Friday Nights at the Video Store
As Henry Hill would say, as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a movie collector. Like many who share this hobby, I think my fascination with collecting physical media started when I was kid, when I used to visit video rental stores. I loved browsing all of the aisles and seeing all of the cool cover art on the VHS tapes. Some of the art gave me a sense of wonder, others a sense of curiosity, and others a sense of fear and dread. I wasn’t just looking at kids movies, I was looking at all of the genres. Fantasy, Horror, Action, you name it.At home, we had a pretty modest collection of VHS tapes, mostly Disney movies. We bought our first DVD player in 1999. That same day, my dad bought Eagles: Hell Freezes Over for himself, and he got Batman Beyond: The Movie for me. My dad was a fan of concerts on physical media so we not only had a DVD player, but we also had a pretty decent surround sound system. Not only have I always enjoyed owning movies, I’ve also always had respect for a great home theater set up. My grandpa used to own a Laserdisc player and also had a pretty solid collection of movies. Terminator 2 and a Three Tenors concert come to mind as movies I would watch at his house. While I have to date never owned a Laserdisc or a Laserdisc player, I have a sense of nostalgia for those huge discs as well. There’s something cool to me about being able to hold the movie in your hands and read through the description of the movie and admire the artwork. It’s just not the same with streaming.
Into The Abyss
I was always very curious about how films were made. With the advent of DVD came special features including, but not limited to, commentary tracks, making-of-featurettes, and trailers. The special features were just as important to me as the movie itself. I always made sure to buy any special editions of movies and not just the bare bones editions. Long before I discovered IMDb, I was learning trivia straight from the source, usually the director via the director’s commentary.Over time, I upgraded to Blu-Ray. That transition took some time since I initially didn’t see the point as I felt that the resolution of DVD was already good enough. A demo of The Dark Knight’s Blu Ray at Wal-Mart proved me wrong. The movie has a few IMAX sequences that really showcased the higher resolution format of the discs. Still, it was around the time that digital copies of movies and streaming started popping up that I nearly stopped buying movies altogether. In theory, it makes sense. Digital copies/streaming are more convenient. I was now able to watch movies on the go, such as on road trips or on airplane rides. However, once the proliferation of streaming services began, I started wanting to return to collecting physical media. I hated the idea that these companies could remove movies whenever they wanted, or that they would to force me to sign up for 10 different streaming services just to watch a handful of movies on each. I slowly began to buy again. Then once I bought my first 4k UHD player and 4k TV, there was no going back. The difference between a 4k UHD disc and streaming in 4k is night and day.
Back to School
My relationship with physical media has matured a lot since the Batman Beyond days. Part of that is just growing up. But part of it traces back to a few semesters I spent studying film in city college before switching my major to computer science. I didn't stick with it long enough to get a degree, but I was there long enough to gain an appreciation for the art of film making. Words like mise-en-scène and chiaroscuro started making more sense to me. I had heard those words from director’s commentaries but now I had a more academic foundation for them. Films were still a form of entertainment for me, but now I started seeing them as art. So when I collect, I feel that I am acting as a sort of an archivist for film.The Usual (Criterion) Suspects
These days, I tend to gravitate toward boutique labels. Unfortunately, I feel that the big studios don’t put as much care into their release as they used to. Criterion, Arrow Video, Shout Factory, Vinegar Syndrome, and Kino Lorber are some of the labels I constantly buy from now. Their philosophy is similar to mine. They're archivists. Curators. They go out there and hunt down original camera negatives, commission new 4K transfers, track down the director for a commentary recorded in their living room, and add in niche little extras such as alternate cuts of films that only exist on a shitty VHS tape that someone recorded 20 years ago. That kind of stuff makes collecting physical media worth it. Streaming/digital copies simply don’t provide this kind of stuff, at least not usually.The Hunt
That being said, I don't always have to buy a boutique or prestige release. I feel that this is a mistake many fledgling collectors make. There are times when the Blu-Ray or even the DVD release of a movie is superior to the 4k. I’m looking at you, James Cameron. I try to do my research before adding a movie to my collection. New does not always equal best. I try to prioritize releases that showcase a print that is close to how it was shown in when it was released. I dislike heavy color regrading or when audio tracks are “renewed”. For the most part, the boutique labels don’t mess around too much with that. Sometimes I break my own rule but that's usually if I'm a fan of the film or series and I want to own the movie on all formats.Furthermore, the boutique label hunt and the bargain bin hunt are two different games, but they scratch the same itch. One is about finding the definitive version of a film you love. The other is about rescuing something that might otherwise disappear entirely. Both feel like wins.
Part of the joy is the hunt, and sometimes the hunt turns up something unexpected. A beat-up ex-rental DVD of a movie nobody's ever heard of hits just as hard as a brand new limited edition 4K Arrow release. Sometimes it's the only way to watch the film, since not all movies get the boutique label treatment or go out of print for rights reasons.
It could be that no streaming platform in the world is going to provide that movie to you. Not legally at least. Obviously, I could own every single movie in the world as a digital file, but it’s just not the same thing. I’m talking about movies that only exist on a European DVD release or as a special feature on another movie. Collecting those feels like an act of preservation, like keeping a record that someone, somewhere, thought this thing was worth making. The movie itself might not be that good, but at least it's unique. And other than that, I also like to buy movies for no other reason than the fact that I enjoy it, even if others might not.
The Vault
So that's what this is all about. Tito G’s Video Vault isn't just a collection, it's a philosophy. It's the belief that movies deserve to be kept, not just accessed. That ownership still means something. That the best version of a film is worth seeking out, paying for, and putting somewhere you can find it ten years from now when the platform it used to stream on has long since folded.My intention of this Vault is to keep a running record of my hunt. The finds, the disappointments, the rabbit holes, and the occasional disc that makes you stop and think about why movies matter in the first place. I'll be writing about new releases, deep cuts, boutique labels, and everything in between.
Welcome to the Vault.
-TG