Building a Dream VHS Store in Your Basement: The Story of Mondo Video (Photos)
I’ve loved movies as long as I can remember. I’m the kinda guy who would pause Home Alone 2 and order “a lovely cheese pizza just for me!” and eat it during the same time Macaulay Culkin ate his in order to have a sort of 4D experience. In 2004, I commissioned one of my best friends to create a 360-degree Goonies mural on the bedroom walls of my apartment. Shortly thereafter, I bought a Black Jeep Cherokee and replicated The Fratellis’ getaway car from the film with “BULLET HOLES THE SIZE O’ MATZAH BALLS!” written on the back. A fascination of getting as close to movies as possible by using artistry and fabrication has been an ongoing thing in my life.
Then, in 2017, we moved to Woodstock, Georgia. Growing up on the West Coast, we didn’t really have basements, so it was important that our new house in Woodstock have one so I could use it as a creative workspace. I looked at the opportunity as a blank canvas to create something fun that would inspire me daily as a writer/director of my own projects and an animator for South Park; but the million-dollar question was: Create what, exactly? There are seven rooms in the basement and I knew that certain areas needed to be functional: a production office, a gym and a home theater. I kept having trouble figuring out what to do with the main room, initially thinking I’d use it as a movie prop area. I then pivoted to wanting to replicate the Haunted Mansion in that space. When I got the idea to build an actual video store, it sounded like the most fun idea ever for the basement.
Courtesy Anthony Sant’Anselmo of Mondo Video
A lot of my earlier movie memories stemmed from the independent Mom & Pop video shops that existed pre-Blockbuster Video. No two looked alike, they all celebrated cinema, and there was always someone who knew something about the film you wanted to rent, no matter the genre. The plan was to treat the build as if I were creating a movie set and really lean into the visual side of it; that way, my kids would know what a video store was kind of like and I could also use it as a working set for my own film and video projects, ‘80s tribute social media accounts and a weekly movie podcast (because there’s just not enough movie podcasts already on YouTube!) Not to mention gatherings and general movie nights would be fun. I wish I had footage of when I shared my glorious plans with my wife Fabienne. Suffice it to say, she was supportive, with maybe a slight eye-roll.
Okay, this is probably the part where I cram in over five years of building into a montage (cue super-rad ‘80s song: “Push it to the Limit” to pump up the underdog!).
In the summer of 2018, I started sketching the floor plan of my dream ‘80s video store. The idea was to utilize the wall space for shelving and have standing aisle racks in the center of the room for the VHS tapes (remember those plastic slabs?). I asked myself: What about the ‘80s did I love? What about those old video stores did I miss? How could I merge my personality into the build so that it’s more meaningful to me? I surveyed my collection of tapes and knew that I needed more to flesh out the store. I went to the local Goodwills and thrift shops, checked Craigslist, eBay, and VHS social media groups, and chose films that I loved, liked or hadn’t yet seen; that way, it was more of a curated collection and not just random movie stock for filler.
Courtesy Anthony Sant’Anselmo of Mondo Video
I ripped out the blonde carpet from the four carpeted rooms and prepped it for flooring. Choosing checkered flooring was the easy part, as I wanted a certain energy to the video store, and as a lifelong Ska fan, two-tone checkers was the vibe I was looking for. These were peel ‘n stick tiles, but I also used flooring adhesive to slather on the concrete so it really became part of the floor; which just made things trickier (and stickier)! The singlehandedly most tedious point of the project was the custom cutting of trim for the room’s perimeter, but piece-by-piece, failure-by-failure, I got through it. Once the main room and small hallway were done (with red saloon doors for the uber-cheesy, ADULTS ONLY movie section in the hallway), I swore I’d NEVER lay tile again, so long as I lived; much respect for those that do it for a living or have a knack for it.
Courtesy Anthony Sant’Anselmo of Mondo Video
Thankfully, I scored wire movie racks and grid walls from a discount store in Douglasville, GA, as they were closing down. I had blue painter’s tape methodically placed on the floors and walls for where I visualized things: the shelves, the counter, future posters, etc. That was key to seeing the project through, as I’d rip off the tape when I acquired certain items to replace it with. Once I installed the wire shelving, it was much easier to see it as a “shop.” Initially, I had a kid’s shelf on one of the racks, but felt I couldn’t really celebrate it since they were just bookended tapes. That’s when the mud room was absorbed and 100% dedicated to kids movies, ’80s toys, posters and more. It was a chance for me to build a shrine to the movies I loved growing up and introduce these gems to my own kids. (Remember when I said I’d never lay flooring again?) Of course, I couldn’t allow the main video store’s checkered flooring to just stop at the threshold of Mondo Kideo! So, the flooring nightmare began again, but I got better at it as I went. Then I was done with flooring forevermore. Since I wanted to have theatrical-sized movie posters in this room, the shelving had to be custom for the available space and afterward had to be painted (big shout-out to the Home Depot paint department, as I must’ve visited over fifty times with various paint orders…)
Courtesy Anthony Sant’Anselmo of Mondo Video
I painfully poured over every detail and inch of this project in an obsession to reach my goal. Moving to a state where you don’t know anyone really frees up your evenings and weekends. After the faux-brick paneling was installed down the stairwell and into the video store, I distressed it to appear aged (and most importantly, to appear as real bricks). Since my intention was for visitors to feel like they’re descending down back-alley stairs under the night sky and into a hidden video store shop, it was important for me to treat the bricks as if they had been weather-beaten for years. As you step into the shop, the bricks show less age due to being sheltered.
Courtesy Anthony Sant’Anselmo of Mondo Video
Painting various bricks in different colors, smearing plaster here and there, hand-squeezing mortar in between every brick; one could go on forever giving it little touches, and I kind of did. The whole “aging” process took a few months from pristine brick paneling to the state it’s at now. It was seemingly never-ending, but I focused on details and never cut corners to finish. \I have plans to add a projector for that starry night above as one goes down the stairwell, complete with an audio speaker that plays ambient city sounds. Ultimately, I’d like to have a talented graffiti artist spice up a couple areas on the brick walls to really bring that outside aesthetic home; but where does one draw the line? In the words of Ferris Bueller: “You can never go too far!”
Courtesy Anthony Sant’Anselmo of Mondo Video
Once 2020 hit, I started working remotely from home, so the video store build continued! As the project was inching into other rooms, the home gym couldn’t just be a gym, of course: it had to be an ‘80s gym! In all the neon, dayglo glory that the ‘80s brought us.
In this section, we celebrate the workout craze: WWF Wrestling, skateboard films, beach movies, sports and martial arts.
Our basement kitchen had hardwood laminate flooring that I ripped out. Yeah, I laid more checkered tiles… Glutton for punishment, I guess. The kitchen area is a fun one, as it houses all the food-related movies with sections like Comfort Food (titles like Hamburger: The Motion Picture and Hot Dog: The Movie!) to everyone’s favorite: the Culinary Horror section. During the build, I was showing Genevieve DeMars (lifelong friend and brilliant writer/producer in Atlanta) my progress and plans to have the Culinary Horror movie section. When I said movies like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes would be proudly displayed in this area, etc., she handed me a writing assignment: to write the reboot to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes she was producing. I couldn’t believe it. I was so honored.
Nonetheless, lots of cheesy movies in that section from yesteryear, pun intended. The diner-like checkered flooring doesn’t hurt, either. To top it off, I felt it was important to create a secret Big Box VHS bookshelf door to enclose that area.
Courtesy Anthony Sant’Anselmo of Mondo Video
I knew that if I kept moving this train on the track, that it would eventually be done — or at least done enough for family and friends to enjoy. I searched high and low and finally found the proper bright neon lighting to outline the shop as if it was straight outta Tron or Blade Runner. There are plans to drop similar lighting in the gym and kitchen, as you can never have enough neon, in my opinion.
Courtesy Anthony Sant’Anselmo of Mondo Video
As the shop was coming together, I naturally needed genre signs for each section: Comedy, Drama, Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Special Interest, etc., so had those produced at our local print shop. For Mondo Video’s logo, I asked myself what kind of video store could even compete in today’s streaming world? So I designed a sort of pizza delivery girl on a Pee-Wee Herman-inspired Vespa scooter delivering VHS rentals in 30 minutes or less. My good friend Andy Bernet back in Los Angeles brilliantly did the illustration of my sketch, and now the large, color Mondo Video! logo sign hangs proudly behind the employee counter.
Courtesy Anthony Sant’Anselmo of Mondo Video
Over the course of the build, I certainly lost a lot of sleep, probably put my health in jeopardy by overextending myself and many-a-times could be found on the floor painting quarter-round trim. There isn’t one section of this basement project that I didn’t alter in some way. Fabienne calls it “One More Thing Video!” since I’m never really done with the place. It’s kinda weird, however, to head downstairs in the basement every morning, flip on lights, and see a functional video store from the ‘80s just staring at me in my house. On one hand, proving to myself that I could pull off a challenging goal is rewarding after sticking with it for so long; on the other, it’s hard to stop and smell the roses, as I sort of miss the build. Once I revealed this project online, I didn’t anticipate the level of responses I would receive and it has been pretty surreal.
Courtesy Anthony Sant’Anselmo of Mondo Video
I’ve received questions asking what the operating hours are. It’s not a real store, but every now and again, I will give a tour. We do, however, sometimes offer the set locally on Peerspace and Giggster for short term day rentals if someone wants to shoot a music video or host a small party.
So for anyone who has a basement that is not being used to its full potential, just ask yourself: what would your dream basement look like? It’s a blank slate to create something cool that inspires you daily, so make it count.
PS: For anyone who wishes to donate their old physical media: VHS, Beta, CED’s, Laserdiscs or VCR’s, I’d love to give them a forever home here. A friend of mine calls Mondo Video! a “no-kill shelter for VHS.” And for any local actors, producers or camera crew, if you’d like to link-up on some projects and make some fun stuff here in the video store together, let me know!
Anthony Sant’Anselmo grew up in Los Angeles, CA, with a love for movies (and making cheesy horror/comedy short films with friends.) His father is co-creator of the ’80s toy Teddy Ruxpin and would take him to his office on weekends, where Anthony discovered his love of writing. Anthony works as a South Park animator, writer/director (and now a video “store” operator). He lives with his wife, Fabienne, and their three boys and dogs.
1980s Top Summer Blockbusters
July 2019
Celebrate the biggest summer movies of the ’80s, when moviegoing morphed from mere entertainment to blockbuster events.
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