‘I’m asking people to do a lot, but that’s what it means to be human’: why one man made the first straight-to-VHS film in 20 years | Video

The new film This Is How the World Ends is a good job; the story of two brothers finding each other at a party held at the end of humanity, in fact On the beach he was at Burning Man. However, the biggest surprise is its release method, as the first VHS film in 20 years.

In the early 2000s an estimated 90% of British households owned a VCR – the last halcyon days of the format, before it was replaced by DVDs, then Blu-ray, then streaming. In 2016, the last VCR maker Funai Electric ceased production. Direct-to-cinema production, in other words, is about making watching your film as difficult as possible.

This, says the film’s director Robert dos Santos, is the point. “I like the idea that you have to be part of it to see it,” he says in a video from Cannes. “It’s about people who have real interests. There’s a group of people who understand what we’re doing.”

Originally a lawyer, the South African joined the film industry after being found carrying a gun several times over the course of several months. “I realized that one day I will die, and, if I die, I can do something that I will be really happy, honestly, passionately.”

There are elements of this in the film itself. My impression when I heard about the VHS release was that This Is How the World Ends was a deliberate musical genre that reveled in the limits of the genre’s possibilities. Instead, it’s a modern indie movie that tackles a lot of big themes. You don’t need to be an expert to draw a straight line from Dos Santos’ real life to the movie’s end of hedonism. But it’s also important to note that the thing that’s going to end the world right now is AI.

And the looming threat of industrialization is what pushed Dos Santos to be released indiscriminately. “It’s a film made by the people for the people,” he said. “I want people to hear something that’s not good, because VHS is not a good medium, but there’s also a physical process. You have to order a tape and, for some people, go buy a VCR.”

“I’m asking people to do more, but that’s what it means to be human. That’s what it means to be in this life, to participate in the events of life, not just let things happen. I’m going out there, feeling the bugs and worms of life.”

If you haven’t already guessed, Dos Santos is not a fan of AI. He said: “Someone once said that if your mother can do it, it doesn’t matter. “If everybody can do something, then nobody can.” You wouldn’t watch the Fifa World Cup that was made by AI. If there was a reality TV show and they said, ‘Oh, we just made this,’ you wouldn’t watch it.”

Although Dos Santos has made things very difficult for himself by going this route – he had to find VHS tapes himself, and learn how to make his own film – there is a market for this. The r/VHS subreddit has over 73,000 users, full of people who brag about their great shop deals. A company called Witter Entertainment releases VHS specials such as Terrifier and Mandy. In 2024 Alien: Romulus released a limited VHS edition, lovingly scaled to 4:3.

Love of this complicated and imperfect kind is twofold. First there is the familiar VHS. My conversation with Dos Santos soon turned into memories of what it was like to visit a movie store, and how sometimes you fall in love with a movie you didn’t expect to rent, and how you watch your rental over and over again to get your money’s worth.

Also, when the archives of the world’s cinema are in the hands of a few billion viewers, who can put titles forever by removing them from their mini-lists, then having a visual record of what you like is very special.

“Hey, maybe we shouldn’t put everything on the computer,” says Dos Santos. “I’m a big fan of vinyl. I like that if I put on Led Zeppelin IV, I have to listen to all of it. I have to commit to listening to Stairway to Heaven without skipping. You have the intention of musicians. I know that VHS has an audience, but if we can bring people to things that I would love to do.”

I have to admit that I haven’t seen This Is How the World Ends on VHS. Between my deadline and thinking that my television wouldn’t know what to do with the VCR if I held a gun to its head, I had to bite the bullet and ask to be shown on the Internet. Two things about this; First, a viewer came up with the password “stuartpleasebuyavcr,” which I really appreciated. But secondly, the film itself is beautiful to look at. Desert pictures have many beautiful HD pictures, such as pink clouds and the texture of the sand.

However, obviously anyone who chooses to watch the film in the way they want – on a high-definition video of the old movie presented in the cinema format – will miss a lot of this. Was that a little angry?

“There will be a loss of image and a cropped image, and obviously I love the images we shot, so I agree,” he says. “But I think that comes from what I was saying. Compromise is part of experiencing life.” Some filmmakers stick to VHS. But that’s the price you pay for being human and fighting the four corners of the world, and in this case, the four corners of the screen.

Eventually, This Is How the World Ends will break out of the small confines they have created for themselves. “We are doing something different than what was done before,” Dos Santos laments. First you get the video to the cinema, then eventually you get the VHS. And we’re like: no. If you want to watch this, get a VCR and let’s go. So after that, we’ll go to Blu-ray and DVD, then after that, we’ll go to video and streaming. But the original is VHS. “

This approach seems to be paying off. Before the film’s release, Dos Santos and his team had to order a large number of VHS tapes to meet the demand. And he believes that this is just the beginning.

“In the past, people have been sending me actual video, like they’re just reaching out on Instagram and saying, ‘Hey, I bought my VCR to watch it,’ and I’m like, ‘You’re crazy.’ It’s crazy. This won’t be popular, but I’m very happy with it. It’s good to have a niche, and for those who are crazy and passionate, it says: ‘Hey, there are others like us. We are crazy and passionate, just like you. “