The Substance8 Sep 2025

184: Physical Media, Local Theater Communities, and the Future of Filmmaking feat. Jeff Rauseo

When Netflix first expanded from being a mail order DVD/Blu-ray service to starting a streaming video service, it was revolutionary. They had top creators making movies and television series and had a wonderfully full library of titles to offer. Then Amazon Prime, Hulu, AMC+, Disney+, Paramount+, Peacock, the many variations of HBO, and more came and the selections of any single given service was severely diminished (Tubi & Kanopy, we love you! Sponsor the show 😉). With costs going up and our collective attention spans diminishing, this is not a recipe for a thriving culture. It's also not a sustainable business model.

To talk about these topics and more, we are joined today by Jeff Rauseo. Jeff is a content creator in the film community who is a passionate advocate of physical media and has written the new book Lost in the Stream: How Algorithms Redefined the Way Movies Are Made and Watched.

In our conversation we discuss:

Early memories of physical media
Video store culture (Blockbuster, etc)
Seeing Jaws at formative ages
The theatrical life of a movie now vs. when we were younger
How great dollar theaters were
Studios now making disposable content
The 2,000 some local theaters lost during COVID

How repertoire cinema and local film communities will be the way forward

And MORE!

If you enjoy the show, please consider following on your platform of choice and sharing it with a friend!

Buy Lost in the Stream

Shoutotus:

Andor (Disney+)

Bring Her Back

Snipe Hunter (Tyler Childers)

The Black Parade (My Chemical Romance)

Full Moon set

Follow Jeff:

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Philip's Letterboxd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠BlueSky⁠⁠⁠⁠

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