Rob Taylor Talks VIDEO HOARDERS Season 3 Ahead Of March Release
VIDEO HOARDERS is set to return from March 18 with the all-new Season 3, that has series creator, director and host Rob Taylor venture all the way to North America to check out the wild hoards of Canuck collectors.
We caught up with Rob ahead of the series return to ask a few questions about this season and the future of VIDEO HOARDERS.
With the first two seasons of VIDEO HOARDERS being shot around Australia, what lead to the call to shoot the third season abroad?
That’s a good question! I guess the main reason was to shake things up a bit and give VIDEO HOARDERS fans a look at a different demographic. We’d also made a lot of fans in North America, so I thought it’d be great to do a series there and give Americans a taste of the show in their own backyard.
Were there any key differences between Aussie collectors and those of the Great White North?
The VHS aesthetic is different, no doubt about that, with a lot less clamshells than here is Australia. For the most part, Canadian and US tapes are the same, with the exception of a couple of specific Canadian labels. The biggest difference is the sheer number of films released there that were never released over here, so to see and physically hold these treasures, particularly those tapes that are unbelievably rare, was an unforgettable experience.
What challenges did you face shooting this third season in Canada?
It was a crammed schedule across Ontario and Quebec over two weeks, where I was able to shoot 5 different collections and Shock Stock in London, OT. Some planned shoots fell through, while we gained others by networking during the trip. There was a lot of flooding in the Ottawa region but for the most part it was smooth sailing. I had a great crew that helped me shoot the material on the fly where they were able. Most of it was guerrilla style filmmaking. We used anything that had a lens and got some great footage during wild tape hunts that made the cut.
What’s your favourite memory of shooting this season?
Well, after the release of Series 1 in 2017, I was contacted by a guy in Toronto who said he really loved the show. We got talking and I soon discovered he was Rob Gabriele – the drummer for my favourite childhood band, Green Jelly. We became really close friends online for a couple of years and we always talked about getting him on the show. So when the opportunity presented itself, I made contact with his wife, Kate, and we arranged a surprise meeting with him. That was a pretty difficult arrangement because Kate said when he’s at home he never wears any pants, and of course we wanted to film his immediate surprise reaction as part of the show (preferably with pants on) so we had to come up with a scenario where I could meet him outside of the house in a convenience store. He had no idea I was coming or that I was even in the country and it was such a surprise for him. To finally meet a good friend I’d made online across the other side of the world after 2 years was surreal.
That’s a memory I’ll always cherish. They were so friendly, accommodating and trusting of someone they’d never met in person before. I was so appreciative of that. I’ve been very fortunate to make good friends and share experiences with amazing and passionate people while shooting Video Hoarders. It fills my heart with joy and it’s something I’ll never take for granted.
This season is notably shorter than the previous two, was there intention to shoot more and did the pandemic play a part in preventing that?
Besides a small portion of the crowd funding left over from Season 2, the entire Season 3 shoot was self-funded. So that obviously had an impact on how much time I could spend over there and I sold half of my own VHS collection to cover the costs. I planned to return to the southern states of the US later in 2020 to shoot more for Season 3 but the pandemic put a halt to that. So I extended the Canadian episodes so that Season 3 is still a decent chunk of 80 minutes running time.
How likely are we to see a fourth season of VIDEO HOARDERS?
There’s a high probably of seeing more VIDEO HOARDERS, however, it is an independently-made production and doing all the post-production on my own in my spare time is time consuming and exhausting, hence why the series takes a lot of time to complete and reach our audience. I’ve been very fortunate to have some help from the lads at Monster Pictures with the production and getting the series out there. I think it’s a great series that explores passion and joy that films can bring us and I think I’ll always share that passion, thus the series will always have a possibility to continue. Hopefully I get a chance to get back to the US to continue what I started and bring Jarret and Ben (Season 1 & Season 2) with me. I’ll always be one determined SOB, so if it’s on my radar, I’ll make it happen.
Finally, post-production aside, what have you been up to since wrapping shooting on this third season?
I moved to the country and opened my own tattoo studio called Tattoo Hoarders in Gippsland, Victoria. So I’ve been focusing on that with VIDEO HOARDERS in-between. I also bought a van and converted it into a camper that I was going to use to travel the country and shoot more VIDEO HOARDERS but the pandemic put a stop to that as well, with not being able to travel between states. All in all I’ve just been working my ass off waiting for the pandemic to pass so I can do what I love the most – travel.
