The LA Times covers the ‘death’ of VHS in this article. Seems like only last week that luminaries like Steven Spielberg were predicting that “home video” would lead to the demise of the movie business:
“It was a sea change,” says Leonard Maltin, the film critic and author who has written stacks of books to meet the consumer need for video recommendations. “Hollywood thought it would hurt movie ticket sales, but it didn’t deter people from going to movies; in fact, it only increased their appetite for entertainment. Hollywood also thought it would just be a rental market, but then when someone had the idea of lowering the prices, the people wanted to own movies. They wanted libraries at home, and suddenly VHS was a huge part of our lives.”
A gazillion videocassettes later, movies are still here — but VHS is not. The article provides a brief history of the phenomenon and — shockingly — reminds us that only three decades ago, there was no such thing like watching a movie in the comfort of your home, on your schedule, fast forward, rewind, etc. It was movies on cable or broadcast TV – and that was it. Now DVD has effectively ‘killed’ VHS as a format. But wait — the article ends with a prediction:
“The DVD will be obsolete in three or four years, no doubt about it. Everything will be Blu-ray,” Kugler said, anticipating the next resident at his pop culture retirement home. “The days of the DVD are numbered. And that is good news for me.”
So a question for you? What do we do with all our old VHS movies? My Disney animation collection alone. Can’t transfer them to DVD because they’re copy-protected; plus the picture would look like crap. Suggestions?
Scott,
When will you be teaching your next course.
I gave up the “dream” of being a screenwriter a while back, but feel the pull to write and create.
Starting to write some shorts again and looking for a forum to discuss and share.
I’ll be teaching a 4-day workshop on a character-based approach to screenwriting: More info on that here.
Re online: I’ll be teaching a course titled “Screenplay Universe: The External and Internal Worlds.”
Course description: “This course looks at a screenplay’s universe, how it is comprised of the “plotline/external world,” as conveyed through action and dialogue, and the “themeline/internal world,” as conveyed through intention and subtext. Every moment in a script is an interplay between these two realms, and we study excerpts from notable scripts to see how the pros do it. The course is open to writers at all levels of experience.”
It’s a 1-week course starting 3/18/2009. Course #U7227.
Then another 1-week course: “Screenwriting as Scene-Writing.” Start date: 5/6/2009.
It also looks like I’ll be teaching a 10-week course online for the first time in a few years, probably this summer.
“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.”
– The WOPR
Wargames
By the time I reached twenty five, I had amassed a VHS collection of a little more than 1000 movies. It helped that I worked at a little ma’ n’ pa’ video store but it still was a rather sick pastime. When I got married, these hefty crates tagged along with the wife n’ I from home to home.
By the time the DVD revolution hit, I was already weeding these things out of my life.
I think I realized that I spent more time collecting ‘em than watching ‘em and the whole thing was just folly. These days, with HULU dot com and my satellite TV service, I realize that whatever movie I want is pretty much just a few clicks or days away anyway so why clutter up the house?
Trust me, my wife loves me all the more for it AND we now have rooms for our twins (comin’ any day now!)
Travel light, fellow screenwriters, travel light!
Jeff, I had a similar obsession with scripts. When I left LA, I gave away hundreds and hundreds of them, only keeping my favorite hard copies. Of course, they’re everywhere now as PDFs, so much easier to ‘travel light.’
Re VHS: What about the videotapes I have of movies from Z Channel in LA? I’m more attached to the fact that I can still see the Z Channel logo and promo fluff between movies than the movies themselves.
For more on Z Channel, go here. There is even a documentary.
I still miss Z Channel.
I didn’t say it wasn’t PAINFUL, Scott!
Trust me, the day I gave away my boxes of Green Acres episodes and old USA Night Flight clips… ouch.
I still believe ditching all that stuff made me a better person.
How’s that for rationalizing, eh?