From the Ghostbar balcony, we watched Nevada burn

Las Vegas. July 16-18, 2002|The Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) remains integral to its members in its promotion of consumer awareness of all forms of "packaged home video entertainment," and in its protection of software distributors against various political interferences. That the association exists at all unites several companies with disparate goals, bringing a little order to the chaos of an $18.7 billion industry. If you're really curious to know what the VSDA does, or sets out to do, in greater detail, I recommend partaking in their online mission statement.

But the VSDA convention, held annually in Las Vegas, is of diminishing importance, with many of the major studios now ignoring either the exhibitor's floor or the four-day event altogether. Organizers kept to themselves about this^* but attendees didn't (it was the topic of finger-food small talk), and in a perversely democratic move most everywhere you went within the convention grounds of the Rio Suites Hotel & Casino you could pick up a complimentary copy of The Hollywood Reporter that bore the headline: "Studios keep their distance from VSDA confab." According to THR, vertical integration is to blame; the likes of Warner and Universal did show but kept their distance by holing up at the Bellagio, a $7 cab ride away.

(^*In fact, as kind as organizers were, a mere 24-hours prior to the opening ceremonies staff in VSDA T-shirts weren't sure if it began in the a.m. or p.m., leading to my absence at Sylvester Stallone's Lifetime Achievement Award honours.)

Juliet Cariaga's headshot

How that affected yours truly is insignificant compared to how it impacted the independent video stores who, there to network, were denied access to the big corporations--the studios themselves no longer even pretend to require the services of the proverbial little guy. What it meant for media was a rather dull stroll around the showroom: no legitimate stars signing autographs (though there was an autograph "station" populated by a revolving door of pornstars and DtV action heroes), no decadence. On my way onto the exhibitor's floor, I was stopped by a gruff security guard and asked to face the name on my pass forward--the encounter gave me false hope for a restricted area about which I would one day brag to the grandkids, but the reality was rows of popcorn suppliers, empty case suppliers, and popcorn-and-empty case suppliers. Highlights: a giant stuffed Scooby-Doo I considered entering to win until I realized I'd never be able to lug it home; and former Penthouse Pet/current B-Queen Juliet Cariaga (her latest is Voyeur Beach), a woman so preposterously attractive as to put men--this man, anyway--at a perverse ease in conversation. We discussed the negative effects of the dry Nevada environment on her silky complexion with an admirable lack of irony.

D-VHS release of Terminator 2

DON'T START E-BAYING YOUR DVDS JUST YET. With a resolution of 1080i, D-VHS is the first consumer HDTV duplication format, and I cannot tell a lie: I've never seen video quality superior to the clips that JVC screened at VSDA 2002 from the "D-Theater" releases of U-571, Independence Day, and Galaxy Quest. But the A/B comparisons the manufacturer had set up for the purpose of upstaging DVD revealed key discrepancies between the demonstration monitors: the television displaying T2 on DVD, for example, was obviously overbrightened and had its sharpness turned up high, emphasizing--intentionally or unintentionally--the disc's mild compression artifacts. Regardless, no amount of salesmanship could convince me to switch back to a tape-based format, which JVC reps admitted that some studios favour because they lower the risk of piracy. Factor in D-VHS' snubbing of DTS audio and thanks but no thanks, I'll definitely wait on HD-DVD. (Currently Fox, DreamWorks, Universal, and Artisan are the only ones participating in the D-VHS experiment.)

Touring the "Ipanema" and "Masquerade" Towers of the Rio yielded schwag. ADV told us to help ourselves to a generous supply of screeners, some dude stood in a corridor tossing copies of Grave of the Fireflies at passers-by, and two in-suite demonstrations proved worthwhile, if overlong: D-VHS (see sidebar) and Videolocity. The Utah-based Videolocity is a video-on-demand service that, as far as the bug-free trial they had set up goes, functions as a concierge and pay-per-view at once--it's the tourist and hotel patron's best friend. But the guys need to streamline their pitch--or hire Juliet Cariaga to deliver it on their behalf: I didn't need to view clips from both a "children's" (A Bug's Life) and an "action" (Enemy of the State) and pretend to book a tee-off before I understood how it works. At any rate, Videolocity has taken the concept of video-on-demand to impressive levels; they're primed to be gobbled-up by the Microsofts of the world.

As for DVD scoops, they were sparse--nothing like 2000's American Beauty newsflash. At least Columbia Tri-Star announced November's Spider-Man two-platter DVD release in conjunction with this year's VSDA (and chintzy-chic Spider-Man watches were given out); available in widescreen, fullscreen, and "Collector's Gift Set" editions, all versions of Spider-Man will contain commentary by Sam Raimi, Kirsten Dunst, and others, Tobey Maguire's screen test, a documentary on the "Spider-Man" mythos, three playable levels of the Spider-Man game from Activision, and much, much more. (Click here for the full press release.) We also learned that production on the Austin Powers in Goldmember DVD is already complete, and that Anchor Bay will begin rolling out such early Wim Wenders titles as The American Friend, Notebook on Cities and Clothes, and Chamber 666 later this year.

Near Dark's Pasdar at Ghostbar

Wenders put in an appearance at the well-attended Near Dark DVD release party hosted by Sue Procko PR and Anchor Bay, which was held in the Palm's swanky 52^nd-floor nightspot Ghostbar. Linda Blair frowned upon my fifteen-minutes-ago "Free Winona" shirt while social butterfly and loudly proclaimed Howard Stern fan "Rocket" entertained the ladies by stomping on the Ghostbar balcony's vertigo-inducing glass floor. The highlight, though, was hearing Near Dark star Adrian Pasdar tell production anecdotes I hope wound up on the film's 2-disc DVD, of which he toted one of the few copies. (Looks like a great set; its insert booklet of one-sheet reproductions is especially handsome.) Me, Mr. Pasdar, and my travelling companion cum photographer Lloyd retreated to a backroom of Ghostbar to have our palms read, an adventure in itself cut short by the dying daylight--our psychic refused to read any hand she couldn't see under bright conditions. She was gently shocked by the absence of one of Pasdar's thumbs, the result of a tablesaw incident that, come to think of it, I also hope is recounted on the Near Dark DVD.

Linda Blair at Ghostbar

With a number of the VSDA seminars geared less towards the press than folks mired in the minutiae of the biz ("More $$$ With Standards"), I opted to attend "Keeping the Government Out of Your Business and a Conversation with Larry Flynt." The program began with a speech by swarthy, charismatic Paul Cambria, one of Larry Flynt's long-time attorneys (though not the one portrayed by Edward Norton in The People vs. Larry Flynt, whose name is Alan Isaacman). Cambria revealed that, with the field growing more and more competitive, "getting busted" is a bona fide marketing strategy for modern porn producers, and that the cases he's often saddled with these days have to do with the erection (no pun intended) of a triple-X establishment in an area deemed family-friendly by community standards. When Cambria relinquished the mike to the gold-plated wheelchair-bound founder of Hustler Magazine, it seemed to startle him awake (Flynt was reportedly ailing); Flynt, confessing to skipping a lot of the "Clinton" stuff he had prepared, proceeded to deliver a shining monologue that featured a quote for the ages: "The First Amendment is there to protect the thought you hate the most, not the one you love the most." Cambria stuck around afterwards to greet conventioneers and pass out business cards, a cool souvenir.

The Many Faces of Larry Flynt

What has lingered from my second trip to Las Vegas and the VSDA convention? Taxi cab confessions. Staying at Bally's, the Rio was too far for Lloyd and I to walk (although we did so--jet-lagged--the first day and bloody paid for it), thus meter rides for us. At the risk of sounding Barton Fink-condescending, listening to the lamentations of the common cabbie, well, it was more potent than a morning cup of coffee: it's one thing to see the Aladdin casino, another to learn of the specific blood, sweat, and tears that went into it from a guy who nearly died building its questionable facade. Every one of their stories was a Juliet Cariaga or Wim Wenders movie waiting to happen. (Click here for a list of VSDA Home Entertainment Expo 2002 winners.)