The fall before I returned to college after taking a year off (mostly because I got myself kicked out of the dorms for life, but also because it was a good time to see what life was like not in school), I picked up my first DVD Player. It was a Sony that had all the bells and whistles on it—it probably cost more than I had the right to spend on it, but damn was it worth it. I didn’t’ jump on the bandwagon of DVDs right away, fearing that it was just another version of the Lazerdisc, and besides… my VCR still worked great and I had a ton of movies on VHS. But when it came apparent that DVDs weren’t going anywhere, I decided to take the plunge.
The biggest appeal (for me, at least) of a movie on DVD at the time wasn’t the supreme video and sound quality, but rather the fact that every movie was in widescreen. Half my VHS Collection had the Deluxe Widescreen Edition stamped across the top of the cover, and those were hard to come by—only elite movie collectors paying top dollar at SunCoast had VHS movies in widescreen, and I was one of them. So color me excited to learn that nearly every single DVD movie was in widescreen! And while I appreciate Bonus Features, I could honestly give a shit, save for one: the original theatrical trailer. I was so excited that every movie came with its own theatrical trailer that it made the idea of abandoning my VHS Collection for another format all the more appealing.
The first DVD I ever bought wasn’t even for me, but rather for a buddy of mine, and even then it was mostly as a joke. We watched THE RAGE: CARRIE 2 in the theater and couldn’t stopping laughing at its supreme ridiculousness (yet undeniable awesomeness). Months later, seeing THE RAGE: CARRIE 2 at SunCoast on DVD for the bargain price of $22.99, I couldn’t help but buy it was a gift for my friend, whose birthday was coming up. That was the first DVD I ever bought. But I’m a cheap bastard, so the first DVD I ever bought for my personal Collection (one that remained in said Collection until the day I sold it) was MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2–and I picked it up at a Pawn Shop in Eureka, CA, for the bargain deal of $12.99. And besides the widescreen and the trailer, I discovered the other aspect of DVDs that made them far better than VHS: chapters. The ability to skip to the best parts of the movie without having to sit through all the bullshit. What better example of this is M:I-2. Fuck that movie, really, but the final motorcycle chase / fight on the beach sequence at the end is pretty flippin’ awesome–and thanks to DVD, I’ve watched that sequence hundreds of times… and have only seen the full movie about three times total. Yes, DVDs were the latest and greatest thing for Movie Collectors everywhere and I couldn’t be happier.
We had some good times, my DVD Collection and I. I didn’t get rid of my VHS Collection until 2004, when after moving from California to Seattle, my girlfriend/fiancé/wife was sick of moving all the boxes of VHS movies around (cause they take a crapload of space), and honestly so was I. So I sold them on Craigslist and it was a heartfelt moment, but I figured I would eventually just replace all the movies I had on VHS on DVD eventually anyway, so might as well consolidate down to DVD only. I was never a fan of paying top dollar for New Release DVDs, but I did from time to time. Mostly I bought them used from Video Stores at half the price, and I did this for years on end.
When I started reviewing DVDs for The Site That Shall Not Be Named as well as for Film.com, I started getting DVD movies for free (FREE!) in the mail and after awhile, that’s mostly of what I started adding to my collection–keeping the stuff I liked and selling the stuff I didn’t really give a shit about. Around 2009, I upgraded my first Sony DVD player to a new (and improved!) DVD player that up-converted standard DVDs to HD quality to fit my new HD TV. I kept my original DVD player for bedroom use though, and it kicked around for a few more years until ultimately dying out in 2012 (it couldn’t play a slightly dusty DVD without skipping around like a crazy person). The HD DVD player lasted for maybe 6 months until Christmas came around and my Sony Blu-ray player took over and any effort I took in building my DVD Collection went to the wayside (and my Blu-ray Collection started taking up the coveted movie-shelf space). However, I still collected used 80s action movies from Video Store’s liquidation sales, but those were few and far between. The era of my DVD Collection was mostly over by mid-2012, but I continued to oogle and cherish the hefty collection I had put together over the last decade.
At one point I had around 500 DVDs, ranging from mostly action and horror movies to the occasional dramas and comedies. Kid movies started taking over after my kids were old enough to enjoy the Disney Classics, but otherwise, it was a pretty solid movie collection that would make any self-respecting movie fan proud. I put forth great effort in “collections” of different actors and filmmakers: I tried hard as hell to complete my Schwarzenegger collection but could never bring myself to buy RED SONJA, CONAN THE DESTROYER, or BATMAN & ROBIN. I owned all of James Cameron’s movies, Quentin Tarantino’s movies, a chunk of Steven Spielberg’s movies, and even had a huge selection of Steven Seagal, Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Chuck Norris movies at my disposal. I had Box Sets of Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Chucky, Dirty Harry, The Man with No Name, and even a collection of Stephen King’s finest (Graveyard Shift, baby!).
Now we live in a digital age, and even though my efforts in downsizing and Tiny House living is what kick-started my final decision to rip all my DVD movies and save them on a Hard Drive and sell my DVDs, Blu-rays (though I kept a chunk of these), and even my DVD case/shelf unit (finding the perfect DVD movie case/shelf/cabinet took awhile and I was happy with the results). The thing is, I own over 100 movies digitally (via Xbox Video), I watch Netflix and Amazon Instant Video streaming more than anything, and have found that I hardly ever watched DVDs anymore (or Blu-rays, for that matter). It’s just so much easier to turn on my Xbox One and scroll to the movie I want to watch, rather than going to a shelf, opening a case, and inserting a DVD. This makes me sound like the laziest asshole on the planet, and I would agree, but it’s the fucking truth. Plus, when I eventually do move to that Tiny House, I’m already looking forward to not having boxes upon boxes filled with DVDs… that shit gets heavy after awhile.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot why I’m strolling down memory lane to begin with: this week I sold the last of my DVD Collection in one big swoop: 300 DVDs in a DVD Media Cabinet for $200 off Craigslist to a single buyer. It took a few weeks, but hot damn did it finally sell, and while I was conflicted with a range of emotions that may surprise some people (sadness and remorse were definitely in there), it had to be done and I was all the happier for it in the end. The guy owned a convenience store in the middle of nowhere and was planning on renting movies to the locals there… and if I’m gonna sell my collection, I guess a Video Rental store is as good as one could ask for. I would have liked to have gotten at least $1 a DVD, but that’s not the world we live in, so I was happy with the price, I guess. I still have a box full of Blu-rays I need to sell (at a higher price, of course), but at this point, the entire Movie Collection is out the door just a few short months of making the call to downsize and get rid of it all.
There was a point (maybe in 2010) when I would look at and browse my own wall of DVDs with pride and admiration, holding up my first born son up and saying “Someday son, this will all be yours…” — and I sincerely meant it. This was a prize that I wanted to pass down to my children for generations to come, and now… it doesn’t exist. Except in the Cloud and on a Hard Drive. And while that may not be nearly as cool or exciting as holding a DVD case, looking at the cover, and reading the synopsis on the back, it’ll have to do. I’m sure my kids will be just as stoked to have all these movies at their fingertips someday. Right?
Katt Shea is someone whose films and style I have admired for quite some time. So it felt like a jolt of electricity through my body when she agreed to come on and talk about her experience in making her films with me on this week’s episode of Binge Movie Aftertaste. First thing’s first though. Before getting Shea on the line, I had to get a co-host.
what it was like on the sets of Psycho III and Scarface. After covering what it was like working for the legendary Roger Corman, Shea mentions that her experiences directing plays at a young age set her up for what the next stage of her career would bring.
