I Found My Hollywood Video Promotional DVDs and Here’s What They Had on Them
When I worked at Hollywood Video and later Blockbuster one of the things I HATED doing was destroying DVDs. Every once in a while we’d get a list with movies and the number of copies to destroy. That meant ripping the cover, scratching the disc or just straight up breaking them. Normally I would put them aside in a box and sit them next to the dumpster. I really hoped someone would come along and grab them. There were certain discs however that I would sneak away in my purse. I’ve always been a guerilla archivist and like Indiana Jones, I knew these belonged in a museum. Or now, Internet Archive. These Hollywood Video promotional discs dodged the dumpster and now have a chance at being viewed again.
What kinds of things were on these? Here’s what I’ve found so far
With a runtime of nearly 2hrs minus a few minutes there are a LOT of trailers. We’re only about halfway done with it and while a few things have repeated it’s mostly all different. The promotions that stood out the most were the “Now Hiring” segment and the Microsoft Zune ad. RIP the ZUNE. I’ll probably write about how that thing is a brick now. The servers are dead so no one can play with it anymore, but that’s another article.
Hollywood Video Promotional Disc Preservation Project
I don’t know anyone else who has any. I’m looking for people to send them my way so that I can copy them and send them back. It’s one of those things that isn’t highly documented and barely anyone realizes they existed. These would be playing on the TV’s positioned throughout the store playing trailers, music videos and talking about getting a job at Hollywood Video. We would often put a movie on in between playing these, mostly because we were sick of hearing Rhianna’s Umbrella for the umpteenth time.
Currently my husband and I are working on transcribing the December 2006 copy. Eventually we’re going to put it up on Internet Archive. YouTube was an option but I imagine it’s all copyrighted because the companies featured are all prominent movie studios. I’ll probably link that in a future blog post or here if I remember.
If ANYONE has any please consider sending them my way so that I can transcribe what’s on them, make a copy and send it back. My email address for this is [email protected]. I would be happy to even reminisce about the old days working at a video store honestly. I know we’re out there.
