By: Erin
Posted: November 23, 2023
EMN Home Video is a catch-all name I give to projects involving the creation of physical media. It all started when I was buying as many versions of the Twilight series as I could for one of my best friends, Alyssa. It was her birthday and she enjoys the movie series, and of course, what’s better than one copy of a movie? That’s right – every possible copy of a movie! I raided all the thrift stores in the area. It was the kind of absurd dedication I thought she’d also find funny. Along the way I said to myself “Why not hop on eBay and grab a VHS copy, too?” Well, I was a fool, because no VHS copy existed! Undaunted, I decided to do something absolutely ridiculous, and that was make it my own damn self! I grabbed a copy of Little Giants from Goodwill, ripped the insert out, and got to measuring and designing a new clamshell cover. I even recorded the movie onto the tape using one of the DVD copies, first recording a custom intro bumper to make it as official as possible:
The cover design was inspired by an actual VHS copy of Evita that my parents used to own until I stole it from them. I took the first sentence and general tone of the back copy, mostly because I thought applying that first sentence to literally any other movie made it funny. It was actually a really fun little creative exercise, trying to figure out how it cited reviews and other films in the marketing, and visually how it was all laid out. I had to create the entire cast and crew list at the bottom from scratch!
My second crack at this was for Alyssa’s wife and one of my other best friends, Kris, who loves Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark Side of Dimensions. I originally made a clamshell case, which you can see in the gallery, but I created a second cardboard sleeve-style case just in case because those are my favorite. I don’t have a picture of it assembled, but it turned out great, so if I make more tapes in the future I’m definitely going to stick with the cardstock style. I was inspired by the actual Kids WB home video releases of Yu-Gi-Oh for this, and you’d better believe that second release had trailers complete with a custom pre-roll bumper!
From there I went on to make a few custom DVD cases. First, a custom NTSC DVD release of the Sound Horizon concert Roman for Alyssa’s 30th birthday, so chosen because it was the first Revo concert she shared with Mandy and I and Mandy especially thought it would be sweet and sentimental as well as practical since it’d make it easy to watch. Next, Criterion-style cases for the movies Ace Attorney and Antiporno, because neither have had US Region A physical releases and I wanted them on my shelf. Maybe one day they’ll get real Criterion releases, in which case they should totally hire me for the cover design! Or at least they should for Ace Attorney! I spent a really long time on that newspaper-inspired cover!
Oh, and I made a custom label for a bootleg DVD of the Sonic The Hedgehog OVA, because while I love my VHS copy I know there’s no way I’ll be able to afford a legitimate DVD of it any time soon and I wanted it on my shelf as well.