Last year, right at the start of the first Lockdown I had the idea to start making zines. Not the film ones I make from time to time but real pen and paper and photocopy zines. I managed to put together a few pages but, in all honesty, it wasn't my best work. I salvaged the best pages and will be adding them to something I'm putting together for my 10-year anniversary of this blog. One page that I kept was a rant, a train of thought, relevant for the time, about owning DVDs and Blu rays. Apologies for the scattered handwriting. This reveals how crazy my handwriting is.
Despite streaming services being the go-to for most people, including myself, to watch films, TV, music and the odd audiobook, physical media is being kept alive by the collectors. The ‘old’ media that entertained us when we were young is always looked upon fondly now and resurrected for a nostalgia trip. As we’ve all been kept inside away from everything, these nostalgia trips are happening quite frequently. I’d love to go through the boxes still at my parents that I know contain cassette tapes, videos and there’s even a shoe box with the last of my CD collection I couldn’t get rid of. I used to be the proud owner of a large audiobook collection, mostly children’s and young adult books, quite a few Jaqueline Wilson tapes and a few Jane Austen tapes, as well as a few odd ones that I never heard of anywhere else, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen anyone? With only a few videos surviving, half of which are recorded, I had tried to convert this collection to DVDs but some I couldn’t find. Without these boxes of nostalgia to pour over, I’ve looked to collection that I moved with.
It’s been said that the Millennials are the ones keeping physical media alive, having grown up in an age without everything at our fingertips or having the ease of streaming services for anything you could dream of. But I also think there has been a resurgence of the ‘special/limited edition’ that has caught the eye of those who collect. Distributors like Arrow and the Criterion collection are going strong with these releases, bringing cult classics into the new era and those long-forgotten gems out of the dark for new audiences to discover. Other labels such as Indicator, Vintage Classics and 101 Films focusing different genres, also offering extra features and physical extras too. Bringing out new releases to celebrate an anniversary or even just a ‘first time’ release is an opportunity. These are all for the collectors, of which I thought there were few but after a search on Instagram with the right hashtags, I find that I am most definitely not alone or at least it’s not just film writers and Film Twitter out there. The appeal of physical media is not a niche thing as I had thought.
My scribbles from last year were in frustrated response to digital copies being deleted as and when companies wish rendering bought digital copies useless. For anyone who loves to own the real thing, there will always be DVD/Blu ray and now 4K releases. Vinyl made its way back from being 50p in a charity shop to back on the shelves, cassette tapes are also having a mini comeback. CDs might not have the same appeal, but, you never know.