The Power Of VHS | SCANLINE
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2017
- Let's have a look at the long-lasting effects tape and its particular properties had on movie language and the cultural landscape of film!
SCANLINE is a video essay series about film's form, cultural impact, and philosophy, written and edited by Harris Bomberguy and Shannon Strucci.
Shannon's Twitter: / plentyofalcoves
Shannon's Patreon: / struccimovies
My Twitter: / hbomberguy
My Patreon: / hbomb
My Twitch: / hbomberguy
There's a quote by Brian Eno that is relevant to this subject:
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”
Panman38 that's Old Sourpuss for you!
Came to the comments to post this. Happy to have been beaten though.
He's a real visionary, that Brian Eno.
And some quotes are too pretentious to not get trolled in the comment section...
I love that quote!
Yes, the low quality of VHS porn certainly enhanced the horror of the whole experience.
not knowing what you were actually looking at, just a blurry mess of flesh and hair (oh yes it was THAT period)... true horror, captured on a simple device
Stefan Lamb I think that's the only thing in my house that's on VHS, I don't think I've ever watched porn on VHS before...
Cate A I'm a bit young for that era, but my time spent watching pornhub has dug up some vintage stuff along the way.
You are a lucky man then
To be honest though, who wants to see someone's butthole in 4K?
you: heres the same clip in bruray
me, watching in 144p, out of fast data on my phone: ah i see
I should rewatch it in 144p to see if it looks better in some way.
That's how I watch RUclips nearly every day.
Haha true!
I literally spat my drink out when the bit about the cult came up with the song "S.O.S". I was in that cult as a kid and had completely forgotten about that song until just now.
We had so many good propaganda songs, from "Cathy Don't go to the Supermarket" (spoilers: the Anti-christ was at said supermarket), to "White Sugar Will Rot Your Teeth", to my personal favorite: "Psychic Waste", a song by Jeremy Spencer (a former guitarist for Fleetwood Mac who we were told was the greatest guitarist who ever lived cause he joined the cult) about how T.V. Is bad and will pollute your mind.
That cult was weird as hell looking back now, but as a kid it all seemed so normal. I was 100% certain the world would end and Jesus would return before I turned 18; and then I turned 18, and realized I had no formal education, no social skills or even social experience, and no general skills aside from reciting a few bible verses. We are all--the kids who were born into the cult and left later--set up to fail. It's amazing any of us managed to become semi-stable adults.
... Good times...
wow and I thought I was sheltered because I grew up in an evangelical home
So without an education you're still very well written
@@WetDogSquad I... really wish you hadn't tricked me into finding that.
Didn't they also do a song called "Jesus is GED?" The band did get a lot better once Ian Astbury joined them.
Did you at least get to hear that cool story about Samson?
A childhood accident left me with visual snow, so dark rooms actually look like black VHS noise to me. It's a scary thing, I gotta say.
I thought everyone sees a bit of fuzz in the dark??
On the bright side, it's not yellow snow?
ur VHS daredevil
@@CptCPT-dl9lh Visual snow is like that but amplified and all the time.
wait, i have that, and I never had an accident
As I'm sure others have pointed out by now, this video perfectly predicted the "analogue horror" trend of the last few years. Things really are more frightening when you can't quite make out what you're looking at, especially if it's poor CGI done personally by an indie filmmaker
Predicted? Part of the point of his video was that the trend had been going for a while by this point...
@@sniperjoe58 "Predicted" was a dramatic choice of words. What he really did was discover the why and what behind the analogue horror trend and point it out before it was the mainstream trend it is now. Some of the things he discusses in this video would be considered basic information to an avid analogue horror fan, but those people mostly didn't exist before a couple years ago.
@@joshjones Haha, you don't always have to justify yourself to pedants like me in comment sections, but for what it's worth, good response!
Yeah, and the poor quality leaves a lot to the imagination and also makes it easier for people who may not be too talented with CGI, make up for it with the poor quality and leave most of the fear to the mind. By the way, if you want to follow along an ongoing analog horror series I really recommend Vita Carne by Darrian Quilloy
He uses the poor quality to his advantage but also uses a combination of practical and digital effects which works really well
I can't describe the pain I felt the day when I came home to see that my Dad had given away our *COMBINATION* VHS and DVD Player
I had the reverse problem: my dad got us a combination VHS and DVD player-which could load 5 discs at once!-for Christmas and my mom made him return it because we already had a VHS player and she thought it was a waste of money. As an adult I finally went on eBay and bought another 5-disc combo player to make up for it.
@@HughGuiney this reminded me that my Dad got us this CD player that could hold 50 CDs. They where stood up and aligned in a circle in a clear cover that you could lift up to change out the CDs. He also hooked it up to 2 huge speaker that were about the of height of a 6 year old me
@Jessica M When my dad bought our first CD player, he also got rid of our turntable and vinyls. He absolutely regretted that basically every day since until he was finally able to buy new ones in recent years.
that sounds like just about the biggest tragedy a child could imagine
Here from the second scanline videos. Want to convey my appreciation for Shannon Strucci. I honestly didn't notice that this wasn't a single person production and felt like coming back to admit it. Thanks for the sharp and concise writing Strucci.
really1337 same!
Great work Shannon!
I feel like I can tell which parts she wrote, just based on the cadence. She's very good.
Does anyone know if she does video essays of her own? I haven’t been able to find any, but also haven’t looked super hard
@@lilacrain3283 this is a very late reply, but her youtube channel is StrucciMovies
I had a broken copy of
harry potter: the chamber of secrets that made the basilisk look like it was missing half its face and I still haven't out grown the nightmares.
simon amorim I realized how sad it is my daughter doesn't get to grow up experiencing VHS rental. We are finding a local rental place now.
Thanks to 80s movies, I've always had this impression in my brain that the 70s and 80s were a brownish-yellow hue.
I know, I can't imagine the 40s as anything other than black and white
Weren't they?
They kind of were, but the reason irl was air pollution
@Christopher Stanley op said 70s or 80s so im still correct
owned with fact and logic(tm)
@Christopher Stanley well im still right then this changes nothing
How did I live through the indroduction and demise of VHS without ever wondering what VHS stood for? Well now I know, thanks hbomberguy
we just called them video cassetes here. We also called cartridges cassetes, and briefly disks, before figuring out that was stupid
We watched SO MUCH poorly taped, subtitle-free anime in the mid 90s I've a friend who was actually motivated to become genuinely fluent in Japanese.
Did he accomplish that goal?
@@Persun_McPersonson I think that is what he is saying, yes.
*HOT DAMN THAT'S MY MATE'S IMDB REVIEW OF MALLRATS!*
"Brad from Auckland New Zealand!" He's gonna love this video
I like your coment and i like that its at 69 likes. So im not touching it
Did he enjoy the video?
@@inflightb4563
Now it has a gross of likes, so like away.
R Nickerson I just became #168, we’ve almost circled back around
Commented for future updates lol
Still not sure whether Hbomb is expanding or contracting his audience with every new series
Contracting his viewership, expanding his audience ;)
It's more of a steady, tumescent throbbing over time, really.
He's shifting the overton window. :P
Both?
"The real challenge is making something people would fall in love with even if they were watching it on a crappy old tape in the 90's"
Take heart, Harry. I fell in love with your stuff on a crappy old phone watching in 240p to save mobile data.
5 years late to bring it up but I'm surprised that the concept of being at home, where one could be alone watching horror, is a much more frightening setting to experience it in than a large theatre with a small crowd. There's a sense of safety being around other people, and I feel like some of the kick behind vhs horror sales was from a more intense experience.
That's a good point. Especially since, from what I've heard, a lot of slashers have a small group of friends hanging out together in someone's house or cabin. In some cases the viewing experience literally emulates the movie's setting.
About your point with VHS making things scarier, I have a similar philosophy with older horror games. I find Silent Hill on the PS1 to be so dang terrifying, much more terrifying than anything I'd ever play today with photorealistic visuals.
I find that the low frame rate and resolution really help with that for similar reasons!
I feel the exact same way about Shadow of the Colossus!
Also, the strange polygonal monstrosities that barely resembled any earthly thing allowed your imagination to make things infinitely scarier than a detailed monster
My two favorite boys are in the same place...
Also the case for PS2 horror game Siren. Weird PS2-era rendition of 'supposedly' photorealistic faces just contributes to its scariness.
Honestly i've noticed that with a lot of even older games. The digitized ambient screams you would hear in dungeons in Daggerfall make my bones chill in a way that more recent games that should by all means be objectively scarier don't.
a friend of mine used to make a lot of money selling vhs recordings of old hard-find concerts
Rare Nirvana and Cure live tapes are still being traded and sold around everywhere, some for about as much money as a new blu ray
the1janitor ah tape trading. I kind of miss those days.
That reminds me of a Rooster Teeth podcast where Michael talks about how his brother bought one of those black boxes to steal cable, and he would record PPV porno and sell it to his friends.
Oooh T1J likes Bootlegs!
"a friend of mine" used to sell bootlegs.
Sure. Either snitch or admit that there is no alleged "friend" and confess your guilt about shilling for globalists. The truth will set you free.
"This film has been modified from it's original version. It has been formatted to fit your screen."
That screen always excited me when I was a kid. Like I was looking into the past through a window.
This comment section is just full of people lying about how they remember bad technology.
One of the really clever ways Terminator 2 looked great with early CGI, is that they asked ilm what they could do really well.
They said smooth shiny things.
It's one of the very few movies that has graphics that aged well to this day.
@@KasumiRINA
It's often the ones that worked _with_ the limitations rather than against.
Tron's one
The Abyss
The Lawnmower Man even, because that's what 90s VR looked like
Even the glass knight from Young Sherlock Holmes still looks good.
I think the Knight holds up because, even though they didn't have real lighting yet, it's translucent, a cheap way to make it look like it's really there.
Being coloured glass, it's not very reflective.
And the lighting, many candles at night, means very flat even lighting in the scene, again the Knight matches because it had no lighting simulation, just uniform colour.
It's genuinely astonishing, they didn't even lock off the camera, they did a pan _around_ the Knight
Which, again, promotes the idea that is really there, the brain sees the matching pan.
First ever CG character and they threw in a pan too!
Even Jurassic Park uses it, matt skin on the raptors, dull lighting with lots of diffuse reflection off the stainless steel in the kitchen.
Shot at night, in a storm so no sharp moonlight, even the finale was early dawn with just orange pre-dawn light filtering through vegetation and skylights.
All working with the limitations rather than against.
CGI realism is _always_ about the lighting (assuming you've not cocked anything obvious up)
"You'd be amazed what hoops people would jump through to see a show they liked." My parents legit had my uncle recording soap operas, cartoons, sitcoms, etc while they were stationed in Kenya in the late 80's/early 90's. My uncle would then mail these tapes to Kenya so my parents could keep up with shows and my sister and I had American cartoons/films to watch. I try not to get too attached to physical objects, but I am p bummed that my family has since lost most of those tapes. My older sister estimates that over the course of two years, my uncle sent several hundred VHS tapes to Africa for us. I think my stepmom still has my dad's Betamax collection, though.
Betamax is king
Considerably less distance (and postage) but my Dad paid to have Australian TV shows taped and sent to Papua New Guinea when he was teaching there in the early 80s.
Hsss Betamax
I knew a guy who burned movies onto DVD roms then sold them for cheap, have like a hundred of em cos my uncle knew him well. The disks were always this brand called Tuff Disk or some shit like that and the movie name was written on with sharpie.
I still own my parents' bootleg Russian copy of Star Wars, I can't remember but I think that some copies do have the Crawl in cyrillic. Also they're DVDs, but they might be copies of VHSs because I remember the problem with reading the text only when it's halfway through. I'll check when I get my hands on this ancient technology called a DVD player
There was a period of my life where I was absolutely in love with "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and would watch it over and over on my crappy VHS copy. Then, one day, I actually got in on DVD, and so excited to know that I got a better, longer lasting format, I put it in, and noticed...something was missing. Suddenly, all of the stop-motion puppets seemed less like actual characters and more like, well, jittery, stop-motion puppets, and the magical worlds they lived in seemed just like cheap, constructed sets on a sound stage, somewhere. I still love the story and characters, of course, but I honestly think that the VHS quality helped me overlook the otherwise dated animation. I think that was the first time I actually felt like objectively higher quality robbed the product of something.
Ironically I watched Nightmare Before Christmas on VHS on a shitty little 90s TV the other day and you're totally right - the lower quality and smaller screen just fundamentally changes how movies feel. Toy Story is another example - the Blu-Ray version makes it clear how dated the CGI is becoming.
Perhaps we'll eventually be streaming "The VHS release" versions of movies over out 10 Gigabit connections..
Though thinking of that, I do have the FLAC recording of a vinyl album on my player. But that's because the CD release was over-compressed. There is a single I had where the pops and crackles were part of the ambiance for me.
I've still got a little box TV from the 80s. It's not too hard to hook up to a bluray and you get the VHS quality no matter what you're playing! ....which is bad, most of the time, but could be great in this case!
I dunno, I take your point about Nightmare Before Christmas VHS vs DVD, but I respectfully disagree. The animation is timeless. Watching the movie in BluRay quality, I find myself even more impressed by what the animators accomplished. I think if you better familiarize yourself with the technical aspects of how animation like this is created you would hesitate to call it "dated."
TIL people used to go out and watch porn in public at the theatre.
have you never seen taxi driver? wtf is wrong with you....? Watch it immediately
I remember watching this documentary about "Deep Throat" releasing into theaters and how even celebrities would come out to watch it and give interviews on what they thought of it. God bless America.
I think some of these theatres still exist
Companion92 yea I've seen a couple of them, god knows who still goes there
@@Eexpers I had a very interesting experience watching Taxi Driver. To me, there was this intense horror in watching Travis’ pursuit of Betsy. This young woman meets somebody at her job one day and he seems like a nice enough guy, but when they go out for a date he reveals himself to be a pervert with no social skills who takes her to watch pornography on their first date and then proceeds to stalk and harass her at work. Absolutely terrifying.
I appreciate at 1:04 that the vhs was standing upright in the drawer, just so you could achieve that shot of it falling over with a clatter. Someone had to carefully place that vhs on its side and even more carefully close the drawer to get that done. I appreciate that. Quite a bit.
I don't know why, but "example text" absolutely kills me
Zach Tucker He probably also has "Your Logo Here" mugs too.
I LOVE the positivity in this video, I'm so tired of everybody hating everything and tearing things apart. Yeah it's important to be critical, but sometimes you just want to appreciate something, love it in spite of or even because of its dumb flaws, and have a good time. I especially adored the enthusiastic description of why home tv sets are great, comparing them to ghost stories around a fire. Everybody these days is critiquing families watching television together. They aren't interacting, they're alone together, aren't I so edgy dur hur. It's so refreshing to see a positive opinion about it! And of course, thank you so much for the high quality videos you always put so much effort into. This was fantastic and really uplifting :D
+
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I'm at film school and we talked about the campfire effect of TV. Looks like it's an academically achnowledget phenomenon. I was happy to see it here :)
I love the juxtaposition of my reading this comment as the end credits play over H. absolutely obliterating Mallrats
Hbomb is the kind of contrarian who enacts his contrariness through liking things, the monster.
I've now started collecting films and cartoons on 16mm film.
I was given a Royal Navy projector when they were throwing them all in the bin (it was literally rescued from the bin) and three reels of cartoons as a kid and it was a fun toy.
But now I have some real actual movies and suddenly it hit me:
1) I own a direct descendent of the actual negative in the camera when these movies were made, they're analogue, there's no other way it could have been made.
2) I am a custodian of history, owning these is not legal and they are the very last examples of a dead format. I must care for them and ensure they are passed on to another custodian when I die.
This is heavy stuff.
Anyway, I own Disney's The Black Hole and
The Elephant Man. It comes on 4 _2000ft_ reels!
How are they not legal to own?
@@thegardenofeatin5965
Licensing. It's not the plastic you're not allowed to own, it's the content.
On the back of every VHS and dvd and cd box there's copyright law.
It states your rights with respect to owning and consuming the content therein
Eyyy the best Disney movie
I imagined xenomorph in a beanie and tracksuit selling you that VHS tape
I'm sorry Hbomb. I never forgot that you like the star wars prequels, and I still love and accept you.
Tremolo we can forgive but we'll never forget
Yeah, everyone's wrong sometimes.
Eh, they aren't much worse then any other Star Wars Movie.
I don't like the writing or characters in Star Wars that much, but some of the visuals are sick, and basically the prequels generated a visual style that GW would steal for the Tau, so like... that's about as good as robed laser sword warrior monks
I'm not angry at him, just disappointed.
Episode 3 was okay, although I've read fanfic on the same subject matter that was better plotted and more emotionally compelling. 1 and 2 on the other hand are, uh, at least not the Holiday Special?
"Contrary Opinion"
*OH* *GOD* *NO*
At least he's not trying to argue that Dark Souls 2 is great this time. So far his point really isn't at all contrarian. He's basically saying that VHS tapes were influential and served a purpose at the time, which I can't even imagine someone disagreeing with.
Remember when he said a RUclipsr with a similar style to another was ripping the other off while said RUclipsr clearly stated it was just influence?
Hangman official Well, the VHS destruction at the end is clearly a rip off from Red Letter Media's 'Best of the Worst'.
He's talking about nostalgic film memories, clearly this is a stolen concept from the Nostalgia Critic.
Yes, we all must thank Nostalgia Critic for inventing nostalgia in 2007.
So, your media criticism is what I put on when I'm going to sleep.
That sounds like a criticism, like it puts me to sleep. It isn't. I put it on because it's VHS, Transformers, it's Sherlock, it's Dark Souls 2 (my favorite), it's Don Bluth. It's things that are so comfortable and familiar, they're like a digital hug.
If they weren't interesting and thought provoking, I wouldn't have watched the whole thing to start. If I didn't love the perspective of the content, I'd have never watched them a second time.
Like, half the views on your channel, at least in terms of the media stuff as opposed to the political stuff are literally just me (and people who think these or similar thoughts, I'm sure).
Thanks, Harry. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Hey, I relate !
Oh hey, I do exactly the same! I think I've probably watched his Sherlock video hundreds of times for that reason lol. Have you heard of Shaun? He has a really soothing voice that's nice to sleep to as well. Though some of his videos have pretty heavy subject matter.
@@rinsuu9848
Shaun was my go to sedative before I got hooked on Hbomb. It's that voice. Also, who doesn't want to dream of ancient Rome?
You touched on this a bit, but I suspect RUclips may end up the spiritual successor of VHS in terms of aesthetics. I've already seen that a bit in some newer horror or found footage movies. Perhaps the next generation will add pixelation and buffering to their movies to invoke a time the way we do with tracking.
In the vein of the limitations of RUclips becoming VHS’s successor in the horror genre, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in an internet comedy sketch is from a LoadingReadyRun clip called “The Switch”, utilising the RUclips buffering animation to hilarious effect.
This is so true, one of my favorite shows to throw on while I’m doing other things is home movies which someone uploaded in poor quality on RUclips. It’s a very chill show and would not be suited to sitting down and watching on a huge TV screen.
Yep it happened
There's going to be a secret 5th season that makes the show great again.
Trust me my dad is Moffat's mum.
Shh don't rat out your undercover spy-dad
VHS brought about the greatest leap in the democratization of video until RUclips. i have so many childhood memories that come flooding back when i hold a VHS tape. there's something chunky about it that DVDs don't capture. putting a VHS tape into a VCR feels like operating a proper machine to bring a movie into your home.
sidebar: many kids with autism i have known have been captivated by VHS tapes. there's something about how VHS tapes rewind that strikes a chord with some kids. the frame-y effect when you skip backward on a DVD just doesn't do it for them like that smooth, perfect reverse motion. the previews at the beginning also take on an almost ritualistic significance over time. many kids don't even watch the movie, they just soak in the previews.
What a great comment
Movie viewing parties were a special kind of social interaction. You had seating limit, there was only so much room and the group were culled so that only the most important and liked fit in. For new people coming in to the group, it was often used as a nice way to get to know that person; long time with no one really talking but being in a dark room watching a story, following those subtle hints how other react to the movie, what jokes you and others laugh at... It was actually quite nice and it worked on being the "new" guy too: you get to know pretty fast if the group dynamics, what they liked, what their values were; are you going to get along and have same interests. You often ended on the floor, it was very much social status combined with first come_first served situation.
It sucked when you weren't part of that inner circle, of course but it did strengthen the social bonds in the group. And nothing is faster way to get in the favors on a certain group than being on that floor for 90 minutes and telling a good joke at perfect moment.. I'm still friends with those people.
SquidCaps this literally made me want to have a watch party👀
I miss that! Whenever I found a good movie I would call my friends and we would throw a watch party. After the internet if I told a friend I found a really good film, they would just say "send me the link so I can download it" :(
I used to sit in a little room built into my garage and tape the anime on adult swim to rewatch during the times we couldn't afford cable (which was most of the time). All the way into almost 2010, I used those tapes in lieu of cable and the internet because we couldn't afford it. VHS was phenomenal in its accessibility and simplicity of use.
I miss to the video renting store, reading the backs of the VHS like a book, picking movies and snacks. It was half the fun just picking out what to watch.
Estelle A my nan and I would go every Friday and get buncha crunch and Disney movies it was such a pure place
Used to go with my dad and rent movies for a whole week! it was great, in some ways old times were better. But I'm not complaining about Netflix either ;)
i loved getting games and movies from the video store, it was the best. when cartridges and tapes disappeared and the formats went to dvd it all went down hill from there. now it's just you and the tube, as chomsky predicted.
:(
This humorous funny man video essay rambling on about the derelict media formats of millennia past has honestly produced some of the most insightful commentary on the nature of viewing conditions and viewing environments in film and video media I've probably ever encountered. I'm aware that wasn't accidental, I just wasn't expecting it giving how the video started.
Same here for the first video of his I watched, the bloodborne one which as it turned out, pioneered an entirely new concept in game criticism.
It's impressive.
Every episode of MST3K (to my knowledge) ends their credits with the message "Keep circulating the tapes". something about seeing that when I watch the show now is really cool...
I think this might be the best support I've ever seen for the concept of 'the medium is the message' - the fact that whole genres have risen and fallen based on the resolution of videos available at home - or even whether they're available at home - is a great argument for the actual way something is being screened being the most important factor for how people take it... very compelling.
You took a swing at Sherlock again, instant like.
This video was very interesting and put a lot of things in perspective. The analysis of previous shows and movies compared to the new popular tv/web series was thought provoking, specially since I'm watching Hannibal. The art direction of the show and the production are one of the attractive aspects of it, aside from the story and characters of course.
Are there any unattractive aspects to Hannibal? They even manage to make the food look delicious.
As far as I can tell, the problem with Hannibal is the same problem a lot of shows like it have. While Hannibal is objectively awful, since he's the coolest character and a bit of a power-fantasy, you see a lot of the audience being pro-Hannibal in a rather unnerving way.
Essentially, if the show's impact on its audience and communication of its points is the audience's responsibility, Hannibal hasn't got that many big bugbears.
Alforbia I don't think that's a problem at all. The world of Hannibal isn't black and white, like Will who is the audience's proxy, we're meant to be drawn in by Hannibal into a state where morality loses its hold. Will's entire character arch in season two is turning himself into a monster. It's the interplay between right and wrong that's interesting; as soon as you pick a side and draw a clear line it loses its charm. TV Hannibal isn't intended to merely repulse or frighten, but to fascinate.
Hannigram though 😍
Season 4 is GOING to happen, goddamnit.
I feel like I'm obliged to rewatch this at 144p.
1:32 - now that's some tasty foreshadowing right there
At least he admitted to doing so (unlike James Somerton)
And now I understand why Eric Andre wanted to do the Eric Andre Show in 4:3
You can't shake me, hbomberguy. I'll enjoy your content, and you're going to like it!!
And if he made a prequel trilogy of scanline, I bet it would be pretty good.
He's not getting rid of us that easy
The fact Mallrat is on VHS is what got me interested in it for a particular reason
My local video club had a little booklet sent to us every month. Mallrat had no synopsis and no rating for some reason, making it super intriguing
Well I ended up seeing it on TV, took me a while to like it, part of it was because I was too young, but I eventully became one of my favourite comedy (My brother gave me the DVD as a gift thinking I never saw it)
I will never get tired of the way HB reads the phrase "lensing flicks"
Your long videos are poetic documentary I enjoy to rewatch over and over again. I was born in Germany 1983. So I can relate to all of the things you discuss. The VHS era was one of a kind.
Now I'm already nostalgic about DVDs. I was 15 when the new technology became popular. But I was already 20 when I bought my first ever DVD. I was blown away by the clean, restored picture and tons of bonus material. Today also this is history. .. and it feels strange... in the 90's I created my own huge VHS library with recordings. I loved them. When I was about 2 years old I could rewatch my fave betamax tape over and over. My mom already got worried.
Later I recorded my own DVD library.
These were two eras of home recording and labeling which are both over by now ... I feel like an delusional old woman
It's interesting how I've had the exact opposite effect at times in the modern day.
I watched the first Avengers film in really low resolution and all the fights and CGI looked absolutely atrocious and terrible, whereas it was decent in DVD and higher quality.
Well, in Avengers films what you are shown is actually that which you are supposed to be shown.
@@xCorvus7x Right, in Avengers films, you're not meant to be searching for something against the grain and fuzz of the screen - you're meant to be seeing everything in perfect visual clarity. VHS is perfect for horror, in that both the characters and the audience are searching for that which can harm them.
lol when was the last time you watched the first Avengers? Because I recently rewatched it and all me and my buddy could notice was how much everything looked like it was filmed on a green screen
@@pivotresearchfoundation And VHS flicker would have been better?
Marvel movies still have shitwank colour grading. It's shocking it's not illegal to sell something so bad and make that much money!
As I approach 30, I'm starting to feel kinda out of it when it comes to the current pop culture. Thanks for making a video that made me go "oh yeah!" and "ahhh!" a bunch of times because somebody was talking on the internet about things I remember and understand.
Also way to make me feel older than I have ever felt in my entire life.
The difference between gathering around the glow of a small screen to watch a movie and gathering around the campfire to listen to stories is that we become passive "consumers" of media rather than participants in the tradition of storytelling, able to respond in real time and real life to the storyteller. This is a bigger shift than it may appear to be. Ivan Illich wrote about the "disciplined acquiescence" of the modern consumer audience as a factor in the consolidation of power in the hands of professionals who deliver the various commodities we rely on, in place of a more "convivial", sharing-oriented culture.
Of course, people adapt their creative needs to the media that are available, and subcultures emerge that remix, extend upon, and parody all kinds of media "products", giving some agency back to at least some part of the audience. New digital tools give some ordinary people a way to reach millions (even if access to these tools is inequitably dependent on social and economic status). And people still sit around campfires now and again. But I think that the dominance of _mediated_ culture, and the segregation of participants into the roles of "consumer" and "producer" (even if just at different times) still represents a troubling form of social atomization, cutting many people off from their fellow humans, leaving us, even when we try to reach out to others, essentially shouting into the void.
Your comment reminds me of that scene from _Wings of Desire_ aka _The Skies over Berlin_ where our boi Bruno Ganz listens in on the interior monologue of a random old guy on the street. If I recall, the old guy thinks of his book writing career, and compares that to his memories of being an oral storyteller; it strikes him that nobody talks to each other anymore, that too many people just wander around passively taking in the world, passively reading his books in lonely silence; he misses telling his stories to people in person, seeing a crowd of engaged listeners respond to his stories and talk among each other, to share the experience; that never happens with a book, he grieves.
Damn I need rewatch that movie sometime.
This video, and especially your comments about the movie V/H/S, helped clarify something I've often felt about movies with a lot of animatronic puppets in them, like THE DARK CRYSTAL. I've often thought that the puppets and effects look more "real" in crappy behind-the-scenes camcorder footage of "bench tests" than they do on film in the final product, and you've helped me understand why. In a movie, you KNOW that nothing you're seeing on the screen is real. But in crappy footage, it MUST be real, otherwise it wouldn't look so crappy. This is a difficult thought to articulate.
Well, I can articulate it pretty well: “when I make edits of pictures and stuff sometimes for memes I work with the best quality I can get my hands on. Then when I post it I shrink the resolution and put it through a ton of compression to make it look genuine.
VHS? that's nothing. Imagine watching Alien on a super grainy tv antenna signal, late at night while your parents are asleep, with headphones on so they wouldnt wake up...when you're 9 years old.
The Thing kept me awake for 2 nights.
that's how i first watched it oh with half the movie cut to hell for network tv purposes, so like half the dialogue and gory scenes are all gone
Hahaha, for me it was the same except at low volume and dubbed in Spanish. It was a Mexican TV station because I lived near the border. Got to see a lot of cool movies that way...
Who remembers getting their fingers stuck in the VHS player? Please say I wasn't the only one.
I remember that each time I would put a VHS in the player, I had the terror of getting my fingers stuck in it so I would pull them out as fast as I could once I put the thing in. Sorry.
I stuffed my hand into the VHS as a child thinking it'd project my fingers onto the screen
It didn't
The horror!!
Never had this particular issue.
Until the age of 9, I thought that's what VCRs were for.
Wish he’d bring this series back. This is honestly a great piece of RUclips filmmaking and I want more
I think that this video should have over a million views because the topic is genuinely engaging in a unique way that made me pay attention to the global impact of GODDAMN VHS TAPES. something I haven't thought about since the 2000s, seriously, my dude, you should make a documentary or enter a film festival, you'd win, not exaggerating, you are a phenomenal speaker and researcher who deserves more recognition
Seriously though. The British public must be punished for forcing Neighbours to continue.
Agreed. I still haven't gotten over coming home after school in the dark days of the early 2000s, flipping on the telly and having fits of psychological pain as the satanic theme tune played.
this is super true for older disney movies! Have you seen 101dalmations in HD? its a crime against humanity and needs to be stopped
I now have the Neighbours theme tune in my head- thanks for that.
Though, it did bring us Kylie Minogue, Jesse Spencer, and Natalie Imbruglia, and also Russel Crowe was on it...
Actually no, you’re right. British people, what have you done??? It would never have stayed on air in Australia if it weren’t for the Brits!
Without tape culture, there'd be no lo-fi/vaporwave culture. Whether we're talking vhs or cassette.
Not true at all
brilliant video. lots of well-made points and clear knowledge of the visual language of film, communicated effectively.
I don't know how you do it, but you genuinely make me appreciate topics I never thought I would care about... 🙄
I initially found you through your measured response videos, and continue to stick around for everything else you put out. You somehow manage to make me interested in gaming, and I don't game due to a lack of hand eye coordination!
There are *loads* of games that require only as much hand-eye co-ordination as it takes to be a vaguely-functioning human being. They aren't all shooters and platformers - there's turn-based games, puzzle games, story-driven games. Co-ordination is a common requirement but it's a long way from a universal one.
slurpleslixie if you have any good recommendations, I would love to know! After watching his videos on Lisa, I've been seriously considering giving those games a try cause they look fantastic. We own a ps3, ps4 and PC's so those are the systems I would be working with. And yes, just enough hand eye coordination to be a vaguely functioning human being lol
Life is Strange seems pretty good from what I've played of it and heard about it - very story-driven and not about reactions or coordination, but it's pretty serious in its topics. Graphic Adventures (a.k.a point and click adventures) might also be a great place to explore, they very rarely call on traditional gaming skills and are usually funny and engaging. Check out almost anything by Wadjet Eye - say, the Blackwell series or Primordia. The puzzles can be pretty obscure but if you don't mind either some frustration or some googling they're a great format. If you like really nerdy puzzles (basically programming but cunningly hidden behind a puzzle game) then any of Zachtronics' stuff like Spacechem is amazing. If you like board games there are plenty of board games on PC, and even some that were never board games but are extremely board-game-like (e.g. Tharsis)
And you can still have all sorts of fantasy dungeon-crawling, monster-fighting goodness with no co-ordination too, something like Darkest Dungeon allows for that (and is also awesome) by being entirely turn-based and again reminiscent (in many ways) of a table-top game.
slurpleslixie thanks! I will definitely be checking these games out! 😊
I have a pretty terrible hand eye coordination too but I'm a massive gamer. Just avoid those really fast paced action games and stuff like that and you should be fine. Or if you play these only do it a on good day where you won't mind dying repeatedly :D
Walking with Dinosaurs
My parents bought me the full series on VHS when I was a kid and I thought those episodes were the shit. The dinosaurs were soooo real.
The CGI definitely looks better on VHS quality though. Saw an episode on Amazon yesterday and they didn't hold up that well.
I appreciate the shots from the The Prisoner at 17:00, a truly mind warping show
Thank you for including footage from The Prisoner! It is one of my favourite series and I very rarely see it mentioned on discussions about TV as a medium
He thinks he is gonna get rid of us just simply because he talks about "boring stuff" Personaly i could watch a video of you drinking water for an hour and a half and dont get bored in the slightest
SHHH! he'll take that as a challenge!
I hope he makes this video.
Gabriel Oswald
Contrapoints would probably do that.
Seriously, his natural cadences whilst talking are really just... just wonderful.
I remember the horrifying moment when I saw the new version of the Star Wars trilogy and realized I couldn't get the original back because I had accidentally recorded another movie over A New Hope.
I watched a camcorder bootleg of The Mist, which made the ambient horror jumping from grainy fog more intense.
Now I feel a little shitty, because I love getting movie in super high definition, crisp, 4K quality, but so many movies I fell in love with I first saw on VHS. Maybe I'm just being a snob, or maybe they were good movies, despite the low resolution.
Thanks for making me think about that.
Watching the movie as intended to be seen in the theater is a great experience in and of itself too. Watching 4k at 75" is awesome
My future kid: Mom im gay.
Me: Thats alright.
My future kid: And I love the star wars prequels.
Me: ...well this is going to take some getting used to.
Mama Rora a positive attitude to have, really.
I bet you like the special editions of the original trilogy too, you little shit.
My future kid: And I love the star wars prequels.
Me: OK you're going to "camp"
I'd disown them, and I'm not even a fan of Star Wars, in general.
Mama Rora Future kid: I also love Pineapple pizza
Unrelated to VHS and all but holy shit, I was looking for Time Bandits for ages now because I once saw it and couldn't remember its name! I'm so happy I finally found it here completely unexpectedly! You just did me a great service hbomberguy.
Funny thing is, I watched it on a LaserDisc, yeah, remember THOSE?
Laserdisc was my first exposure to the Star Wars trilogy!
I think this might be my favorite video of yours. I've never seen a video essay go into detail on this subject before. Really great stuff.
This will always be one of my favourite videos of yours. Please keep making these if you enjoy it!!
I grew up post-millennium, so the VHS format was entirely foreign to me. I remember growing up and seeing people in my neighborhoods having garage sales of nothing but VHS tapes. Some would have extensive action collections such as with "True Lies" and "Indiana Jones". I never understood why there needed to be so many tapes. When I was five I saw every Indiana Jones film in sequential order on one disk. The old format was just weird, if I had it available why didn't everyone else just have the easy box set? It let me to this dissonance with VHS, like when you look at old 1930's radios or hear "Video killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. However, like how "'Radio Gaga" by Queen changed my appreciation of the experience of radios, this video servered to change my appreciation of VHS. Thank you for the wonderful video, it definitely helped change my perspective. I had a similar, but to a much lesser extent, experience regarding the tape revolution with SuperCarlinBrother's video "The Disney Vault Explained".
You must be a few years younger than me. I'm a 2000s kid and I remember seeing the transition from VHS to DVD. The oldest movies I watched at home were VHS. Around 2005-2006 DVDs started to become common while most people still owned VHS tapes, so the previews you had to watch before the movie were announced with "Coming soon on video and DVD."
Nathan Drake same thing. I remember my nan had stacks of VHS tapes in her living room when i was a little kid
I'm 25 and I have two literal bookcase full of VHS tapes in my upstairs closet. And I have no idea what to do with them.
The only VCR I have that still works is a huge, cumbersome, monster and I can't sell them because no one wants them.
After watching this, though, I think I'm going to re watch some classics from my childhood and have a nostalgia trip.
Sorry to say this Hbomb but this was a great video and I'm going to stay subscribed. Again, sorry.
Great video, I think Harris hit on a very important and fascinating concept when it comes to media specificity, being "legibility"; and how often it is a critical factor in both production consideration and audience enjoyment on how legible a piece of media is on each specific format. Lovely stuff as always, and very happy to see a video videodrome shoutout 😀
Regarding the limitations of the tape adding atmosphere, I remember experiencing it while watching Lost Highway on a vhs in a really bad shape. The magnetic background noise (deaf silence) made the scene where the white faced guy speaks to bill pullman on the phone at the party even more tense and suffocating. One of the most intense moment I ever had watching a movie.
See, this is why I like you so much. You take things into consideration I never did. I might see the forest for the trees but you're looking at the whole damn landscape
+
I am very ancient. Seeing a representation of "The Prisoner" on a vintage tv screen gave me a rush of feelings. Thank you, sir.
choirgrrrl I’m only 31 and it gave me the same feels. I loved watching it as a kid.
If you didn’t know, The Dom has a series (unfortunately unfinished) of reviews of The Prisoner here on RUclips, and they’re pretty great.
Be seeing you!
Belatedly, I vividly remember getting the Alien films on pan and scan, and sitting down to watch Alien. The opening title sequence is really cool, with letters gradually coming into view.
On pan and scan, the full title did not fit on the screen, so I got to watch ALIE
Still mad about that.
"Best watched with your eyes closed"
Gods of Egypt is the reverse- it's best watched with sound turned off.
What an excellent video.
As I am 32, I still have VHS tapes in my house.
Ironically I watched a VHS just last month, it was "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" on an old tube television at hurricane shelter. That movie is still awesome.
Oh god it was a wood screw, I spent a whole minute trying to scrape it off
I always loved the tagline "keep circulating the tapes" on MST3K. We knew. I even had a college professor who was a tape trader and would host viewing parties.
I so enjoyed this. VHS did leave a lasting impact on how I viewed certain types of movies and shows. I watched reruns of The X-Files through VHS, and as the show went on, losing quality in writing but gaining quality in technology, it lost a lot of its charm. The constant darkness, shadows, and difficulty in seeing what was in the whole of the shot added to what I loved about it. Newer episodes with more rich imagery and clarity really took away from the charm (much like the move out of Vancouver, too, to be honest). I appreciate you showing several scenes of Hannibal which has been one of the most visually interesting shows I've watched in years. And, of course, the dig at Sherlock was appreciated, too.
BluRay almost ruined Ghostbusters for me. Those cheap Proton Pack props felt real in VHS.
CsBTransition right?! So many films of this era just look and feel right in vhs. Hi def destroys them.
Except Jurassic Park. That's the devil's work and will never look bad because of whatever blood pact Spielberg obviously made.
Jurassic Park always looked kinda sub-par to me, maybe because I was never a fan of dinosaurs and the first time I watched the movie it was on a widescreen, but the special and practical effects were so obvious I could taste them in the back of my mouth with that cheap, knockoff Cola brand aftertaste.
CDgonePotatoes you're allowed that opinion, I suppose.
There's a lot to be said about what you had seen before it, or the context and time in which you saw it.
I saw the original release in theaters when I was a kid, was a huge fan of dinosaurs, and it scared the shit outta me, so that's at least my context of it.
I saw Jurassic Park in IMAX 3D, when they pulled that shit, and it was fucking glorious. Honestly most of the movie is practical effects anyway, but that T-Rex always looked primo.
@CsBTransition
Ditto, for Harmy's "Despecialized" Star Wars 4-6 edits. Turns out that some effects are better off behind a protective coating of blur and not-so-crisp image definition. (Look, look, this is a metaphor for growing up/leaving childhood behind/becoming a boring adult who doesn't permit itself to believe in magic!)
The real question is will he do Neil Breen?
A 3-Breen salad
A work of sheer breenious.
This might sound cheesy, but this video really did speak to me. I grew up watching the first 5 Star Wars films on VHS. The only reason I didn't have Revenge of the Sith growing up was it wasn't on VHS. Those first three though have stayed among my favorite movies for years and years. When I first watched the Blu Ray version when my brother went out and bought a PS4 on launch day with a couple games and The Complete Saga Blu Ray set with the 6 movies and 3 discs of special features, I was blown away by the little things like being able to read the text almost instantly in the opening crawl, rather than having to wait. But something was off, when I first watched them, I wasn't sure about if I was seeing things where there wasn't things before, and it turned out I was seeing things that weren't there. I watched them side by side one day, dragging my little tv with a built in vhs player from my room to the living room. Realizing there were not only big changes like the Jabba scene versus small changes like Darth Vader having no eyebrows in the 2011 release. I didn't watch the despecialized edition until 2021. I didn't watch it though because it was how I remembered, because it wasn't how I remembered it. I remember not being able to see the Tusken Raiders that Luke says he can see one of them now. It was like a weird alternate universe for me looking at the same movie that I saw on VHS, but without "A New Hope" being plastered on and being able to see the sides of the screen.
I watched Tim Burton's Batman on 4k on HBO Max, and it really changed how I felt about that movie being able to see how obvious the usage of miniatures were in the movie.
good video thank you mister socialist man
Riley Graham he doesn't look like Jeremy corbyn!
Riley Graham Your pfp gives me hope in humanity
i hear if you say "shot on VHS" into a mirror 5 times Jay Bauman appears in your room and starts talking about the history of low-budget films
Thank you for giving the V/H/S short "10/31/98" the props it deserves. It's one of my favorites among that series of films, but doesn't get much love from others!
Wonderful job, very informative and not rushed at all. I was born in 1982 which was during the near end of the home video "Format Wars." I recently revisited VHS as a hobby 4 years ago. It led me to dig deeper into the older competing video formats (Beta, U-Matic, Laserdisc, CED Selectavision, VHD, Video 8, CVC Microvideo, European VCR, European VCC Video 2000, Quasar VX and V-cord ii.) I still enjoy recording video onto vintage magnetic media in this day and age 2020. There is something very special about owning a modern day film on a vintage physical video format.
The current Bluray and HD streaming services are nothing less than amazing with their widescreen 4K 60 frames per second content. Yet they can neber replace the nostalgia of a humming laserdisc or CED player, the warm glow of a 4:3 aspect tube screen or the necessity of having to flip a CED video disc or rewind a video tape.
I have a VHS of Star Wars Episode IV from before they tacked on "Episode IV." It's just called "Star Wars," both on the tape and in the text of the movie itself. It still works, and I'm never getting rid of it. Screw all of the updates to the original trilogy (with the singular exception of improving the lightsaber colors).
Edit from later in the video: I wholly endorse the Despecialized editions... they're the versions I used to show my girlfriend those movies for the first time (yes, we're adults. Yes, it's shocking that she'd never seen them). I refused to show her the updated versions as her first experience of the films, and I only own Ep IV on VHS, so I got a hold of the Despecialized versions. Very well done, highly recommend (unless you actually like Lucas swill).
What about copying the tape to dvd?
@@tompatterson1548
No idea how
Do you plan on doing any analysis of Soviet cinema? Like Solaris or War and Peace.
The soviets were quite the masters of film. Especially during the 60's-70's.
sonikmuff They were also pretty good in the 20s.
I actually always wants Westerners to see and examine Soviet cinema, but not tha artsy classics. like Tarkovsky and Eisenstein. I really want Westerners to look at more popular stuff, aimed at mass audiences. Russians don't really remember "Ivan the Terrible" by Eisenstein, we remember "Ivan Vasylievich changes his profession".
I was born in the 90s. right then VHS was big in the Russia, then Terminator, Alien and other western movies became available and popular, but old mass culture never really went away. My mind captured that weird mix of Western and Soviet mass culture, and it would be actually interesting looking at Western people put at the similar mindset.
I really like the Ivan The Terrible films. Or what was left of them.
'Ivan Vasylievich changes profession' is fun
I started collecting laserdiscs a couple of years ago and I think there is a certain magic to these older formats. Laserdiscs sort of have the best of both worlds between VHS and DVD. The picture is the same resolution as on DVD but it's still analogue meaning it may not be as sharp as DVD but it also doesn't suffer from pixelization when they try to compress too much onto 1 disc. It's also the highest resolution release for some films that have since been edited or censored. Then there's the different versions of films. Not just widescreen and pan and scan, but also open matte which means you're actually getting more picture than you'd have seen in the cinema (although this usually just reveals boom mics and things like that, sometimes it can be interesting to see what was just out of shot). There's also quite a lot of content that has never had a proper official release since and therefore, if you want a proper version of it, you have to go for one of these older formats. HD is objectively better, but as you point out, sometimes it's what you don't see rather than what you do see. I don't think I'd want to see Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Halloween in full HD or 4K as you'd lose some of that mystery. More effects based stuff is just going to look more dated too as you'll be able to see the wires and all that. A lot of older content has actually been remastered and cleaned up digitally for HD which can sometimes cause things to look "wrong". I saw a clip of a HD transfer of Superman where they'd done something with the colour correction and now the Superman suit looked slightly green compared to the version of the same film on laserdisc or VHS.
The distorted audio would have a chilling effect on the wolf's howl in American Werewolf, and Carpenter's soundtrack in Halloween.
Two films that need to be viewed in this format.
I remember as a kid watching old vhs recordings of Christmas specials, and the commercials played during them have always been special to me. I suppose it's why old commercials from before I was born still have a special quality to me.
“AIDS... what is it?” over in the top right in the stock image at about 21:30
Rich Evans has entered the chat
Love the Beyond the Black Rainbow song at 1:48
I love the closing music here. Wow! Suits my current mood perfectly.
This video reminds me, I still have a ton of family recordings on VHS that I haven't gotten around to transferring to DVD. I really hope they aren't ruined by now.