
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:47,760
Speaker 1: loses its kind of value, and instead what they're selling

470
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:51,520
Speaker 1: is that sense of possibility and options, which I still

471
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 1: think is why people subscribe to Netflix. How many people

472
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 1: subscribe to Netflix and only watch one thing in a month.

473
00:30:57,920 --> 00:30:59,840
Speaker 1: But it's this idea that it's like, oh, but I've

474
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:02,200
Speaker 1: got that on tap. Anytime I want it, it's there,

475
00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 1: and so that's worth whatever the prices now their team

476
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 1: bucks or whatever. Subscriptions really change the psychology of the

477
00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:14,080
Speaker 1: whole endeavor. So what happens when we now have an

478
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:16,960
Speaker 1: abundance of films at our disposal and the act of

479
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:21,280
Speaker 1: physical browsing and choosing is removed from the equation In

480
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:23,440
Speaker 1: the old days of the video stores, you might have

481
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 1: a relationship with the store. You might like some stores

482
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 1: better than others because of the space, but in the

483
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:31,440
Speaker 1: end you also have like a relationship with whatever you

484
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:35,400
Speaker 1: rented from that store. Like if I rented some check

485
00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 1: new wave film, I'm gonna sit down and set aside

486
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:41,760
Speaker 1: time to watch that thing. Whereas with Netflix, it's hard

487
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 1: to speak for everybody because there's hundreds of millions of

488
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:46,760
Speaker 1: Netflix users. But I do think that, like the relationship

489
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 1: is really about having Netflix rather than having a movie.

490
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 1: It's so easy to kind of disregard the importance of

491
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:58,160
Speaker 1: any individual movie on the platform because they all seem

492
00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:02,040
Speaker 1: available eternally. Of course isn't true, but it's like, if

493
00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:04,840
Speaker 1: I'm already gonna pay for this subscription service, I can

494
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 1: fass forward through this or I can turn it off

495
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 1: at any point. The relationship is less about with you

496
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:14,400
Speaker 1: in an intentional way with a particular movie, and it's

497
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:19,600
Speaker 1: more about your relationship with the possibilities. There as a

498
00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 1: somewhat final nail in the coffin, the introduction of streaming

499
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 1: did away with the need for any physical media whatsoever.

500
00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 1: Netflix Streaming first appears in two thousand seven as a

501
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 1: kind of special service to people who were already subscribers

502
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:41,000
Speaker 1: to the rent by mail thing, and then quickly within

503
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 1: one two years after that, suddenly Netflix the streaming library

504
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:48,280
Speaker 1: opens up to people just for streaming, and you don't

505
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 1: even have to be associated with the rent by mail

506
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 1: system and the video library, although still pretty rotten. Ultimately

507
00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,959
Speaker 1: it grows so that like suddenly there's five thousand move

508
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,480
Speaker 1: bes on Netflix rather than just whatever four hundred that

509
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:05,080
Speaker 1: they had had previously, And it just grows and grows

510
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:07,560
Speaker 1: and grows. And so this idea that like you had

511
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:11,240
Speaker 1: the convenience of shopping at home, consuming at home, and

512
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:15,719
Speaker 1: doing it immediately. At the time, there had been cable

513
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 1: on demand. Prior to that, you could have bought a

514
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:24,800
Speaker 1: movie through your cable provider, but Netflix streaming provides that

515
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:29,280
Speaker 1: with the subscription based pricing, it's already quote unquote free.

516
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 1: I'm already paying for this, so it's a great service.

517
00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:37,680
Speaker 1: Other media companies noticed the success of Netflix and quickly

518
00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:41,760
Speaker 1: followed suit. Hulu launched in two thousand eight with content

519
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 1: that was mostly free to watch but was filled with advertisements,

520
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:51,120
Speaker 1: though Hulu did eventually launched its own subscription service. Next

521
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 1: came Amazon Prime Video, which also launched in two thousand eight.

522
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 1: Amazon Prime Video is a very different kind of model.

523
00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:01,680
Speaker 1: It's really there as a kind of hook to get

524
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:06,640
Speaker 1: people attached to the shipping, the Amazon Prime fast shipping stuff.

525
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:09,320
Speaker 1: If you want to get your diapers in two days,

526
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:13,080
Speaker 1: you also get to watch look who's talking is Mikey,

527
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:16,560
Speaker 1: Who are you? I'm his father father? Are you the

528
00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:19,800
Speaker 1: sperm donor? I mean sperm donor I'm the kid's father.

529
00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:24,279
Speaker 1: Netflix streaming really takes off two thousand eight nine ten,

530
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:29,640
Speaker 1: Amazon Prime Video becomes available to people. That's really just

531
00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:32,560
Speaker 1: sealing the deal on video stores that had already been

532
00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:36,600
Speaker 1: hugely disrupted because of those earlier issues related to DVD.

533
00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:41,600
Speaker 1: So how did video stores survive throughout the Netflix boom

534
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:46,160
Speaker 1: of the two thousand's Some are surviving because they're in

535
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,919
Speaker 1: smaller towns or rural areas that don't have quick mail

536
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 1: or fast internet service or anything like that. You've got mail,

537
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:57,040
Speaker 1: but lots of stores try to come up with this

538
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:00,279
Speaker 1: idea of no late fees is a direct reaction to

539
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:06,319
Speaker 1: uh Netflix. Someday you'll remember where you were when you

540
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:10,480
Speaker 1: first heard that there are no more late fees at Blockbuster.

541
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:12,960
Speaker 1: If you need an extra day or two with your

542
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:16,360
Speaker 1: movies or games, you go right ahead. So it's like,

543
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:19,000
Speaker 1: we'll shoot if Netflix has no late piece, then suddenly

544
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:21,719
Speaker 1: we look like the bad guys. Not only is it

545
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 1: inconvenient for people to come to our store now compared

546
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:27,919
Speaker 1: to the easy rental of Netflix, but now we look

547
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:30,920
Speaker 1: like villains because we charge people for not returning tapes

548
00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:33,840
Speaker 1: on time, and Netflix gets rid of the very notion

549
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 1: of something being on time or late. The real thing

550
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:43,080
Speaker 1: that they push in the two thousand's was this idea

551
00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:47,600
Speaker 1: of new releases. Because Netflix, you still had to wait,

552
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:50,880
Speaker 1: You were still in a line with other consumers or

553
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 1: other customers to get the latest thing. Whereas you know,

554
00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:59,800
Speaker 1: video stores, especially by the two thousand's, new movie Wednesday,

555
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,080
Speaker 1: New movie Tuesday, right like, so there was like a

556
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:05,520
Speaker 1: release date, a street date for those tapes or those discs,

557
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,160
Speaker 1: and so even though the movie had been in theaters,

558
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:10,960
Speaker 1: if you wanted it faster than you could get it

559
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:13,280
Speaker 1: on Netflix, and faster than you could get it on cable,

560
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: then the video stores were the place to get things

561
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:20,600
Speaker 1: faster than other places. Movies are two for just ninety

562
00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:24,080
Speaker 1: nine cents every Tuesday, a participating video update stores including

563
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:28,480
Speaker 1: new releases. Yes too for just nine cents, including new releases,

564
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:31,160
Speaker 1: but otherwise, yeah, a lot of stories got a business.

565
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:37,520
Speaker 1: Blockbuster flounders, Hollywood video flounders. It wasn't even about streaming

566
00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 1: at that point. It was about the whole disruption of

567
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:45,160
Speaker 1: Walmart target selling movies and about Netflix, you know, changing

568
00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:48,480
Speaker 1: the whole game, three hundreds of titles for the whole

569
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:50,840
Speaker 1: family from only six ninety nine at least, no a

570
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:53,760
Speaker 1: big a place for really loves and targets, epy DVD

571
00:36:53,920 --> 00:37:03,600
Speaker 1: c how are excilent now? In the late two thousands

572
00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:08,120
Speaker 1: and early Dan went on a pilgrimage, mostly for research

573
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:10,879
Speaker 1: for his book. He decided to drive to and visit

574
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,640
Speaker 1: as many American video stores as he could. I just

575
00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:22,080
Speaker 1: talked to UM and Video in fruit Port, Michigan. He's

576
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:24,400
Speaker 1: owned the store for about twenty five years, and that

577
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:28,640
Speaker 1: in his estimation, according to his memory, h it's the

578
00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:33,839
Speaker 1: oldest independently owned video store in Moskegon County. I mean

579
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:36,720
Speaker 1: that was like probably like some of the best times

580
00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:39,759
Speaker 1: in my life go on road trips and rather than

581
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 1: like looking at the Grand Canyon with your dad, you

582
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 1: could do look at video stores in weird places. I'm

583
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:52,040
Speaker 1: in Knox, Pennsylvania, where there's market and video rental. I

584
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:54,279
Speaker 1: walked into the store and they did, in fact serve

585
00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:57,960
Speaker 1: as a kind of small grocery store with packaged foods

586
00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:01,960
Speaker 1: and a video store with a substantial number of VHS,

587
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:06,600
Speaker 1: tapes and DVDs. I went to like over twenty states,

588
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:11,360
Speaker 1: over two fifty stores. Looking at small town stores across

589
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:15,520
Speaker 1: the Midwest and the far West and the South, there

590
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:18,200
Speaker 1: were some stories that were just kind of totally depressing.

591
00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:20,279
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of one in particular in Kansas, where I

592
00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:23,239
Speaker 1: showed up and I was just like, oh man, oh man,

593
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:25,640
Speaker 1: this is so grim. I gotta get out of here.

594
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:32,240
Speaker 1: But other places were still operating at full steam. Even

595
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:35,880
Speaker 1: if the owner knew that that was not sustainable, he

596
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:40,640
Speaker 1: offered to sell me the store. Uh. Several times, they

597
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 1: were still buying stock and putting new stuff on shelves

598
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:47,200
Speaker 1: every week. The weirder thing about a lot of the

599
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:49,799
Speaker 1: small town stories is that by that point a lot

600
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:53,480
Speaker 1: of them were not only video stores. They engaged in

601
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 1: a number of other businesses because the video rental was

602
00:38:57,320 --> 00:38:59,880
Speaker 1: diminishing and so they had to do something else. I

603
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:03,880
Speaker 1: saw places that sold, you know, second hand kids clothes.

604
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:08,360
Speaker 1: I saw places that sold porcelain figurines. There was a

605
00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:12,240
Speaker 1: place in Idaho that was half laundromat half video store.

606
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:15,600
Speaker 1: That was pretty cool. There was one place in Wyoming

607
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:20,040
Speaker 1: that you could rent movies, you could get whitewater rafting tours,

608
00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:22,560
Speaker 1: and you could buy a gun I love the idea

609
00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:25,240
Speaker 1: that you could like rent Rambo and buy a gun

610
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:33,799
Speaker 1: under the same roof. Could I could kill you here?

611
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:38,319
Speaker 1: It's me, don't push it. The small town stores were

612
00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 1: really quirky, not in a kind of artsy FARTZI way,

613
00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:45,200
Speaker 1: but rather in a kind of the vagaries of capitalism

614
00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:47,640
Speaker 1: kind of way. It's like anything to make a buck,

615
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:52,759
Speaker 1: and the stores would reflect the kind of scrappiness of

616
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:55,400
Speaker 1: the owner of like trysts trying to do anything like

617
00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:59,880
Speaker 1: selling lotto tickets. The number of stores that had tanning

618
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:03,400
Speaker 1: salons or tanning beds attached to them or in a

619
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:07,440
Speaker 1: back room that was a huge thing. Oh so when

620
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:10,879
Speaker 1: the summer comes, a lot of people can because they

621
00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:14,520
Speaker 1: don't have time. You get the sun, but they'll come

622
00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:17,560
Speaker 1: in a tan Okay. At what point does the rental

623
00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:22,320
Speaker 1: slow down till April? People? Okay? And was the tanning

624
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:24,719
Speaker 1: been here as long as the stories? Okay? When did

625
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:27,239
Speaker 1: he start that? Probably a year ago? Year ago? What

626
00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:29,800
Speaker 1: made him things to do that? Just looking for something

627
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:35,879
Speaker 1: else to offset the video? You probably remember hearing Dan

628
00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:39,799
Speaker 1: mentioned a few bigger nationally known indie stores video It's

629
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:43,400
Speaker 1: in l A or Scarecrow in Seattle, for example, for

630
00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:46,520
Speaker 1: a variety of reasons. Most of these types of stores

631
00:40:46,719 --> 00:40:50,279
Speaker 1: are still going strong today. And the book I kind

632
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,440
Speaker 1: of refer to these places as video capitals, just meaning

633
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:56,640
Speaker 1: it's to kind of centralization under the video store roof

634
00:40:56,760 --> 00:41:00,000
Speaker 1: of like movie culture, right, it's kind of that's condensed

635
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:05,640
Speaker 1: site for movies and knowledge about movies. And the owners

636
00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:11,040
Speaker 1: were generally kind of cinephiles and believed in providing a

637
00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:16,440
Speaker 1: wider range of movie options, almost like a public service.

638
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:18,759
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of them talked in this kind

639
00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:21,320
Speaker 1: of almost like they were on a mission kind of way.

640
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:26,080
Speaker 1: And the clerks were always cinephiles and film nerds who

641
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:31,080
Speaker 1: would largely talk, you know, film trivia all day. What

642
00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:35,440
Speaker 1: are you doing this? Since stopped making picks, how am

643
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:37,680
Speaker 1: I going to know what movies to see? We have

644
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:43,760
Speaker 1: a wide variety of Gene picks Jane's trash, I'm gene.

645
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:48,880
Speaker 1: A number of them endured and still kind of endure

646
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:55,080
Speaker 1: even after the mainstream video business was falling apart, because

647
00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:58,360
Speaker 1: even in the face of Netflix, even in the face

648
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:02,959
Speaker 1: of streaming, even in the face of DVD sell through.

649
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:07,400
Speaker 1: You know, a place like Scarecrow, they offer things that

650
00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:11,680
Speaker 1: aren't easily available on streaming Netflix or aren't available for

651
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:14,640
Speaker 1: sale at Walmart, etcetera. What do you think would be

652
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:17,920
Speaker 1: the next obstacle there? If people will put in our way, well,

653
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:23,120
Speaker 1: as long as they can, think, we'll have our problems. Still,

654
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:27,040
Speaker 1: the problem is once the whole kind of ecosystem of

655
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:32,360
Speaker 1: video rental disappears and people in general lose going to

656
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:34,640
Speaker 1: the video store as a habit or as a practice,

657
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:37,839
Speaker 1: then it's really hard to even maintain that kind of

658
00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:42,800
Speaker 1: core consumer group that even goes to the specialty store. Still,

659
00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:47,319
Speaker 1: those stores are cultural staples in their respective cities. Video

660
00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:50,640
Speaker 1: Drum in Atlanta where I live is a bustling hub

661
00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:54,480
Speaker 1: for film people to congregate and share film knowledge. That

662
00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:57,000
Speaker 1: holds true for many of the video capitals dan is

663
00:42:57,040 --> 00:43:02,240
Speaker 1: talking about. They were community hubs for cinophiles. The stores

664
00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:06,640
Speaker 1: like Scarecrow and Videots did a good job of cultivating

665
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:10,440
Speaker 1: that cinephile culture in that area centered around the store.

666
00:43:11,239 --> 00:43:14,880
Speaker 1: And so one of the things that they've done is

667
00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:20,600
Speaker 1: sell the very idea of community that in the face

668
00:43:20,719 --> 00:43:25,040
Speaker 1: of a communitylessness of Netflix viewers, where we're all detached

669
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:27,839
Speaker 1: from each other, we don't even shop next to one another,

670
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:32,279
Speaker 1: shoulders shoulder. Then the stores like Videots and and Scarecrow

671
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:35,000
Speaker 1: can say, not only do we have a Felini film

672
00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:38,920
Speaker 1: that Netflix never will, but we can provide you, as

673
00:43:38,960 --> 00:43:43,120
Speaker 1: a consumer, the sense of belonging that Netflix never will,

674
00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:48,520
Speaker 1: a sense of shared affinity for eclectic taste in movies.

675
00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:53,360
Speaker 1: And so they're not just selling rentals, they're selling the

676
00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:59,640
Speaker 1: very idea of a cinephile community. But to stay alive,

677
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:03,000
Speaker 1: many of these beloved community stores have had to adopt

678
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 1: a business model that may not be sustainable. Those stores,

679
00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:12,360
Speaker 1: a number of them, have become nonprofit institutions. Now Scarecrows

680
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:17,280
Speaker 1: Nonprofit Videos has become a nonprofit. The nonprofit business model

681
00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:21,520
Speaker 1: that Videots and Scarecrow and others are relying on relies

682
00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:24,760
Speaker 1: on the idea that you can get people to donate

683
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:29,840
Speaker 1: money to a retail operation because you've convinced them that

684
00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:34,640
Speaker 1: the retail operation is a cultural resource worth preserving. I

685
00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:39,960
Speaker 1: do think it's just a really hard thing because even

686
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:43,080
Speaker 1: with all the nostalgia and all the kind of felt love,

687
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that suddenly a new video store can

688
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:48,640
Speaker 1: crop up in ann Arbor because people are like, yeah,

689
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:51,359
Speaker 1: I love video stores, but I'm still not going to one.

690
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:53,959
Speaker 1: How do you turn that kind of nostalgia or love

691
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:57,920
Speaker 1: for an institution into a business model. I do not know.

692
00:44:59,840 --> 00:45:04,200
Speaker 1: The idiots in l A closed temporarily with the goal

693
00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 1: of reopening a new location serving not just as a

694
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:10,040
Speaker 1: video store but also in art theater and film archive.

695
00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:14,960
Speaker 1: Here's Videots executive director Maggie McKay speaking with Casey R. W.

696
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:18,359
Speaker 1: Last year. I do think people really need to sit

697
00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:21,000
Speaker 1: in the dark with their friends and strangers and watch

698
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:23,960
Speaker 1: a flickering screen, and they need the human interaction that

699
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:26,640
Speaker 1: comes with a video store. And I think more than ever,

700
00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:30,640
Speaker 1: we're going to crave that. I think Videos has been

701
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:34,120
Speaker 1: very clever broadening it and saying when we say we're

702
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:36,960
Speaker 1: a cultural resource, we mean that because we're not just

703
00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:40,160
Speaker 1: a video store. We're a center for movie culture in

704
00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:44,560
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, beyond the transactional things that happened when you

705
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:47,640
Speaker 1: rent a movie from us, and I think Scarecrow, you know,

706
00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:52,160
Speaker 1: has imagined ways of doing that as well. I mean

707
00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:55,320
Speaker 1: Scarecrow's big claim too, is that they're the largest single

708
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 1: collection of movies under one roof, you know, in North America,

709
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:01,120
Speaker 1: which is important, but it's not like it's like a

710
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:04,799
Speaker 1: film archive. Either it's like it's a video store. With

711
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:08,080
Speaker 1: the closure of so many video stores, there's also one

712
00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:12,200
Speaker 1: big unintended consequence, what happens to all of those tapes

713
00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:16,719
Speaker 1: and disks They try to do these sell offs of

714
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:19,160
Speaker 1: their stock, whether it's tapes in the old days or

715
00:46:19,239 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 1: DVDs later, anything that's not being sold is landfill. For

716
00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:29,080
Speaker 1: those of us who have viewed film as an art,

717
00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:32,799
Speaker 1: as a kind of higher level experience that one can

718
00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:36,719
Speaker 1: have on this planet, it is disheartening to realize that

719
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:40,239
Speaker 1: in the end, they are material commodities that when they

720
00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:45,640
Speaker 1: lose their value, turn into lumps of garbage. Not that

721
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:51,759
Speaker 1: you know, streaming television's any less poisonous. When I was

722
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:56,040
Speaker 1: wrapping up Video Land, this was two thousand fourteen, so

723
00:46:56,080 --> 00:46:58,080
Speaker 1: this was when like lots of stories were going out

724
00:46:58,080 --> 00:47:01,680
Speaker 1: of business and just the stores were unrented and the

725
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:05,520
Speaker 1: tapes were going into garbage bins. That was a real

726
00:47:05,719 --> 00:47:09,680
Speaker 1: lightbulb moment for me in general, about how the life

727
00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:15,720
Speaker 1: cycle of commerce creates material that has value for a time,

728
00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:18,800
Speaker 1: and then when that value is gone, it is still

729
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:24,240
Speaker 1: on the planet. We're stuck with it. There's yet another

730
00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:27,520
Speaker 1: tragic truth when it comes to the downfall of video stores.

731
00:47:28,480 --> 00:47:32,400
Speaker 1: In some ways, they created the conditions for their own demise,

732
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:38,600
Speaker 1: meaning that they created a sense that consumers could and

733
00:47:38,640 --> 00:47:43,120
Speaker 1: should have control over their entertainment. In this sense of

734
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:49,400
Speaker 1: possibility and options and convenience that they accelerated and activated,

735
00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:53,080
Speaker 1: and all of those things are exactly why we subscribe

736
00:47:53,080 --> 00:47:56,680
Speaker 1: to Netflix and Disney Plus. Oh miss Simpson here prode

737
00:47:56,680 --> 00:48:00,120
Speaker 1: addition to the Disney family and soon appearing a Disney

738
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:04,959
Speaker 1: Plus I for one salute or new corporate overlord. It's like, oh,

739
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 1: Disney Plus has these options, and it's super easy and convenient,

740
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:11,680
Speaker 1: and I can watch these things whenever I want. All

741
00:48:11,719 --> 00:48:15,400
Speaker 1: those kind of expectations of what a streaming platform should

742
00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:19,120
Speaker 1: provide or does provide, those expectations were initially set up

743
00:48:19,160 --> 00:48:22,279
Speaker 1: by the video store. That's their bigger legacy is kind

744
00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:29,080
Speaker 1: of creating a sense of personalization, convenience, and control. Ultimately,

745
00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:34,680
Speaker 1: they were outpaced by other devices and platforms. As I

746
00:48:34,719 --> 00:48:37,239
Speaker 1: mentioned at the beginning of the episode, I got a

747
00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:40,080
Speaker 1: ton of value out of my local video store growing up.

748
00:48:40,840 --> 00:48:44,040
Speaker 1: I Love video in Austin has since closed down, and

749
00:48:44,080 --> 00:48:46,120
Speaker 1: it strikes me as though I've lost a part of myself.

750
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:49,920
Speaker 1: I asked Dan what he misses most about video stores

751
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:55,160
Speaker 1: as a customer. I really do miss browsing physically. I

752
00:48:55,239 --> 00:48:58,040
Speaker 1: have a hard time describing why it's so important or

753
00:48:58,160 --> 00:49:00,120
Speaker 1: was so important to me as an individual. But I

754
00:49:00,320 --> 00:49:03,239
Speaker 1: loved walking through the store. When I was in grad

755
00:49:03,280 --> 00:49:05,680
Speaker 1: school at in l A, there was a store around

756
00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:08,240
Speaker 1: the corner called Video Journeys. It's a pretty good store.

757
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:13,200
Speaker 1: I would spend an hour browsing that store and I

758
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:15,960
Speaker 1: would walk out with nothing, and I was not unhappy

759
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:18,759
Speaker 1: about that. It was just a kind of like, oh,

760
00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:20,520
Speaker 1: I'll go down to the store. I got to buy

761
00:49:20,520 --> 00:49:23,680
Speaker 1: some groceries, and then I'll walk next to Video Journeys

762
00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:27,319
Speaker 1: and just look around. Who would in their right mind say,

763
00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:30,399
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna look around at Netflix. Of course, there's

764
00:49:30,440 --> 00:49:33,000
Speaker 1: tons of times that we do look around at Netflix

765
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 1: and never watch a thing, but nobody sits down just

766
00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:42,560
Speaker 1: to browse Netflix. Ever, those of us who had favorite

767
00:49:42,600 --> 00:49:45,520
Speaker 1: video stores, I would put money on the fact that

768
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:47,840
Speaker 1: there was our favorite, in part because of the people

769
00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:50,680
Speaker 1: who worked there. It was like, I get to see

770
00:49:50,719 --> 00:49:54,280
Speaker 1: this one guy who's always got the right joke to crack,

771
00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:59,040
Speaker 1: and he recommends horrible movies. But I love to argue

772
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:01,960
Speaker 1: with him. So much of what I am saying really

773
00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:06,040
Speaker 1: comes down to missing the people and the spaces in

774
00:50:06,120 --> 00:50:10,600
Speaker 1: which one could shop for movies. And by that, by shopping,

775
00:50:10,600 --> 00:50:14,160
Speaker 1: what I mean is contemplate a future of watching it

776
00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:18,440
Speaker 1: and having a good time. There is a loss in

777
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:21,759
Speaker 1: the loss of the physical space and the social interactions

778
00:50:22,280 --> 00:50:26,200
Speaker 1: that those spaces generated. And it's hard to put into

779
00:50:26,200 --> 00:50:31,480
Speaker 1: words because it's visceral and it's embodied, and it's in

780
00:50:31,520 --> 00:50:33,719
Speaker 1: your heart, and it's your mind, and it's in your

781
00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:38,960
Speaker 1: hopes for entertainment and and enjoyment. I say, there's no

782
00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:42,520
Speaker 1: reason we need to lose those experiences. I urge you

783
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:45,760
Speaker 1: to frequent your local video store and keep that community alive.

784
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:50,440
Speaker 1: Maybe ask the store clerk about Eraserhead and see what happens.

785
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:01,799
Speaker 1: I'd like to rent breakfast statification. This is our someone

786
00:51:01,840 --> 00:51:04,759
Speaker 1: has it out? Oh no, I've I've been the four

787
00:51:04,760 --> 00:51:06,839
Speaker 1: other places. You're the only ones that have had it. Well.

788
00:51:06,880 --> 00:51:08,719
Speaker 1: I can put her on reserve for you if you'd like.

789
00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:11,360
Speaker 1: Maybe we could call them and ask them to return.

790
00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:19,040
Speaker 1: Dan Herbert is the author of Video Land Movie Culture

791
00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:22,240
Speaker 1: at the American Video Store. This episode of A Feller

792
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:25,680
Speaker 1: was written and assembled by Trevor Young and produced with

793
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:29,480
Speaker 1: Max and Alex Williams. Music this episode from the artist

794
00:51:29,600 --> 00:51:35,080
Speaker 1: Mon Plaisier. Learn more at Loyalty Freak music dot com.

795
00:51:35,239 --> 00:51:38,360
Speaker 1: Next episode, we'll take a trip to our local video store,

796
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:41,560
Speaker 1: Video Drum in Atlanta to talk to the owners, clerks,

797
00:51:41,560 --> 00:51:45,600
Speaker 1: and customers, and we'll have a roundtable discussion with iHeart

798
00:51:45,680 --> 00:51:49,879
Speaker 1: Podcast hosts Lauren Vogelbond and Annie Reese on their best

799
00:51:49,960 --> 00:51:54,120
Speaker 1: video store memories. Let us know where you rent videos, past,

800
00:51:54,239 --> 00:52:03,359
Speaker 1: present and future Ahem dot show. For more podcasts from

801
00:52:03,360 --> 00:52:06,719
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio at Apple

802
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:09,960
Speaker 1: podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.