VHS Video Content

VHS Producers Live On

Much to the chagrine of many younger video consumers and social-media influencers, VHS producers of yore are not dead. And the content we produced is not free to be pirated at whim. As per the United States government, “As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.”

Be Kind, Rewind

Rewinding to the 1980s and 1990s, small video production companies like New & Unique Videos produced and distributed what we called “special-interest” videos. As a couple of twenty-somethings, my partner and I always knew it was a great idea to invest in ourselves and our own ideas. Therefore we spent tens of thousands of dollars on camera, lighting, sound and grip gear. In the 1980s the price we paid for a Sony Betacam SP was in the neighborhood of $35,000.  Expensive gear made for very little competition in the video production field, as opposed to today. Your $300 iPhone now takes better footage than those old Betacams. And nearly everyone with an iPhone fancies themselves a content producer.

New & Unique VHS Videos

In 1985, we produced “Massage For Relaxation,” “Common Sense Self-Defense For Women” and the now infamous “California Big Hunks.” During the following decade, we had produced about a dozen videos all told. We’ll get back to “Big Hunks” in a moment.

VHS producers can now all commiserate over how expensive our gear was, how new and limited the technology was back then, and the looming prospect of piracy. Our VHS cassettes went out all around the world, featured at Sears, KMart, Publishing Clearing House, Baker & Taylor, Video Learning Library and several other distribution channels. We’d go to national video software conventions and hawk our wares, and that is how we made connections to the video distribution world. As a couple of young entrepreneurs, we made a modest living. It was a nice run. But in the back of our minds, we always knew there would be thieves lurking out there, maybe in other countries like China, Korea or Russia where we’d have no idea what any unethical person without regard for the law and who fails to ask for permission would be doing with our content.

Producing Content

Producing VHS content was not just about the gear. It was also about coordinating talent, times, dates and location scouting for multiple shoots. It was about legal contracts, talent release forms, location release forms, hiring a musician to create a soundtrack, and so much more. Once the footage was “in the can” it was about hiring people to help with advertising, marketing, box cover design and manufacturing, VHS tape duplication, placing ads in various industry publications to stir up interest, and then shipping the tapes off. It was about sending your video titles to various newspapers, magazines, schools and libraries to fish for reviews. It was just like the guy spinning 10 different glass plates on sticks all at the same time.

Producing California Big Hunks

It cost us $25,000 to produce “California Big Hunks” – that included paying the cast and crew, an attorney, the soundtrack creator, the editor, and the U.S. government for a copyright. At the time, an online editor cost $200/hour. So for a young couple like us, for each video we created, we were obligated to take quite a leap of faith. But in order to succeed in business and in life, you need to be Neo in the Matrix, and just dive in.

Fast forwarding to 2021, social media in all its instantaneous gratification and technological reach has created a conundrum for video content producers. VHS videos are again in the limelight because people can easily digitize them, disregarding the FBI warning at the very beginning of the tape, and then post them at will.

Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse

Remember the old adage, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse?” People need to properly educate themselves about the ins and outs of copyright law, and how far they can go when posting other people’s content. Youtube has a rather brilliant model wherein if anyone posts copyrighted material, the copyright owner can monetize it. Big corporations like Disney, Viacom, Netflix, etc., have teams of lawyers to pounce whenever an intellectual property breach is detected. But what do the “mom and pops” do when intellectual property theft occurs? Our attorney advised us that holding a copyright is not enough protection anymore from piracy. The copyright owner has to be diligent in rooting out copyright infractions.

The thing is, it’s not all right to take someone’s work and disseminate it without permission. Jay Leno knew that when he bought “California Big Hunks” clips so editors could put his head on the dancer’s body. “Whose Line is It Anyway?” knew that when they bought clips so Colin Mochrie could work his green screen magic. Jimmy Kimmel knew that when he bought clips to share with Andy Samberg. Stock footage typically cost $25-$100/second with a ten-second minimum depending on term and territory. For worldwide rights in perpetuity, the purchaser can expect to pay $100/second or more. The entry into a new high-tech century does not dismiss the fact that it’s just plain wrong to steal someone’s content. Just because that content comes from a VHS tape is no excuse.

Be a True Creator

Instead of lifting someone else’s work, why not simply create your own? Camera gear these days is very affordable. With a world population of nearly 8 billion, there is no shortage of talent. Go ahead and make that leap of faith.

There are people out there right now posting and/or selling video clips and/or entire videos without the rights or permission to do so. If you are among the pioneers who produced VHS tapes during the 1980s and 1990s, you may want to go and do a Google search right now to make sure someone is not exploiting your intellectual property without your permission. “Constant vigilance is the price of video content production.” And you can quote me on that.

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