I Lost it at the Video Store: A Filmmakers' Oral History of a Vanished Era

This book is a light read and it can be finished in half a day by a slow reader, but it is a worthwhile read for those who can relate to the 80s and 90s home video phenomenon. It begins with a terrific introduction by Tom Rostin who gives an overview of the history and significance of home video, especially VHS tapes. It ends with a reprint of a NY Times article on the closing of Kim's Video store in Manhattan. The bulk of the book are transcripts (with editing) of several conversations with filmmakers and film executives who recount how the home video business in the 80s and 90s changed their lives. The topics discussed range from anecdotal experiences of being a video store clerk (Kevin Smith confesses to using the porn section to "pleasure himself"), how the video business helped the indie film movement, how the advent of Netflix and streaming killed off the video rental business, to almost existential opinionations of what video stores (and their demise) meant to the public. Participants include Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, David O. Russell, Larry Estes, Allison Anders, Janet Pierson, Luc Besson, Darren Aronofsky, and several others. A few black-and-white photos of the participants are also included in the book.With that many people, we get a wide variety of viewpoints, but unfortunately not too many exchanges nor back-and-forths. Due to the transcript format, opinions are given out in bits and pieces. Kevin Smith is the only one who is given a whole chapter where only he gives his opinions. I wish every participant would have the floor the same way he did. As in every conversation, some speakers always dominate more than others, and the same is true here. I barely got any output from Luc Besson (who speaks maybe 2-3 times in the whole book), whereas Kevin Smith opines on nearly everything, and he has his own chapter.Some of the participants are fairly passionate about their views. When Tarantino talks about how Netflix makes it unnecessarily to go to a video store, he says incredulously, "And that's progress? Progress is not leaving your home? I like eating at home too, but once in a while I like going to a restaurant too." Such passion makes me want to see how the actual interview went down. I surely wish the interviewer recorded the whole thing on video and/or audio. Playing it back would be like watching "My Dinner with Andre". Great conversations need to be read AND watched.

I knew I was going to enjoy this book going in. The subject matter of a nostalgia ride with some of my favourite directors as the guide for video stores through the 80s, 90s & early 2000s just stood out to me.My main nostalgia for video stores was in the late 90s with VHS & most of the 2000s with DVDs until the Internet took over as my delivery mechanism. Two of the three video stores I used to frequent are long shut down. The last one puzzles me as to how it can be still in business.Anyway this book is short but sweet. Full of stories from great directors of the video store era, some of whom worked in video stores detailing their experiences with video stores. It also deals with the fall of video stores and rise of the Internet & the streaming & piracy that ended up ending the ride for the everyday video store. The battle between Mum & Pop video stores vs. corporates like Blockbuster is explored as well.Quentin Tarantino & Kevin Smith are strong features of the book. With some details of how they transitioned from video store clerks to making movies.Overall I'd recommend this to people who grew up with video stores as well as those interested in the history of film. It would also be interesting for those who didn't frequent video stores to get an idea what the craze was all about.Thanks to SlashFilm for the recommend.

This book's been receiving some harsh reviews, stating it's not as deep as it could've been. Well, yeah, it kinda only touches the surface of the subject, and yeah, the interviews are not very well balanced. We get a lot of Kevin Smith, for example, and quite a bit of Quentin Tarantino, but people like James Franco or Luc Besson only appear sporadically.Nevertheless, I really liked this book. Being a "90s kid", I'm really nostalgic about the whole video store sub-culture, even though here in Peru we only had Blockbuster and a couple other options (West Coast Video and Drugstore Home Video). I liked the way all these filmmakers and producers and executives had different opinions regarding the life and death of these stores--from Tarantino, who simply doesn't understand WHY people stopped going to video stores, to Darren Aronofsky, who gets that people are watching more and more films online, and had to actually do an iPhone-compatible sound mix for his movie Noah.All in all, it's a very entertaining, somewhat light, but very interesting book. And if you have a very particular nostalgic feeling for these physical formats, for the ritual of going to the store and actually collecting movies in a physical form, you're gonna love it.

Great read good condition

Good, albeit brief, look at the video rental market along with interviews with a gaggle of directors.Could have been twice the length given the many topics at hand.

While not a bad book, it dwells too much on business models and production of RESERVOIR DOGS, etc.....and doesn't delve deep enough into the films that got the directors/writers hooked on movie making, as well as the customers, make-up of the stores, junk titles, etc. The minutia of the video store gets short shrift. On top of that, at over twenty dollars, it's amazingly steep a price for a slim volume that should've cost ten bucks. WAY too pricey for such a short read.

This book is a fun read, but way overpriced. I was expecting a bigger book, like a coffee table book or something for the price. When a thin little book arrived I couldn't believe how overpriced the thing was.It's a fun read, but buy it used. It's currently listed in hardcover for 18.06. that is still too much, and when I bought it, it was over 20.00

Love letter to an era that changed everything for good.

Interesting book, nicely written but a bit too short

No complaints about the text itself (except that it needs another round of copy editing to rinse out some glaring typos) - readers will know if this book is for them based on the title alone. - but even with the additional interview material in the expanded print edition, it's still slim pickings for $15.77. Get the Kindle eBook instead if you're so inclined, but don't expect it to include that additional material - it didn't when I tried it a while back - so be prepared to contact Amazon Customer Service about that, or about a refund depending on how strongly you feel about it.

For anyone who has fond memories of going to the video store, this is worth the read. Basically a compilation of conversations with different filmmakers about a bygone era and the impact that the video store had on the film industry.