|
|
 
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Alamo Drafthouse Has a Plan to Bring Back the Video Store, VCR Optional
|
Harold Hallikainen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 906
From: Denver, CO, USA
Registered: Aug 2009
|
posted 12-20-2017 12:27 AM
https://gizmodo.com/alamo-drafthouse-has-a-plan-to-bring-back-the-video-sto-1821421243
At a time when the movie theater business is struggling to make it, the Alamo Drafthouse chain has thrived by doing things a little differently. Now, it’s trying to bring back the video store. Not only will it offer DVDs, Blu-rays, and VHS, but if you need a VCR it’ll rent you one of those, too.
It’s been 20 years since the first Alamo Drafthouse opened in Austin, Texas, and the chain has been expanding more than ever in the age of Netflix. It has 22 locations today. Most theater chains are having trouble reaping profits from standard concessions and blockbusters you can get anywhere, but Alamo has offered creative dining, rare repertory films, thoughtful programming, and festivals that make people want to get out of the house. The idea for Video Vortex is to bring that same experience to the home theater.
On Monday, Alamo announced that its upcoming location in Raleigh will also house the city’s “newest (and only) video rental store.” When theater-goers come check out a flick and have a meal, they’ll be able to peruse a catalog of 30,000 titles to take home with them. Alamo claims it’ll be one of the largest video archives on the planet. VCRs will be available for rent and HDMI to RCA adapters will be free of charge.
Alamo is betting on the rarity of its collection to pique customers’ interest. It’s hard to overstate what a massive success the VHS-era was. The format held strong for decades, and it didn’t have much competition. There are still plenty of films that never received a digital release, and Alamo’s collected a ton of them. A study in 2016 found that only 46 percent of consumers have bought or rented a digital video. Compare that to 78 percent who said they’d bought or rented a VHS.
Video Vortex started years ago at Alamo as a recurring screening program that focused on straight-to-video movies. Its curator, Joe Ziemba, will continue to oversee the selection for its brick and mortar spin-off. “It gives me hope for humanity to see VIDEO VORTEX grow from a series at the Alamo to an actual video store,” Ziemba said in the announcement. “VHS is still the only way to see hundreds of forgotten genre movies.” He hopes that the Raleigh pilot will be successful enough to expand Video Vortex into a full-scale chain.
Video store nostalgia is certainly a thing these days. It was fun to go to a store, spend half an hour picking up boxes with some wild art, talking to a clerk, choosing one thing, and being stuck with it when you get home. Streaming services simultaneously offer too much, and too little selection. I spend a lot of time scrolling through horrible interfaces looking for a movie, changing my mind, starting something else, and finishing nothing. A video store wouldn’t replace streaming, but it’d be fun to visit the store when I go to the theater and find a hidden gem from a selection that wasn’t curated by Netflix, Amazon, or Disney’s partnership deals.
The biggest concern I’d have is late fees. Late fees killed the video store. Redbox found success by keeping the fees to a minimum and Netflix buried them through a subscription model. Alamo, however, isn’t announcing its price model at the moment. It’s only saying that “visitors can return rentals on their next trip to Alamo Drafthouse, or they’ll have the option of mailing DVDs and Blu-rays back to the shop with a return envelope.” Late fees seem like an inevitable necessity to keep the store stocked, but if Alamo plays its cards right, the store might not even need to reap big profits. Having a method to keep people coming back to the theater on a weekly basis could function as a loss leader for the big new releases, food, and booze.
The SNES Classic has been outselling next-gen systems, and people got excited over a new release of an old Nokia dumbphone. It might sound a little crazy that people would lug home a VCR and adjust the tracking when they could just fire up Netflix, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it works.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
|
posted 12-20-2017 11:16 AM
Is anyone still making VHS VCRs and tapes?
Admittedly, the quantity of used ones in circulation is so vast that Alamo Drafthouse could stock up retro rental stores in all of their theaters, just by going on an Ebay spree. But, rotting belts and bad servos in the VCRs, sticky shed on the tapes, etc. etc. etc.?
If their plan involves used hardware and tapes, I hope that at the very least, they've hired a really good VCR tech to keep the machines alive, and have factored on buying at least one parts donor machine for every one they figure on renting out.
This is not like "vinyl revival" phonograph records, the technology for which is relatively mechanically and electronically simple, and which is now being mass-manufactured again. VHS hardware and software isn't, and AFAIK, isn't anymore.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
|
posted 03-13-2018 08:04 AM
quote: Todd Cornwall
I'll never understand people going retro when it comes to technology. VHS, laser, and vinyl are all so flawed. I know people will try to explain the "warm" sound of vinyl, but all I hear are pops and cracks.
In that case, you're hearing a record in poor condition, and likely played on poor quality equipment. I know people who will try to explain the "unique" look of 35mm, too, and other who say that all they can see is scratches and dirt.
The frequency range that an RIAA-equalized recording on vinyl is most efficient at reproducing corresponds almost exactly to the most sensitive response curve of the human ear, which I think is one of the reasons the technology has made a comeback. This is helped by the fact that the new generation of turntables and cartridges is achieving an audio quality for a tiny fraction of the cost in the 1980s, when digital audio started to enter the market. The turntable I do most of my listening on - a Denon DP300, which cost me $300, including a very reasonable cartridge - would have cost well into four figures for something that could have achieved an equivalent sound in the final days of vinyl as the mainstream consumer audio medium.
As for VHS, there were simply so many players and tapes made, and the format dropped out of mainstream use recently enough (for home time shifting, it's only really been gone for 7-10 years), that of course there are a lot of working players still in good condition. However, as they break and the tapes succumb to sticky shed or whatever, no more are being made, and the mechanical and electronic components in them are an order of magnitude more complex than those in cutting lathes, record presses and turntables. Building a reasonable turntable from scratch in your garage is do-able for an advanced hobbyist (indeed, many do build their own plinths and other peripheral hardware for restoration projects): not so a VHS VCR.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic