Category — Analog

Best Week Ever’s Michelle Collins wonderfully reminded me of this gem from 1995, Johnny Mnemonic based on the sci-fi novel by William Gibson.

It boggles my mind that she missed it in theaters! I was too young at the time to see it alone, it being rated R and all. I begged my older brother to take me (i.e. buy two tickets, walk me in and then leave) and being the cool guy that he is, he agreed.

The movie needless to say did not blow me away. But I liked it enough to buy it used on VHS in all it’s orange neon cassette tape glory. Keanu was a tad whiny and basically just made faces like his head hurt the whole time. The main reason I wanted to see it was for Henry Rollins (he’s the man, btw) and I thought the soundtrack was cool (Stabbing Westward, KMFDM, God Lives Underwater! So rad). Hey, I was in a industrial music phase at the time. Plus, it was junior high, everyone goes through one, right?

Watching the movie now though, you gotta laugh at how “high tech” the world was supposed to have become. Apparently in 2021, the internet will be done through virtual reality headsets and sensitive data will be shipped via human brain couriers (ergo, Johnny’s/Keanu’s head). Totally plausible, right? Not to mention, street gangs (i.e. the Lo-Teks, who are led by Ice-T) can hack into the television networks and broadcast video messages they make on their analog camcorders. Oh, and they’ve got an ex-navy seal/dolphin at their disposal to perform said hacks. Hahahaha, science fiction can get pretty silly sometimes.

Still, if you want a funny, unrealistic movie involving computers from the 90s (and you’ve already worn yourself out on Hackers), you should really check Johnny Mnemonic out.

Find 50 screenshots from the film at BWE that prove this movie is awesomely bad. All my favorites are of Dolph Lundren aka Jesus and Udo Keir.

It seems like these days almost everything is caught on tape. Anyone can buy camcorders online or in a Wal-Mart at the very least. This means that ordinary people can unknowingly capture controversial news. And the news stations will run their tape if it’s something controversial. Or at the very least, it will show up on somebody’s website. Then, it can go viral and be virtually everywhere instantly.

At theme parks, camcorders are abundant. And apparently, this father was trying to film a family moment.

The cameraman (father) claims that this employee (Tigger) assaulted his son. To me it looks like the Tigger was falling backward and hit the kid by accident. The father happened to get this all on tape. And now Disneyworld has to offer damages and discipline their employee.

If there wasn’t a tape, I’m sure the situation would not have escalated to this point. But now the father gave his tape to the local news. And that’s bad publicity for Disney. Thus, the camcorder helped strengthened the father’s claim. It’s hard to argue with a tape. It’s much easier to deal with a customer issue without photographic evidence. Because obviously the father interprets the situation in his own way while the employee has another pov. Nevertheless, it looks bad on tape. Sucks for Disney. It’s already international news.

If you’re into suing companies with no real claim, or you just roll like that. You can pick up a Sony CCD-TRV138 Hi8 Camcorder for real cheap. It’s a Hi8 camera, but it’ll do the trick. It worked for this guy.

I don’t know if anyone still uses hi 8 camcorders. They used to kinda be a big deal. Just like VHS used to be more widely used. Hi8 is also known as Video 8, so as not to be confused with it’s predecessor, Digital 8. These are analog based technology camcorders, not digital ones.

Today, the world is all about digital information & image capture now.

You still have to use tapes with most digital camcorders, but at least they’re a lot smaller now. I do still see Hi8 tapes sold in stores, but on that same note, there are still blank VHS tapes being sold. I suppose the format won’t die out completely for awhile. The Hi8 cameras themselves, don’t look all that different from the newer format cameras.

I was looking at user reviews for the Hi8 camcorders, and the most recent ones were from like 2003! It seems that most people have gone the digital camcorder route. I know I will. I’m not crazy. I wonder how many electronic devices are trash now: old VCRs, laserdisc players (!), cassette players, even cd walkmans seem passe in urban areas. It kind of sad when you think about it. But if the technology and the world evolves, you gotta upgrade to keep up with them.