Thursday 19 July 2018

Arfon’s Studio: VID -O -RAMA!

The new look studio is fast approaching completion and so I thought it was time for a small reveal and seeing as it was mentioned in a radio interview last year we might as well start with this corner, the VID -O -RAMA! Being fond of having movies play while you paint you accumulate stacks of DVD’s and Blu-rays in your studio and it soon become increasingly difficult to manoeuvre around them all so I decided to use my new tools and newly found confidence in woodwork to good use and started to design and construct adequate shelving for them all. The theme for this storage space was inevitable really, sheer number of movies aside it all happened when my wife came in one evening to select a movie to watch and having browsed for some time she asked me if one particular movie was “any good?” and so it was decided, I would replicate an old video shop! Ignoring the lack of any actual VHS’s (I only have a few out of print titles now DVD’s are purely a space saving compromise I assure you!) this storage space was to serve as a loving nod to the video shops of the past, seemingly, ripped from the past and shoved into the corner of the studio. 
I wanted the shelves to be made of wood and have that independent, ‘mom and pop store’ look about them and once they were up I pinned a few random retail stars that indicate genre to them. Another additional feature was authentic 40 year old interior wood paneling finished off with video release posters for such movies as Humanoids from the Deep, The Toxic Avenger and Predator not forgetting an original Video Week chart poster, “the only national computer monitored top 50” from August 1989 which had A Fish Called Wanda at number 1, Schwarzenegger’s Red Heat at 2 and Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Bloodsport at 3 it also highlights the upcoming Elvira Mistress of the Dark movie. Between the posters you will also find genuine rental conditions, membership hire and  tariffs (including a warning that a charge 25p will be made if tapes are not rewound after use!) that once belonged to Cray Video Club once located on the high street in St. Mary’s Cray in Kent the space under the window is also occupied by a relic from the glory days of video rental, an 8ft long sign that once belonged to our local video shop that I obtained a few years back! Mounted on the wall nearest my desk is my original 20 year old Panasonic Telly and Bush VHS player that plays movie trailers when not in use and if that doesn’t aid your decision making our handy ‘New Releases’ marquee board will, which is updated weekly! I am rather pleased with the way VID -O -RAMA! turned out both as a storage solution and feature designed to celebrate the good old pre-onlinestreaming days, I hope you agree.



© Arfon Jones 2018. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

2 comments:

  1. That's fantastic! The sort of rental shop anyone would love to have a browse in. (Apparently VHS tapes are becoming chic again... I'm guessing you might still have VHS, but aside from you I'm probably the only person I know who does.)

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    1. No, I’m afraid I sold them (reluctantly) and focused on DVD’s (themselves become a dying format) I had amassed quite a collection too but realised I could pack allot more titles in if they were on DVD’s and so ‘moved on’ I know many that still have their VHS’s and pay very good money for ‘new’ editions! (It is tempting as there are still many titles that haven’t been converted to DVD I am after) Ideally it would have been an entire room converted into a Video Shop filled with tapes but this was a space saving compromise... If you’re ever up here Mim you are always welcome to come in for a browse! :)

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