Remember VHS video cassette tapes?
The VHS tape. Photo by coreanscribe.
I still have a few in an old storage box but it won’t be for long.
I’ve decided to get rid of them. I never watch them; when played, they’re not in HD quality, and they just take up valuable storage space in our small apartment. I don’t have any of my old cassette music mix tapes around, so why should I keep these? I shouldn’t. I feel like a hoarder. So, I’m in the process of tossing them in the trash bin, including my short movies I made as an undergraduate in film school.
Let’s be honest. Most of my work back then probably belongs there any way, but I’ll admit, when I got them in my hands I suddenly started feeling sentimental and had second thoughts about dumping them like useless trash.
Cringe-inducing torture. Photo by coreanscribe.
So, I decided to transfer my projects onto DVDs — another dying format — and then converting them to a digital multimedia format that could be played on a computer, such as mp4.
My projects aren’t worth all this trouble. They’re really not. But for some reason I have this annoying need to preserve this evidence of my film school experience, no matter how embarrassing it is. And is it ever embarrassing.
Beach couple from “Sparkling Water” ad project. Screenshot by coreanscribe.
As soon as I put the first tape in and pushed play, that old sentimental feeling was gone, quickly replaced by self-loathing and shame.
I had to watch all the projects again in order to transfer them, and I swear, all I could do was either cringe or laugh at its magnificent awfulness. It was truly like a car wreck. I didn’t want to watch and I couldn’t watch most of it, but I couldn’t push the stop button either, so I continued on with my foolish preservation plan. The transfer process took a lot longer than it needed to because of how cringe-inducing these torturous VHS tapes were. I had to take much-needed breaks. My eyes just couldn’t take it.
Unlucky singer in “Sour Serenade” project. Screenshot by coreanscribe.
So, why am I putting myself through all this?
Simple: I’m hoping to preserve all my terrible work so I’ll never have to watch them again. Duh.
VHS player. Photo by coreanscribe.
Farewell, VHS. We had some good times, but mostly shameful, embarrassing ones.