Introduction
One cannot underestimate the significance that the video rental shop had for those who grew up in the 1980s and early 1990s. After numerous discussions between the authors about the role of the video shop in our own lives and the decline of the independent video rental industry, we decided to undertake a research project called Video Cultures. Started in July 2010, the main purpose of the project is to collect the memories of those who value the video shop as a key part of their lives and collate materials from the era such as video cover art and promotional ephemera. Whilst it is too early to draw any significant conclusions from the material gathered to date, this article outlines the early stages of the Video Cultures project and includes some of the multimedia content that we have received thus far. It concludes with a short case study that focuses on an interview we conducted with a VHS collector.