Video Vending
Need a quick video of yourself and there's not a camcorder in
sight? Soon you can go to the nearest mall, slip into a
3-foot-by-6-foot booth, pop in $5-10, and make a 10-minute videotape
starring you. The 30 Short Take booths recently tested (most in
Minneapolis shopping centers and movie theaters) have done so well
that entrepreneur Bruce Goldstein is now trying them in maternity
wards. Goldstein says most folks use the booths to make video
letters. ''On Valentine's Day, we couldn't get tapes to the booths
fast enough,'' he says. There is a downside: A few unfortunate souls
have received Dear John videos.
Glasnost on Tape
If you missed the ballyhooed Glasnost Film Festival — 22 new Soviet
documentaries — that toured the U.S. last year, the films are available
on video from The Video Project, a nonprofit distributor of
issue-oriented video. The films are packaged on 12 tapes ($59.95 each
or $575 for all). A preview tape with clips from each is free (call
415-655-9050).
Animated Reaction
When consumer research on The Little Mermaid turned up the highest
''intent-to-purchase'' scores of any movie in Disney history, the
company's video execs * started counting clams. Mermaid, unlike
Disney's longtime video holdouts, including Fantasia and Snow White,
is set to go straight from theaters to video stores on May 18.
Meanwhile, Disney is dusting off its print of Fantasia for a 50th
anniversary theatrical release in October, but says there are still
no plans to release it on video.
Four-Chalice Review
Bernadette, out this week from Cannon Video ($79.95, PG),
wasn't in theaters long, but it did get a rave review from a very
important critic — no, not Gene Shalit. After members of the Vatican
screened Jean Delannoy's film, which stars Sydney Penny (Pale Rider)
as the girl who has visions of the Virgin Mary, Cannon received a
letter from them praising it as ''a very moving
story'' that worked ''without becoming saccharine.''
Variety, however, called it ''plodding'' and ''artless.''
