adding authentic distortion with a tweezer

This film was originally shot with a 100 mm macro lens on a canon 650D, the footage was then edited and recorded to VHS. The Tape was then played with the VCR's top cover taken off, I used tweezers to hold the tape at certain points to produce the glitches you see in the video.

The Film is influenced by Nostalgic memories that I have of the VHS cassette, it highlights the malfunctions and problems that the format is known for today.

Original footage

Effects added by using a tweezer

I feel this is a much better way of creating distortion than adding it in After Effects, at least this way i'm affecting the actual tape

Testing

Experimenting with tapes

I began experimenting with my old VHS player and cassettes, just seeing how i could manipulate the audio and visuals of the tape.

 This Piece has been created by recording the master copy to a different VHS cassette and then re-recording the same footage back again. It is basically a copy of a copy but 20 times over. It is a wonderful example of analogue decay.

more experimenting

An experimental tape created by cutting up other old VHS movies and splicing segments of the film together by hand.

Opening up the VCR

two of the tapes that have been cut and spliced together, these are the types of things to cause distortion to the video

I opened up the VCR player, just so i could see all the mechanics working, i found it quite intriguing actually. Being able to see the tape being run also means i can tamper with it whilst its running.

VHS effect

I found this video which teaches you how to add VHS effects to a digital video, although it is effective, I feel this is cheating and kind of misses the point of the idea. I want  genuine distortion, something that is organic, not added in post.