Local Film History

Before I start with the actual material of this project overview I would just like to say that I was more than impressed with Scarecrow Video and their staff. Everyone there was well versed in film history and was more than willing top help me this project. They clearly have great care for the education of film history and are true professionals when it comes to preserving their massive collection.

The reason I chose Scarecrow Video for my local film history project is because Mr. Austin had mentioned it many times earlier in the year and seemed very enthusiastic when he did. I did a small amount of research on the store and once I discovered it was the largest publicly available physical media archive in the United States, I had to see it for myself.   

I had never been to Scarecrow video prior to my visit for the interview and was blown away by the size of the store. They currently have over 127,000 different titles that are all available to rent, with their oldest film being released in 1895, their rarer titles have an RBA sticker that stands for “rent by approval” and this means the staff must approve the rental and you must put more money down because the films would be near impossible to replace. I was amazed with the vast amount of sections, 1,184 to be exact. Most of these sections are specific to one director, many of which are local filmmakers. Scarecrow is very invested in supporting these local filmmakers and has dedicated an entire room to local films. They host many rough and final edits annually and have hosted numerous movie premiers. Even though their viewing room is not exceptionally large, they offer it to rent out for free; all you have to do is set up a time and date. All of their viewing parties are set up by either customers or staff and are free to attend. From a cultural perspective Scarecrow is still relevant today, they have by far the widest range of genres, essentially if they don’t have the title then you are basically out of luck. Scarecrow represents 129 countries in its store with multiple films and clips from each of these countries. Their efforts to preserve film culture and history is matched by no one, they have 44 titles in which they may have the only publicly accessible copy, 33 titles where there are less than five other publicly accessible copies, and 88 titles that the Library of Congress does not even possess. Scarecrow discovered this exciting news when they launched an investigation earlier this year to find out just how rare their collection was. Scarecrow Video was not the first video store opened in Seattle but in time it has become known country wide for its vast title selection. They do any and everything they can to support local film arts and are always willing to work with civic groups, educational institutions and non-profits in the surrounding area. Scarecrow is the ideal video store and more should strive to be like them as I have not been more impressed with a film establishment.