WEBVTT - Video Stores II 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:15.000 Ephemeral as a protection of My Heart Radio. Last episode, 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:17.720 we trace the rise and fall of the video rental 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:21.320 store with Dan Herbert, a professor of media studies at 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:24.880 the University of Michigan and author of the book Video 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:29.840 Land Movie Culture at the American Video Store. Today, we're 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.479 going to take our own field trip to an independent 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:36.760 video store that, despite the ever changing media market, has 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:41.519 continued to thrive in its local community. Later, the Ephemeral 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.320 team will chat with two of our favorite podcast hosts, 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:48.720 Lauren Vogelbaum and any Reese of the podcast Saver about 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.720 some of our best video store memories. But first, a 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.120 few more words from Dan on the ephemeral experience of 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:01.200 selecting a movie from a wall of titles. One of 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:04.119 the things that I think was awesome about video stores 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:08.920 is that they put things into shelves and aisles, and 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:13.400 that those shelves and aisles had a logic that spatialized 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.400 a bunch of notions about taste and value related to movies. 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.360 What I mean by that is that they put labels 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:27.200 on them, like action or adventure, or romance or horror. 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:35.000 Different stores created these categories to lump movies together, and 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:37.400 they put that into a physical space or there was 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.680 a physical space associated with that category, just the same 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:42.680 way you walk down an aisle in a grocery store 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:45.479 and you're like, oh, this is the space with baby 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.880 food and baby diapers, and now there's pet toys. What's 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.840 that about. I just think that, like, retail spaces are 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.600 really interesting in general, and video stores were interesting because 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.320 of the way they plumped things together that the corporate 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:02.960 stores like Hollywood in Blockbuster. Generally, those stores put things 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.720 into very broad, generic categories because those stores were really 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.519 driven by new releases, so the biggest section of the 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.000 store was not based on a genre or a commonality 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:16.960 among the movies, but rather the temporality of the release. 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:19.840 The kind of broad categories found at a corporate store 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:24.760 imply a kind of openness and a kind of democratic 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.040 attitude toward individual taste. That you didn't have to know 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.120 much about a movie, or about the history of movies, 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:35.720 or about film art or aesthetics to figure out where 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:38.160 you should be in the store to get what you want. 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.680 And then with independence stores you find all sorts of 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.840 quirky categories. Sometimes these are kind of because the person 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.560 is educated about film history and film art. Sometimes it's 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:53.400 just because there was like a quirky video store owner. Right, 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.640 So like various small town stores had these great sections 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:00.080 like movies with people with mustaches or like bald in 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.919 times days movies, so like a subcategory of romances. Right, 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:08.359 Whereas the corporate store had everything in these big umbrellas. 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.520 The independent stores generally find more sections and more kind 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:17.919 of fine grained criteria for putting movies together. And then 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:21.200 there's those stories that really went to town being very 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.799 particular about why some movies were in some sections. And 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.000 they have tons and tons of sections, so it's not 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.800 just a matter of putting things into like documentary, but 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:34.880 you have sub sections for historical documentary, political documentary, concert films, 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:40.400 et cetera. And then foreign films might be divided by country, 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:44.080 by director, or by both. Right, those kinds of stores 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:49.960 display in physical space a kind of more formally educated 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.560 approach toward film, not necessarily a better education, just a 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:57.240 more formally trained It's like, oh, somehow we should all 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.600 think about where a movie came from, what country, and 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:01.920 we should all think about what director. That isn't necessarily 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.040 the case, but if you've been to film school, that 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.920 is the case. So those stores are a little i 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:11.320 would say, less democratic, because you can't navigate those spaces 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:17.239 unless you know one that directors matter and that countries matter, 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.640 and two you have to kind of have a more 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:25.360 kind of intellectual rather than emotional approach towards selection, meaning 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.160 that it's like, Okay, if I want to feel scared 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.440 at eight thirty PM, that might mean me actually going 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:35.240 to the documentary section or getting something by Louis Bunuell. 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:38.919 Those are the three categories. Is like the corporate store 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:44.159 with its bland, general, emotion driven generic categories, the indie 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:48.080 stores that were often quirky and had more sections, and 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.840 those sections often revealed kind of the odd ball thinking 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.600 of the individual owners. And then there's those specialty stores 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.720 that really did organize things according to a very kind 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.440 of formal and formally edging hated approach toward film history 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:07.600 and film art. But everything came to a head at 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:13.640 the checkout counter. Rather than appearing like a movie concession stand, 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:18.239 early video store checkout counters like look like hardware repair shops, 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.400 because that's really what they were doing, is they were 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.839 they were renting these tapes and these VCRs with three 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:27.520 paid rentles from Blockbuster Video, get a free to linear 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:31.000 bottle of diet Coca Cola, and then you have Blockbuster 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.760 and other stores like that really did transform the checkout 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.720 counter into a movie concession stand. So you weren't just 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:39.680 getting the movie, but you know all of the kind 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.679 of things that we attached to movie consumption from movie theaters, 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:48.560 you know, candy, soda, whatever, things like that. The checkout 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:50.880 counter is this kind of amazing space in general because 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:57.919 all of that contemplation, wandering, browsing, selecting, discussing, all that 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:02.159 gets kind of condensed down to this business transaction at 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.680 the counter. Right, So on the one hand, there's the clerk, 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.960 and maybe the clerk is somebody that you would talk 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.960 to and make recommendations back and forth. Maybe the clerk 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.920 isn't that kind of person. But in the end, it's 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.359 a business transaction. It can be fraud because it is 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.120 a business transaction, like do I have late fees? Right, 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.160 Like the number of times people are surprised by having 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.039 late fees or feigned surprised by having late fees like 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.640 oh no, I had no idea, And then the bizarre 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.479 negotiation that would happen between the clerk and the customer 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.040 of like, well, you owe thirty bucks, but I guess 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.560 you know I can. I can let you off for fifteen. 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:42.600 It's like, what do you mean you're gonna let me off? 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.679 You're not a cop? And who determined like the value 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:49.640 of a late movie anyway, Like there's no fixed price 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:51.880 on on latenus. I mean there is at the store, 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:56.160 but it's still such a strangely ephemeral or bendable kind 0:06:56.160 --> 0:07:01.520 of thing here in Atlanta to We're fortunate to have 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:07.880 Video Drone, a rental house that's continuously operated since. Videodrome 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.480 exemplifies much of what Dan values about the in store 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:15.000 rental experience. It's a place that has something to offer 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.880 anyone that walks through its doors, and has been able 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.600 to adapt to two decades of change, including weathering a 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:26.600 global pandemic. Inside, you'll find a vibrant culture of people 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.680 from all walks of life seeking out about film, with 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.600 stacks of DVDs in their arms. Owner Matt Booth and 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.880 the proprietors of Videodrome were gracious enough to invite us 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.360 to chat about their history, take a look around, and 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:50.640 point microphones at unsuspecting customers. I'd like to just collect 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.280 and watch as much as I can, especially during quarantine, 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.240 and there's a lot of stuff that isn't online, and 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:58.400 video Drome has been like the only source I could 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:02.120 find for so much stuff. There's this myth that like 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:04.640 in the age of the Internet, like you have access 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:10.440 to everything, but it's not. It's just somewhere between thirty 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:15.120 and forty thousand movies. And like if you take Netflix, Hulu, 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:18.840 Amazon and combine their entire just film libraries, not counting 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.320 the television, I think it edges out to like nine 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:26.240 or ten thousand. My name is Ian Deaton. I'm a 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.640 low budget film composer, and I also work part time 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.120 a video drme, drabbing things off the shop that we 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.720 would have never found. Especially I'm like a big like 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.599 horror and exploitation fan, and that's probably one of the 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:42.920 most like lost genres of film. Like you could probably 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.520 find like things that are considered like classics, but like 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:47.840 you can't find most of them unless you like either 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.360 buy a physical copy from someone for like a hundred 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:54.120 dollars or just come here. You know that amped up 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.760 a lot during quarantine. I moved back to Atlanta from 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:02.040 Athens in now would come probably like twice a month 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:04.400 whenever I could get down here, like I would try 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:06.760 to just like walk around at least brows because I've 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:11.040 never seen something so detailed and cataloged. It was enthralling. 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:17.880 Any kind of physical storefront in like this era is 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:22.000 kind of like practicing a traditional routine in a weird way, 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.160 especially something like a video store. It's like a reflection 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.880 of something maybe people associate with the past, but like 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:31.720 actually has a lot of usefulness. It's just fun. It's 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:35.920 like and then the conversations you have, you know, it's great. 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.240 Another thing I'll say is that coming over here and 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:40.920 just being able to talk with some of the staff 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:43.840 while I like brows has been a welcomed human interaction, 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:49.760 just like being inside all the time. It's like around people, 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.480 it's just like but it's just so relaxed and like, 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.520 I'm not even the number one fan in my friend group. 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:59.440 It's Dan Clifford. He paid someone to do an embroidery 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.720 of their low Go for a Christmas president room sweet Drome. 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:08.800 So I mean, he'll probably come in today, usually comes 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.960 in on Friday. So I think the most important thing 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.439 is curators, like because that's what this story is even 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:18.800 though it's there's an insane amount of films and television 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:22.200 shows in here, Matt and everybody else that works here, 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:24.440 because it's kind of like a collective, we really try 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:26.559 to curate this stuff. That's one of the reasons why 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.880 it's split into all these crazy sections and stuff like that. 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:32.800 All of us that work here have Hulu and Net. 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:34.480 It's not like we're opposed to that. We want to 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.200 see the films, however, then we can get our grubby 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:39.600 little hands on it, and this just happens to be 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:41.560 the most direct way to do it. A lot of 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:45.200 times you get weird information you didn't know before that 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.000 you're not necessarily Like if you pull up Rolling Thunder 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:49.960 on Netflix, it's not going to tell you that Paul 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.320 Trader was unemployed for six months and an alcoholic and 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:55.240 almost got kicked out of his house and got fired 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:58.200 by Pauline while he was writing the movie. And that's 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:00.200 why it's so you know what I'm saying, like, don't 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.920 learn stuff like that. And we also have a lot 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.400 of people that work part time on and off in 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:09.120 the film industry that work here, like Tommy has done 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.719 construction on sets, Donnie barely comes here anymore because he's 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.360 a full time editor on television shows and stuff like that. 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:17.599 I worked as a p A and a camera p 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:21.600 A for like years until it bashed my childhood dreams 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:23.719 into nothing and I had to run away screaming to 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:28.160 this wonderful place where movies are real. And yeah, there's 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.240 there's other stories too, but but it's nice because we 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:32.559 get to like kind of bring that kind of stuff 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.280 into the store to talk to the customs about. And 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.640 most importantly, everybody, I think most of the people that 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.280 will actually sit and talk to you have a basic 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:46.400 love of cinema and most importantly storytelling. It's extremely important 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.360 to all cultures and always has been. And if you 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:52.720 look back, there's even examples in like I don't know, 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:55.680 I want to say thousands or twelve hundred in the 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:59.319 Middle East where they were doing projected plays with candlelight 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.360 and like stuff like that, like literally proto cinema, like 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:06.160 a long time ago. And it's like it's obvious that 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:09.280 this ritual of human beings sitting around some kind of 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.120 white to tell them a story, whether that's a someone 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.240 speaking or behind a screen or on the stage or 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.600 what you know, it's like it just keeps coming up 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:20.400 over and over again. We can't seem to shake that 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:23.680 mode of people sitting around telling us something about ourselves. 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.280 I know it's I'm going way out there, but but 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:28.640 but still it is important. And I've recognized that so 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:30.839 many times working here, I'm like, where is the common 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.880 denominator between all this? And it's like, oh, yeah, when 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:35.840 I was five and my grandpa tells me a creepy 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.040 story about when he thought he saw a UFO, you know, 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:40.920 standing in front of the fire, it's literally the same 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:45.320 same thing. I just loved DVDs. I know it's silly 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.280 and everybody's gone to streaming and all this other kind 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:49.559 of stuff, But to me, this is like opening a book, 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:52.079 holding a book in your hand. You're you've got the 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.559 DVD and it's I don't know, it's just something special, 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:58.720 you know what I'm saying. Then everything else, it's truly 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:02.800 stringing string passion. And besides, these guys are fantastic. They 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.679 know every movie ever made, every everything. If there's anything 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.200 you want to know, I mean, they know it so 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.360 and to me that just means a lot. I come 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.559 once a week, truly, because I don't always know what 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:16.600 I want to watch me be able to browse the 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:18.560 shelves is exciting and honestly, talking to these guys are 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:20.440 always recommended me something that somebody who thinks that I 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:21.840 know a lot about movies, then you come here and 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.920 you realize you know, the diverse uh stuff that they 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.040 know about and recommend is just it just makes it 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:30.880 better than than any other options, you know, streaming or otherwise. 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:38.079 So I'm Dan, Dan, your reputation preceded you. They were 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:41.520 talking about you before you got That's very cool. I'm 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.319 very excited about that. I've been coming here for a year. 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.280 On a is my one year anniversary of coming here 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.880 every week. Because they gave him a rental history a 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:51.640 while back and I was like, I don't want to 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.959 find out what the like the exact day is. This 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.640 is the best story in the damn world. It's like 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.560 the only space sale on myself to go to. I 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.480 really don't like algorithms is one part of it, but 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.199 like this store. What's great about it is like they'll 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.480 give you off the wall recommendations about something that you'll 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:12.760 never even think to look for. You can dig really 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.720 deep in an obscure sub genre in a way that 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:20.040 you can't even via streaming, Like we watched fifty three 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.880 Hong Kong movies this summer or something. We were able 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:25.320 to because of these guys. You know, they know that 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.880 Hong Kong section is a legendary. It's just the the 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.280 ability to like drill down into a sub genre or 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:35.680 get something completely random that generally speaking isn't on streaming. 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:39.360 You know, the knowledge base of like what like twenty 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:43.320 years of collecting is unparalleled. It's hard for me to 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:45.520 put into word, frankly, how much I like this place. 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:48.320 Then I want to point out, because the microphone doesn't 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.880 capture this, that you're wearing a video drum mask. Uh, 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.640 I'm not wearing one video drumask. I'm wearing two and 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:58.200 the Ladies snowblood shirt. I figure I look like the 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:02.120 picture of the client going a cassette tape earring too. 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:10.760 It just it all tracks. I'm well, And you've been 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:12.280 coming here for what like the last year, You've been 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:15.000 coming longer I've been coming before, Like we had our 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.920 pretty much day to day ritual. Um, yeah, probably about 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:21.360 two or three years now. Yeah. Yeah, there's a Hollywood 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.840 video on Highway forty one. Thought we would go to it. 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.400 Was pretty big. It's now an auto zone. I think 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.200 that's much more exciting. Yeah, and then there was like 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.960 a really strange I feel like I just remember the 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.280 smell where it wasn't it doesn't smell like mothballs would 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.520 have just smelled very like dingy. And that one was 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:42.360 closer to us, but we didn't go there as often. 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:44.640 It was as much smaller, but I don't remember the 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.800 name of it. I think it was just like independently owned. 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:50.320 I also went to school in Athens, so I went 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:52.880 to Vision Video and Athen's a bunch and that kind 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:56.960 of like that's howaing what got me into watching movies 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:01.560 was going to Vision Video. What are you gonna rent today? 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:04.240 You have any idea? No? No, That's why I came 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:08.560 in here all excited. Cond there's unlimited possibilities. So far. 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:12.920 I have Night of the Demon from seven haven't seen it. 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:17.400 I'm very excited. And then recommendation from him was Rolling Thunder, 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:22.360 Paul Schrader. I love Paul Schrader. Mishima first reformed. He 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.760 wrote Taxi driver, you know, and Flash Gordon smooth talk. 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:26.840 A lot of stuff that I haven't seen that I 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:28.880 feel like I should have seen already mixed with a 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:30.680 new release let him Go, because I'll admit to me 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.840 and like Kevin Costner fanboy, we're looking for something very doom, 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:39.040 so we might get Freddie Got Fingered or Encino Man 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.120 because we just got vaccinated, so we're trying to watch 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:46.320 something as stupid as possible. Today, I'm actually buying a 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.680 VHS tapes are producer Tremor. I found a lovely copy 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:51.920 of Pink Floyds at the wall. Dude, I've seen that. 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:55.200 Just my dad has an Yeah, I could not pass 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:56.880 at up. How do you pick something? I mean, you 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.280 just divine it. You hear about stuff naturally. It just 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:02.280 just like advertisments and everything else. But a lot of 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:04.679 times this can't sound silly, but I just walked in 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.240 and whatever jumps out at me, and usually that's better 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.480 than what I had heard or planned on getting. To 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:15.760 begin with, my name is Matt Booth. I'm known or 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.639 video drum moved Atlanta, n I kind of worked in 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.639 video stores on and off in high school, and I 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.119 didn't really have a lot of job opportunities after college, 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:27.080 and I just started picking up shifts at a video 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.080 store that at that time it was called Video Update, 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.399 and it was at real Mall, which is doesn't exist anymore. 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.359 It was a kind job where people came and go 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:37.840 a lot, so if you just showed up on time, 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.600 you became the manager pretty quickly. And I got moved 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:43.320 over to the little Five Points location. I wasn't the 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.320 head person that store, but I was a manager, and 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:47.280 I just got to know people in the neighborhood and 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:49.200 realized it was a kind of neighborhood that like people 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:51.240 were looking for more than just what corporate stores were, 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:53.399 and that was like the heyday video stores. That was 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.439 like nice six nine seven. They were so common at 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:57.879 that time. That's the only way people got entertainment on 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.399 Friday and Saturday besides going to the movie, So it 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.560 didn't seem ridiculous to open another video store. I had 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:05.119 a friend at the time who also worked at the 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:07.640 Store's name was Jeff Sutton, and we just started looking 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.399 for locations, and we convinced the landlord here too in 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.080 the summer to let us have this space. And we 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.840 took a combination of our own VHS collections and what 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.159 we kind of drove around and scavenged how to do 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.879 amount of money to put some orders in and started 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.639 the store with the maybe like five HS. There's been 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:26.240 a lot of changes in this industry, so we were 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.840 all VHS and we moved to DVD slowly, and now 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:30.600 we're kind of moving to Blu ray and there's been 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:33.560 some kind of lost formats in between two. I don't know. 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:35.760 Blu Ray's working really well. It's a really good Format's 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.280 got tons of great companies played out, really special editions 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:42.560 of things, perfect restorations. It's a really impressive kind of format. 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:45.239 So I'm hoping it's days. I mean, we've had our 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:46.920 ups and downs too. I mean, and we started, like 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:48.520 I said, we were more of like alternative to the 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:50.960 corporate store, so we were concentrating on the genres. We 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:54.040 liked Italian horror and Hong Kong movies and anime and like, 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:56.240 we had new releases, but they were just like the 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.480 indie stuff for the foreign stuff. We didn't mess with 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:03.040 big Hollywood releases at all. As we became the last 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.840 video store, we've become more mainstream in a way, and 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.160 we get kind of something for everybody. And our selection 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:11.840 really just evolved with our customer base what they're looking for, 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.240 and with our employees what they're asking for. Our customers 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:16.919 are really knowledgeable. They fill us in all the time 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.960 on things that if we miss it, they loves, and 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.440 I put a great stock in like personal recommendations. So 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.359 for me sitting around and talking to customers all day 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:28.240 about what they're watching, what they like, they've turned me 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:30.119 onto so much stuff. You know, it's not just me 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.399 turning some o the things. We have a new a 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:36.520 new release Fall and you know that does have new 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.960 movies that you categorize as things that just came out 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.840 on DVD and Blu Ray, and it also has a 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.280 lot of like special releases, special editions of things that 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:47.000 are new to Blu Ray for the first time, So 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:48.440 it has a lot of older movies on it, but 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:50.160 it's the first time they've been on Blue Ray or whatever. 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.960 And then if you move along the store, we have 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:56.399 an anime section from Japanese animation to adult swim to 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:01.560 like theatrical animated features. A TV section over in that corner. 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:03.920 That's one thing that's really changed since we've been opened. 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:06.560 TV was terrible when we first started, and now that 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.200 whole genre has gotten better. And then it kind of 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.320 moves into some foreign stuff. We have like a Scandinavian section, 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:21.200 Eastern European, German, Spanish, South American, Central American, Italian, big 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:23.840 French section with some of the big French directors carved 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:26.680 out sort of kids section, and above that there's like 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:28.440 a young adult section that has like the Harry Potter 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:30.760 and Star Wars and that kind of stuff too. And 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:32.600 then when you go around in that corner, they'll be 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:36.560 like a Japanese section, which is sort of mainstream Japanese movies, 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.720 and then the classic Japanese section that has more like Curasawa, 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:43.280 and then a bunch of Samurai and kind of Chuza movies. 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:46.639 Southeast Asia some of the countries that don't have a 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:48.560 ton of movies, but we have a half a shelf 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:52.720 or so of each of those. Yeah, yeah, Taiwan is big. 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.560 Now there's a bunch of great Taiwanese films. China with 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:59.159 big Hong Kong section nineties. Hong Kong cent is one 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:02.000 of the favorite like genres of our store. So then 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:06.760 there's some generic kind of comedy, British drama, action, thriller. 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:09.960 We have an eighty section with a bunch of eighties favorites. 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:11.920 We call it we keep wanting to a ninety section, 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:14.800 but there's no room right now. But we're getting to that. 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.359 We only have room for about forty five thousand movies 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:20.440 in this whole story, and some of that it's multiples 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:22.080 of certain you know, we might have five copies of 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:24.600 certain things. So that's actually one of the things we're 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:26.159 doing now to make more room for Blu Ray. We 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:30.320 have about seventy rays right now. We're going back pulling 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:32.440 some DVDs that we had three and four copies of that. 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:34.399 We don't need three and four DVDs of that anymore, 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.480 dropping down to one or two. We just only have 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:39.680 the shell space for a certain amount of movies. So yeah, 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:43.640 it's usually anywhere between forty and forty thousand. You want 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:50.520 to see the stacks are a little type back here, um, 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.800 but you can see the numbers back here. They go 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:59.119 somewhere into the thirty thousand. Back here. We have different 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:01.080