Finishing off my collection

Okay, so I'm more than a little aware of how this is potentially of no interest to anybody but me, but I thought I'd write about it anyway. I'm finishing off my DVD/Blu-ray collection. Now I don't mean that my collection is almost complete and I'm no longer adding to it. That'd be stupid for a film enthusiast. After all, it's not really a collection is it? I'm not going into shops and grabbing all the titles that I don't have. Unfortunately, can't think of a better, more appropriate word so forgive me for being a massive hypocrite throughout the remainder of this post.

Anyway, before I get sidetracked, I'll crack on. As I was saying, I'm not a collector, I just buy the films I like or need to watch. As my interest has grown, unfortunately so has my collection. While I was in university studying films and such, I started buying each and every film mentioned on my course, in Total Film, that I'd seen in the cinema. Before long, the amount of DVDs I had went from around 50 (which at one point when bored in work, I could name off the top of my head) to somewhere in the region of 2000 (which, I'm sure you can appreciate, I could not name). As the course went on, I bought more and more films and kept the discs in a folder while I sent the cases home to my long suffering parents to store. As such, I had a couple of folders rammed with discs and was blissfully unaware of how many cases were filling up my parents' massive attic. Naturally, they suggested I rein in the amount of films I purchase. Suffice to say, I did not concur. 

This addiction was exacerbated by a number of things:
1. I'd always bought videos as a kid. I used to save pocket money to buy those vids that I really wanted. Once I started earning, I could buy them to my heart's content as long as I could afford them. Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Give a man a fishing rod...and he'll single handedly keep HMV in business.

2. My course and my ambitions of film journalism were also a factor in that I wanted to be taken seriously and so bought everything covered on the course that would give my film collection some kudos for when I landed that dream job. 

3. I was dating a girl who had an equally nutty interest in movies. Any time a new genre tickled one of our fancies, the other one would be dragged into it too. As we were both film students, this happened a lot.

4. I'm pretty sure I have some sort of filmic OCD - which is AWESOME! Now I don't mean I have to open and close the disc drive 19 times before hitting play, I mean that I get hooked on a genre and have to get stuck right into it. I get an idea into my head and I have to check it out. For example, when I noticed that a character from Friends originated in Mad About You, I was stunned that Friends was technically, technically a spin-off...of sorts...kind of. Anyway, I got pretty obsessed with the idea of 'Filmic Worlds' (again thanks to my course) and so have been buying films and other tenuously linked titles as long as there's a suggestion that they're set in the same universe. As such, I'm one of about two people to buy the "American Pie Presents" films when they haven't been bundled into a box set. As you can see, it borders on a serious problem.

5. DVD cases are thinner than videos - as such, I stupidly figured they simply wouldn't take up space!

6. I got a ton of DVDs when I worked at DVD Monthly. On a monthly basis, I'd take home aroung 30 finished copies of the latest films. It's one of the main reasons why being a film journo is so great. 

Anyway, I finish university and move home for a few months and see the scale of my obsession with DVD for the first time. It wasn't pretty (in terms of space at least). I move to Exeter, set up my collection for all to see aaaand 'bollocks'...there's not enough room and I have to stack them two deep. Obviously, this is no good because a) I'd like to be able to see all of my films and b) It's proof that I have way too many.

So a while back I decided to get rid of them. Not all of them, just the ones that I don't desperately want to keep. The problem was that I'd bought so many of them that I hadn't bothered watching a load of them yet. I therefore decided I'd watch the lot before I purge my collection. Of course, the problem is that I'd get distracted by other stuff - socialising, Ultimate Frisbee, squash, games, the usual. As such, a few months ago I decided to watch nothing but the discs that hadn't graced my player yet. There were a lot - especially as I continued buying titles.

A few months down the line and I've watched almost a hundred titles that I hadn't got around to viewing. I now have just a handful of things left: The Godfather Trilogy, Planet of the Apes boxset, the Hitchcock collection to name a few. Don't get me wrong, I don't intend to sell those particular films, I just need to get through the whole collection.
 
Anyway it's definitely the home stretch as my goal is finally in sight. So I figured I'd try and write something about each of them before I sell off a load of titles and spend the money on yet more Blu-rays. These may not be a particularly fun read, but there's every chance they might spin some gold from my noggin. I am incredible after all.