4 ms·

> we live in a golden age of access to video content It's the very opposite of that! Yes, mainstream and a few sigmas from mainstream is easier to access than

by jjav 3y ago

> we live in a golden age of access to video content It's the very opposite of that! Yes, mainstream and a few sigmas from mainstream is easier to access than ever (if you have all the subscriptions, that is). The obscure stuff? Good luck today. Try to find someone with the DVD or VHS. In the VHS days you could find video rental clubs with a vast library of niche movies (such as local productions that never got distributed widely). Today those are not available anywhere, unless they happen to be selling the DVD somewhere.

tptacek 3y ago
No: I have more access to obscure stuff than I did in the DVD era. I read Tarantino's book a few months ago and went to go watch Escape From Alcatraz. No chance in hell that Blockbuster would have had it in the 90s, took 15 seconds to pull up online. The Kurosawa films. Come And See. People have weirdly either weirdly idolized or motivated perspectives on what was easy to get access to in the physical media era. Whatever weird niche local productions you had access to back then with "video rental clubs" I put up against Vimeo, certain that it's unlikely to be much of a contest.
- jjav 3y ago
  Tarantino isn't exactly an obscure persona. But in general, perhaps your obscure stuff is known to the streaming platforms. Was coincidentally just talking about this last weekend with some people. A lot of regional indie movies that we remember from youth are not available for streaming anywhere at any price. Movies that reached the theaters but only locally (one city or a few neighboring cities). At the local video club places there used to be a whole rack dedicated to these local movies. Now, they're gone forever. Occasionally someone finds an old VHS in a storage box and takes the time to upload it to youtube and things resurface, but that's the only hope.
  - tptacek 3y ago
    I didn't say I went looking for a Tarantino movie!

by jjav 3y ago

tptacek 3y ago

No: I have more access to obscure stuff than I did in the DVD era. I read Tarantino's book a few months ago and went to go watch Escape From Alcatraz. No chance in hell that Blockbuster would have had it in the 90s, took 15 seconds to pull up online. The Kurosawa films. Come And See. People have weirdly either weirdly idolized or motivated perspectives on what was easy to get access to in the physical media era. Whatever weird niche local productions you had access to back then with "video rental clubs" I put up against Vimeo, certain that it's unlikely to be much of a contest.

jjav 3y ago
Tarantino isn't exactly an obscure persona. But in general, perhaps your obscure stuff is known to the streaming platforms. Was coincidentally just talking about this last weekend with some people. A lot of regional indie movies that we remember from youth are not available for streaming anywhere at any price. Movies that reached the theaters but only locally (one city or a few neighboring cities). At the local video club places there used to be a whole rack dedicated to these local movies. Now, they're gone forever. Occasionally someone finds an old VHS in a storage box and takes the time to upload it to youtube and things resurface, but that's the only hope.
- tptacek 3y ago
  I didn't say I went looking for a Tarantino movie!