I just recently converted a small pile of ancient VHS tapes to digital (to the great dismay of some people and the moderate delight of others). One tape in particular personally delights me the most. It's a group senior project I worked on at Penn State, and it's called Film Follies - a collection of film shorts and slide shows that the PSU graphic design program has been producing for 40 years.
We were slightly less than high tech in 1991. We actually made slide shows with slides that we sent away to be developed and waited around for and then projected with actual slide projectors that overheated a lot. We used reel-to-reel projectors to play film leader that we animated by hand by scratching into and/or drawing on it. When our ancient projector equipment failed to work, and we called our professor to complain about it, he hung up on us. You know, it was just pretty much way old school all around.
One designer in my class, Wendy Miller, had the presence of mind to video tape the show - she actually set up a camera in the back of the room and shot it and then handed everyone in the class a VHS tape. The result was considered nothing short of fantastically awesome at the time, and is now viewed as basically a hot mushy mess by today's hi-def standards. But, nonetheless, I love this little relic. The music alone makes me smile. Especially because we eventually chopped up our films and put the pieces into our physical and ginormous portfolios (that we CARRIED AROUND BY HAND AND SHOWED TO PEOPLE IN PERSON). So, they no longer exist. Except in this time-capsule format.
Anyway, it's quite long, and quite dark. But I know a few people who will delight in it (and feel a bit of dismay over it) just as much as I do.
Ladies and Gentlemen, without further adieu, presenting: FILM FOLLIES 1991. Enjoy.