Where does the name of the store come from?
It is from a quote by French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. It refers to the number of frames that pass through a camera or projector. The full quote is actually "Film is truth 24 times a second, and every cut is a lie," but we didn't have that much room on the awning.
Where are you? When are you open?
You can find that information here.
Can I drop off my movies when you're closed?
Yeah, there's a slot out front, to the left of the door, and there's also a slot in the alley where you don't even have to get out of your car (assuming your arms -- or, at least, your left arm -- is fairly long).
What's the deal with VHS tapes?
They seem to be going away. I'm not sure anyone is still making them at all. Any movie older than, say, a week is almost certainly out of print, if a VHS version was made at all.
As far as our catalog selection goes: we've been trimming it down to make room for our ever-increasing DVD collection. Mostly, we've been pulling VHS copies of movies that both rarely rent and that we already have on DVD. We've been picking up a lot of DVDs of older titles that don't see much action on VHS -- it feels a little perverse to me, spending money on new copies of movies that never rent -- but I'm loath to actually lose titles altogether.
Why don't you have movies divided into categories?
Categories are artificial boundaries and should be disregarded.
Personally, I get annoyed trying to figure out if I should look for a movie in the comedy section or the drama section or in the Academy Award winners section or the Buddy-Road movie section or the Pick of the Month section or the Martin Scorsese section or the Robert De Niro section or what. And, since the store is designed to make life easier for me, that's the way it is.
We have category lists at the front counter, though, to make it easier if you're looking for a specific genre or director or country of origin. We also have a staff that is knowledgeable, friendly, and occasionally both!
If you're looking for other specific lists (British comedies from the '60s on DVD, for example, or movies starring Don Knotts), you can email me and I can email a list back to you.
What are the black bars at the top and bottom of the picture? Where can I find more information about aspect ratios?
The black bars are there to preserve the original aspect ratio of the theatrical presentation. In other words: since a theater screen is wider than your TV, the black bars are necessary to show the film's full width as intended by its creators.
("Widescreen" wasn't used before the early '50s, so almost any film made before that time has a pretty square ratio already.)
We think that all movies should be watched in their intended aspect ratio whenever possible. Here's the Wikipedia entry on aspect ratios. And here is the Letterbox and Widescreen Advocacy Page.
Why don't you have such-and-such a movie?
Well, there's a bunch of different answers to this. Maybe it's not out yet, or maybe it was out at one time and is now out of print. Maybe we always meant to pick it up but never got around to it. Or we could be purposefully ignoring it.
We ignore a lot of mainstream stuff - we figure, if there are going to be 800 copies of the new Ashton Kutcher movie in town, do we really have to spend the money to add another one to the heap, especially since no one will remember it six weeks from now? Why don't we take that money and spend it on, say, a new DVD from Criterion, instead, or an obscure documentary about 8-track tapes?
On the other hand, we do pick up some of the mainstream stuff. It kind of depends on our mood at the time. We'll pick up stuff that we saw and enjoyed, or that we want to see, or that got good reviews, or that has an actor in it that we like (we end up with a lot of pretty lousy movies starring Samuel L. Jackson this way), or sometimes just because of a lapse of judgment on our part.
Short answer: We can't have everything, especially not all at once. It never hurts to ask, though.
This isn't much of an FAQ, is it?
Well, we can always add more later. If you have any questions, please email us.
