{"id":11126,"date":"2015-03-17T14:34:11","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T18:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11126"},"modified":"2015-03-17T14:47:12","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T18:47:12","slug":"editors-blog-not-everything-is-terrible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11126","title":{"rendered":"Editor’s Blog: Not Everything is Terrible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"VHS_tape\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a bit of a furor developing among VHS fans, cultural archivists, and shot-on-video [SOV<\/a>] movie buffs about a proposed program seeking funding to gather and recycle what they believe are 2.26 billion videotapes resting in Ontario households and businesses like toxic time bombs.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a few steps back with some personal anecdotes, although feel free to read yesterday\u2019s Metro piece<\/a> for some context to my editorial.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Brush with Recycling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Between 1989 to roughly 1999 I ran a small production \/ post-production company involved in conversions, duplications, and archival tapings, and one day I received a call from a company interested in gathering old tapes for recycling. I said \u2018Great idea,\u2019 because what I had were old \u00be\u201d U-matic<\/a> tapes with zero cultural content, and the tapes themselves were wearing out. After voicing my interest, he started to quote shipping charges by the pound, and I said \u2018Wait a minute: I pay you to pick up my free stuff so you can make money? I don\u2019t think so.\u2019<\/p>\n

Those tapes were ultimately given to a local vendor who reused them for his own purposes, so they weren\u2019t wasted. He had old U-matic machines, and the tapes stayed away from the landfill. It all worked out (and I know he throws nothing away).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Brush with Craigslist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now in 2007, I moved out from a disintegrating house, and it was clear the mass of VHS<\/a> and Beta<\/a> tapes I\u2019d gathered since 1983 could not remain with me. We\u2019re talking about 2000+ tapes containing a mix of material good and worthless. I did some culling, and halved the so-called collection, putting it up on Craigslist with the caption \u2018preferably the entire lot.\u2019<\/p>\n

A few messaged interest, but one guy with a minivan took all 20 boxes and went back to Oakville where they were to be used in a school for whatever.<\/p>\n

Was there anything unique on those tapes? Yes, but it was a space issue, and it was getting insane, dragging that quantity of tapes place to place, knowing I\u2019d never watch them nor have the time to sift and archive unique material.<\/p>\n

What was lost were some short-lived TV series that will never come out on video, but most were films already available on disc, so the only real sorrow were those TV series \u2013 including the entire run of Picket Fences<\/a><\/strong> which never went beyond a Season 1 set. In fact, a guy came into work asking about the availability of two shows that were on those donated tapes. Also in some of the boxes were high grade Beta tapes which I had to include because there was no more room to house them \u2013 not a happy decision, given I have machines capable of playing \/ recording, because Sony built my model like a tank.<\/p>\n

Now before you scream, I still have 1000+ tapes, including Beta. I purposely kept the oldest and most unique because their content are a smattering of peculiar ephemera, from TV shows to shorts, cartoons, and more. Quality\u2019s classic EP, but I\u2019ve yet to see the content appear anywhere.<\/p>\n

For example, PBS used air a show called Matinee at the Bijou<\/a><\/strong>, where they\u2019d simulate a show at a local 1930s \/ 1940s neighbourhood cinema with old shorts, cartoons, and a B-movie. Most of the material was shopworn and truly ephemeral, but it\u2019s a series that may exist now only tape in some vault which is infrequently accessed, as the generation interested in that programming has shrunk in size.<\/p>\n

Better example: I was a huge fan of Elwy Yost<\/a>\u2019s Saturday Night at the Movies<\/a><\/strong> and Magic Shadows<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 my interest, knowledge, and work in film & video owes a great debt to him \u2013 and archived are all those reruns of famous directors, writers, actors, and historians that were recut into the Talking Film<\/a><\/strong> series, of which only a few are archived online.<\/p>\n

Those will never get junked, and represent what was kept after that selective cull. They also represent what TVOnatrio, like other broadcasters, probably still have in their archives and will \/ should never<\/em> junk. I see job postings once in a while for a library archive manager \u2013 a job I\u2019d love to have, BTW \u2013 so it\u2019s clear some companies recognize the value of their own historic productions and would never junk that material.<\/p>\n

Migrating to digital takes time, and even if it was all completed, knowing the unknowns of digital media \u2013 will it still be playable, the need to transfer content to backups from increasingly obsolete media \u2013 it\u2019s not prudent to turf what\u2019s clearly a corporate intellectual asset. They made it, so why eradicate it, let alone give it away to be recycled?<\/p>\n

The old CityTV<\/a> station retained their tape library of music videos, and the network realized what it possessed were copies of music history many labels, artists, or stations had long ago junked. Much More Music and its retro brethren exist because that content was still available. The ability to craft a documentary or overview of specific artists and genres is possible because the content still exists. They may have seen the dollar signs in having that archive, but CityTV also knew it would\u2019ve been foolish to turf what was clearly unique.<\/p>\n

The conundrum for many companies is that archives take up space, require some maintenance (cool dry environment), and media does go bad. Oxides flake or the tape backing turns to goo, so there\u2019s a percentage of media that may require \u2018baking<\/a>\u2019 before playback.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the players which still exist, but few of the surviving transfer house retain, largely because the demand is very low. I had U-martic machines up until late 1995, and don\u2019t miss them. Unless they\u2019re kept running 24 hours straight \u2013 something CityTV did \u2013 they go bad. The boards can fry from sudden heavy usage, parts wear out, the sensors that prevent mechanisms from jamming and tape-eating go bad, and at up 120 pounds of metal, you really don\u2019t want to own one unless you\u2019re a dub house, or a collector capable of repairing one yourself.<\/p>\n

Remember the film Poltergeist<\/a><\/strong>? Shuttle to the scene where the ghostly apparition glides down the stairs, and is captured by a set of video cameras and VCRs. I had those recorders. I think a Volkswagen is only 2 pounds heavier.<\/p>\n

Lets get back to the main thought stream, and wrap things up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Obsolete Formats<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea that 2.26 billion tapes exist in Ontario sounds overly generous, because it presumes a) it\u2019s all crap; b) it\u2019s literally in everyone\u2019s basement.<\/p>\n

I do the main tape transfers at one job, and I make a point of telling customers \u2018Don\u2019t throw these away,\u2019 because if the DVD is scratched or goes bad (and they do), you still have the masters. However, the tapes are going bad<\/em>, so it\u2019s in their interest to rip and dub and transfer their family memories to other media as another tape playback might not yield better results in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Oxide flakes, it dirties up heads, and a clean playback becomes less successful. A lot of home movies taped on camcorders have speed quirks unique to the cameras, and if recorded in the slower EP mode, a lot of VCRs will not track well; you might get a clean playback for a while, but after 10 mins. or an hour, static lines appear because the machine can\u2019t lock onto a stable part of the recording.<\/p>\n

That makes the success of playing back a VHS tape cleanly a little slim. My tapes still play fine, but there are ones none of my machines will lock onto properly. That means the videos families remember being clean and stable are now filled with nicks, static tracking lines on the top, bottom, or rolling in the centre.<\/p>\n

That is how your memories now look, and unless a transfer house has several machines of several vintages, that might be as good as it gets.\u00a0Tape stock is also an issue, because the $1.25 no name brand may not even play now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wrapping Up <\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t record shows on tape anymore (obviously), but I retain stock because it’s actually useful in creating over-saturated images for video projects. Digital can\u2019t handle hot levels the way tape can, and I bounce footage between digital and analogue mediums to create assorted video tracks for eccentric projects<\/a>, so in my camp, this obsolete format has use in the production and post-production realm. However, I recognize I\u2019m an anomaly.<\/p>\n

What Project Get Reel<\/a> is offering isn\u2019t outright awful, but certainly their posturing is wrong.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s as though they\u2019re inferring \u2018All those tapes are toxic time bombs.\u2019 No, they\u2019re not.<\/em><\/p>\n

Or \u2018The content is all worthless matter.\u2019 No, it\u2019s not.<\/em> Broadcasters would be foolish to junk their archives.<\/p>\n

Or perhaps saying \u2018It\u2019s material that can help people with barriers with real jobs.\u2019 Sure, but rather than posture and allege it all needs to go, work with clients and provide them with a plan, designed in coordination with real archivists, as to how to weed through what\u2019s clearly refuse and what\u2019s cultural history. Give them tools prior to taking recyclable materials off their hands so they\u2019ve safeguarded their histories and potential intellectual assets before unloading crap.<\/p>\n

And then there’s suggesting \u2018Households are filled with this stuff in Ontario.\u2019 If so, so what?<\/em> People have old clothes, furniture, rusting cars, rooms filled with crap, unused pools, old radios, etc. Again: advise in your proposal how the average person should sift through their taped memories \u2013 home movies or off-air tapings \u2013 and donate those materials they know have no value.<\/p>\n

Better still: buy some old VCRs and invite clients to skim through the tapes on site before donating, because a lot of people no longer have the machines to play their tapes, and they’ve either got precious home movies, rare TV shows, or hours of soap operas. Or blank tapes. That’s a service Get Reel can provide for a modest fee.<\/p>\n

Two recent documentaries – Rewind This<\/a><\/strong> and Adjust Your Tracking<\/strong> – very clearly articulated the danger of film history being winnowed down to what\u2019s available online, and the wealth of older, esoteric material that\u2019s being ignored or taken out of distribution.<\/p>\n

Get Reel may view SOV\u2019s as viable recycling matter, but everyone sees value in certain programming which others dismiss as rubbish. Would Get Reel have encouraged CityTV to donate their massive music video library because its attractiveness had long passed?<\/p>\n

Get Reel\u2019s proposing a service with a business plan that hopefully provides empowerment to those with barriers, but they may not understand the sudden hue and cry coming from factions they never realized existed. They need to establish a dialogue with archivists and film preservationists to refine their sales pitch and mandate, and ensure what is donated isn\u2019t turfed willy-nilly.<\/p>\n

My suggestion: offer a sorting service in tandem with recycling. Set aside pre-recorded tapes for public sale at the location or online auctions which requires labour. And establish guidelines to flag content that may have value at the time of discussion with donor clients, during the sorting process, and follow-up calls should something unique appear.<\/p>\n

This of course presumes a certain expertise, and a knowledge on the part of donors to actually know what they have, making it logical for donors to set up their own archive protocols when dealing with culling a collection, and reducing a bloated library to something more manageable.<\/p>\n

Get Reel isn’t proposing something evil – they see opportunity in matter idling in homes, businesses, and landfill – but instead of shrill exchanges, parties should start a dialogue, listen, and react positively, because if there are 2.26 billion tapes out there, you want to know its cultural DNA before it’s torn down.<\/p>\n

Cheers,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are there 2.26 billion videotapes residing in households like toxic matter in Ontario? Should all VHS be recycled and eradicated like noxious goo? Or should a business plan to help the environment and a local community be modified? Read the Editor’s Blog on Project Get Reel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[2562,2563,3552,3553,2451],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/VHS_tape_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-2Ts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11126"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11135,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11126\/revisions\/11135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}