Commercial Breakdown

Over the past decade or so, I've been involved in a bit of a nostalgia movement on YouTube.  Unfortunately, I wasn't the one who started it all, but I feel that I've been doing a service for my fellow peers and their own by providing material for the cause.

For me personally, it began with simply looking through my collection of VHS tapes.  Not only for the main subject written on the sticky label of the cassette, but also for any evidence of old TV commercials that may have been preserved on these tapes for as long as they have been.  Of course, going back to when these videos were initially recorded from the TV, there were times where we deliberately didn't want the commercial breaks so we could have uninterrupted movies or TV shows (besides, it allowed you to fit more at the end of each one until the tape ran out of space).  But it was always a treat when a commercial break was left in.  Either it was a mistake or it was a recording that was made while you went away to do something else, whether it was recorded manually or preset (some old VCR's had the ability to set a timer for when you wanted something recorded, which wasn't always 100% accurate - if a TV show came on early or later than scheduled, it might screw up your recording plans).  As you would find these breaks that were left in, you would be taken back to that particular time when the video was recorded.  Didn't matter if the movie or series you were taping was released earlier or at the same time as the recording.  Each of these commercials represented the time it was recorded (unless the sponsor in question reused one of their timeless ads from way back).

Since YouTube was pretty much reaching its peak somewhere around the time I started getting involved with the nostalgia movement (at least in the video department), I saw it as an opportunity to try and make digital copies of these TV commercials and upload them as soon as possible (VHS tapes only last so long before they're too corrupt for anyone's use).  It started off slow for me.  My first video capture device was the EasyCap.  A USB device with RCA plugs attached that would connect your VCR to the computer and record what was on it via the use of the provided recording software.  It wasn't the best choice of device, I admit now, but it got my foot in the door at least.  I have since graduated to much better methods of VHS preservation.  In this case, I currently use a DVR.  The way I do it can be quite lengthy at times, so I often need to reserve several hours when I do my search for classic commercials.  It starts with having my VCR linked to the DVR.  From there, I record what's on the tape to the machine itself.  After which, I burn the content onto a DVD-RW disc, then I take it to my computer to copy it onto the hard drive.  Then comes the process of using my video editing software to trim the video where necessary to create a collection of video clips ranging from about 15 seconds to a minute, depending on the ad.  Sometimes I might find some music, an entire episode of a series or something else that's longer than a minute that I may consider for my YouTube channel, but the main focus is on the ads.  Once these steps are done, I then go through the uploading phase...and then it's done.  I then sit and wait to see what the viewer response will be.  How many views?  Are there any likes?  How about the comments section?  It can be quite fun (unless some spam bot or some idiot comes along, of course - they're no fun at all).

My second YouTube channel - Nostalgia Duck (my first channel is for Stuffed Duck Productions) - has been uploading such content for about 10 years now (that's what my oldest upload tells me).  To this day, I've been quite busy preparing more videos to put online for the sake of giving people positive flashbacks.  Not much different to the purpose of my old radio show on Plains FM.  To give you an idea of what I've got in store as I type this blog, I currently have about 21 files that are unedited and adding up to about 19.5 GB of drive space - and that's just the videos I've already made digital.  As for the remaining VHS tapes, I've got an entire shelf to go through yet!  So, I won't be retiring this project anytime soon.

On that note, I must get back to doing what I need to do.  My lack of blogging for the past few days shows that I've been quite busy lately.  But that won't become a habit.  In the meantime, feel free to go to my Nostalgia Duck channel on YouTube to view what I've added to the archive so far.  Enjoy!