Collecting DVDs

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When and why was the collection created?

The DVD format was launched in the fall of 1997. I wasn´t an early adopter, but prior to 2000, a lot of websites sold DVDs for very low prices. One website had three-for-$1 deals, and a lot of places sold DVDs for prices that were lower than prices for VHS tapes. However, I didn´t have more than thirty DVDs until I started writing for DVD Town. I joined DVD Town in February 2001. When you write DVDs for a website, your collection grows very rapidly since it´s easy to average receiving three DVDs a week. If you get DVDs for 45 weeks out of a 52-week year, then you get 135 DVDs a year--not counting the ones that you buy with your own money.

How are your DVDs organized and displayed? Any principles?

Most of my collection is lined on shelves in alphabetical order. However, some directors get their own shelves. These include Luis Bunuel, Akira Kurosawa, Ang Lee, Jean-Pierre Melville, Steven Spielberg, Wayne Wang, and Zhang Yimou. I also have deluxe editions that come in big boxes, though these are usually for movies directed by people whose movies are shelved apart from my general collection anyway. I separate TV shows from movies. Animation is also shelved separately; animation is further divided into Japanese animation, Disney, Pixar, Aardman, and everything else. I also display my "Star Trek" stuff in its own niche, surrounded by photos, plaques, posters, and banners.

Why do you acquire DVDs in widescreen format?

In my opinion, "widescreen", "full-screen", "full-frame", etc. are confusing mis-nomers. I want to watch movies and TV shows in their "original aspect ratios", or OAR. This is in opposition to watching movies that are modified to fit a particular TV shape (4:3/1.33:1 or 16:9/1.78:1). It´s best if we refer to "full-screen" or "full-frame" movies as "modified aspect ratios", or MAR, movies. To me, this makes sense since "mar" means "to damage by altering".

Do you focus on a particular genre? Why?

No, not really. There are a lot of war movies and martial-arts fantasy movies in my collection, though I have them more because they´re good movies rather than because I like war movies or martial-arts fantasies.

Approximate number of DVDs (when your collection was at its largest and now):

I had around 700 titles/discs but have winnowed my collection down to about 500 titles/discs. The exact number is difficult to determine since I have a lot of multi-disc sets.

Why do you feel the need to collect these DVDs?

For me, it´s really about convenience. Having your own copy of a movie is better than having to rent one or wait for it on TV every time that you want to watch it. On the other hand, I re-watch only a small percentage of my collection, so it´s legitimate to ask if I should even have so many DVDs!!! This applies to most people who have more than 100 DVDs in their homes.

How do you discriminate what DVDs to collect?

I get what I like to watch or what I think I would like to watch. I used to collect DVDs based on what others said are "good", though that´s ultimately a waste of time and money because what one person likes may not be what you like. Moreover, it´s useless to build collections based on third-party recommendations; if you don´t like something, then you´ll regret owning it no matter how "valuable" it is.

Do you distinguish "high art" films from low-brow, pop culture films?

No. This is actually a very dangerous and simple-minded distinction. "High art" can be suffocating, boring, stilted, pretentious, and racist/sexist/biased without the artist consciously intending it. Studying "low art" can be very revelatory because we can see what the majority of people in a given time liked to enjoy when they had free time. This provides insights into how people of an era perceived themselves and the world.

What´s your deal with acquiring certain DVD cases?!?!?

I´m a little obsessive-compulsive, so at one point, I tried to make it so that all the DVDs from one particular studio or media company would be in the same kind of keepcases. This is a huge waste of time, though, so I´ve stopped doing it. I´m now content with knowing that my DVDs are in durable cases, no matter which company releases them.

Has this collection led you to acquire other related objects?

Yes. My hobby of working with DVD Town gave me access to many press events. At these events, attendees receive various memorabilia that aren´t widely sold. For example, I got a "flying carpet" mousepad and a fairly heavy genie lamp when "Aladdin" was released on DVD. I also collect folders, press photos, and CD-ROM press kits related to DVD releases as well as magazine clippings.

Has your experience in film school affected the way you collect?

Not really. Going to film school was an extension of my cinephilia. Collecting DVDs is an extension of my cinephilia. After attending film school, my knowledge of cinema has increased, though my interests and tastes haven´t really changed.

How has this collection affected the way you live?

DVDs and DVD cases are pretty thin, though when you collect enough of things, they take up substantial physical space. When moving, my DVDs take up perhaps a fifth or a quarter of my boxes.

How would you differentiate yourself from the normal DVD consumer?

Most people still rent DVDs, though many households with DVD players have between 100 and 300 discs because DVDs are so affordable and can be a lot of fun depending on what bonus materials were created for them. On the other hand, there are people who have few interests besides DVDs, and their collections are in excess of 1,000 titles because they buy everything and anything that is "good". I used to be that kind of collector, but I got rid of a lot of DVDs recently because I didn´t want to have discs that I´d never watch again.

What in particular do you find special about your collection of Criterion Collection DVDs? Why did you lose interest in that sub-collection?

Like a lot of things in the cinema industry, the Criterion Collection is "special" only because of advertising and hype. Criterion is like any other third-party licensor that obtains the rights to distribute movies that rights-holders aren´t interested in releasing. Criterion does what Arnold Schwarzenegger did as a bricklayer--you charge people a lot of money and throw around a lot of European names, and suddenly, people think you must be offering a special kind of service that is a cut above the average. The fact of the matter is that a lot of Criterion releases are exactly the kind of bad "high art" that I attacked in response to a previous question.

Also, Criterion is beholden to financial realities like any other company. For example, Criterion was interested in releasing some titles owned by Buena Vista (Disney). The contract that both companies signed gives Criterion little control over what Buena Vista does with Buena Vista-Criterion discs. This explains why the awful director Michael Bay rates two Criterion mentions (for "The Rock" and "Armageddon") and why the living-in-his-own-world "high art" Wes Anderson rates three Criterion mentions.

Criterion also rarely ventures beyond Japan, France, and Italy when it releases a non-English-language movie. This means that the Criterion Collection is hardly as representative of the "best" of world cinema as it claims.

Criterion puts a lot of good stuff into the market. At the same time, it´s a company whose reputation is built upon a foundation of half-truths and people´s mis-perceptions of what it does. Criterion doesn´t actively foster those mis-perceptions, but it doesn´t dis-abuse people of them, either.

When do you determine the collection complete?

I keep a list of DVDs that I want to have. The collection will never really be "complete" as I´ll always want to buy new movies or re-releases of movies that I already have. However, at this point, my list has less that twenty titles, and most of them are not out on DVD yet.

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