Rewind This! Page #5

that interested them.

It wasn't about studio,

it wasn't about movie star,

it wasn't about budget.

When you're looking at a shelf,

it's very democratic.

The best cover catches your eye.

One thing I do, is go to video

stores whenever I'm in them,

and find the movie,

and I pick it out,

and I put it flat

so it's facing front.

A little extra advertising

can't hurt.

I really do.

I'm like, looking around to see

that nobody looks.

A lot of them I picked

just on the cover art.

Malone!

That's a cover buy.

Have I watched it?

I'm not gonna lie to you and tell you

I've watched this movie.

But, if this happens somewhere

in it, then it's a good movie.

Also, there's something

to be said

about something so large,

you could kill

a small child with this.

Like, you could bludgeon

somebody to death with this.

That was a handful, when you

bought one of those.

And it left a lot of space for

a really good artist

to actually create something

that in itself

was a work of art.

When you did a major film

it was fun to see it.

It's the kind of job that

a lot of illustrators

really cherish,

and love to do.

It used to have a battery and

you'd press the button,

and then Frankenhooker says,

"Wanna date?"

Um... Because that's

one of her catchlines...

catchphrases in the movie.

"Wanna date?"

She's a Frankenhooker.

I have the box

but it doesn't work anymore.

But it was this talking box.

And you'd press here,

and you'd hear a voice go

"Wanna date?"

When you push the button on

the box, she goes, "Wanna date?"

It was obsessive.

You just sat there,

"Wanna date?" "Wanna date?"

"Wanna date?" Wanna date?"

When this was in the stores,

that's all people were doing.

I think the talking box

did more to sell the movie

than the movie did.

"If you only see

one movie this year,

it should be Frankenhooker."

Of course it should be.

I mean you see things

that are like,

wow, this box art

is not selling.

And, especially being a buyer

for as long as I have,

I can really look at stuff

and go,

"This box art

will sell this movie."

Looking at those, like

2000 Maniacs, just...

the blood coming

out of the mouth,

or the Color Me Blood Red,

with the woman, like,

just totally splayed.

Guts hanging out.

I was just like,

"That is for me."

People have a certain amount

of nostalgia

for kinda old VHS stuff.

And some of it was pretty great.

Most of it was awful.

I mean, if you're

objective about it.

There are terrible, terrible,

unspeakably bad movies

that have some of the

best covers I've ever seen.

I admire the fact that

those companies figured out,

"Man, all we gotta do

is wrap it nicely."

This was ultimately used

as a video cover,

for Chevy Chase Funny Farm.

Sometimes it's just the

simpler image that read better.

It was a great way

for so many artists

to make a living,

and there was a lot of

great art produced,

especially during

the 70's and 80's.

We would fight to get our

name in there, and...

some would allow it and

others would take it out.

And so we'd kinda

hide it in somewhere.

My name is in the hair.

If you turn it upside-down

and have a look at it,

you'll see it.

When somebody does kind of

a cheap, fast photoshop,

here's a bunch

of floating heads,

you know, buy it because

these actors are in it.

Like, that artwork isn't gonna

move the needle at all.

I dunno what happened, I mean,

they actually used to use color.

I don't see color

all that frequently.

It's like they're designing

sh*t for dogs.

I think that everyone forgot how

awesome a painted cover is,

of a dude with his shirt off...

holding a machine gun.

Why would you

take a photo of that

when you can paint a

beautiful portrait of it.

That's the stuff

that's gonna keep it

out of the mainstream.

You know, the big box stores

don't want that painted artwork.

The amount of work I was given

from the movie studios

really started to slow down

in the early 90's.

Then, all of a sudden, they said

that I had to learn how to do it

on a computer,

or they couldn't use me anymore.

Once I mastered

the tool of the computer,

I was able to create

what I did before,

maybe even a bit better.

Don't give me art.

I can't stand art.

The worst covers on the planet.

Criterion.

I'm sorry, guys.

They're the most

boring covers ever made.

How could you not

wanna see this?

How could you not

wanna own this?

My god... you know, this...

this is a cover.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Criterion, go f*** yourself.

This is how you sell it.

So by 1986,

home video is giving

as much money to Hollywood

as the box office.

And it's all new money.

20th Century Fox is bought up

by the News Corporation.

Paramount is

bought up by Viacom.

Because of home video,

you actually have Sony,

an electronics manufacturer,

deciding never to lose

a format war again.

And the way to do that was to

buy up a film studio.

So they bought Columbia.

So by the 1990's,

you have a new landscape

of media conglomerates.

And they represented that film

was switching over

to a major brand.

That you can spin-off from film,

into many different markets

with the sales of videos, music,

toy action figures,

etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

You know, we're down now,

to the same basic five or six

corporate pipelines that supply

almost all of our media,

and unfortunately,

they're not voracious enough

to sort of reach outside

their own catalogues.

So you don't have

that sort of...

hunger in the

marketplace anymore.

Blockbuster came in

and they took over.

And they really got rid of all

the mom and pop chains.

It's name says it all.

It was about blockbusters.

That's all they were

interested in.

Video rental is gone.

You know, that was the

dominant way of seeing films,

you know, 20 years ago.

And it's dead.

Even though we lost all that,

yes, we have the internet

I'm not gonna say that

the internet isn't great.

It's incredible. In some ways

it's almost worth it.

Yeah, there's definitely a sense

of loss, of course, I think.

But, it's awesome to see

the places that

are still around,

like Cinefile, Odd Obsession,

Scarecrow,

I Heart Video, Vulcan.

They're still going strong.

This is our video tape costume,

that we have someone who, uh...

gets in and jumps around, during

the trivia contests that we do.

And it's pretty easy to get on,

you just slide it...

Kinda like this.

And jumps around like that.

We were thinking of hiring some

guy to just be on the sidewalk

and just waving

at people. But...

nobody wants to do that

for minimum wage.

What VHS had, because it

dominated for so long,

was just an appetite.

They had to fill those shelves.

They had to have

new product out.

And so distributers reached

deep into their catalogues,

and they had to.

That was, I think,

the greatest era of discovery.

VHS had an unusually long life

for a home video format.

And I think that is something

that we'll never see happen again.

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