A Tale of Videotapes and Early Tech Entrepreneurship

This narrative, a "Ranko Marinković" short story and a consistent feature of Večernji list since 1964, delves into the life of Zdenko, a man whose passion for cinema led him to become an early entrepreneur in the burgeoning home video market. If betting shops had existed in his town in the early 1980s, Zdenko would have been a likely favorite to open the first video rental store, given his status as a devoted cinephile who rarely missed a movie screening.

His connection to the film world deepened when he appeared as an extra in the movie "Tko pjeva zlo ne misli" (Who Sings Evil Doesn't Think) during his university years. This experience, however brief, cemented his reputation as a film authority, a walking encyclopedia consulted for any film-related bets. His wife, Ines, whom he met at a cinema, shared his passion, making their decision to open the town's first video rental store in the autumn of 1984 a natural progression.

The business flourished, coinciding with the market introduction of VCRs and a time when "copyright protection" was a largely unknown concept. While Ines charmed customers with movie recommendations and discussions, Zdenko tirelessly duplicated new releases, ensuring rapid availability. The film "Back to the Future" held the record, being copied an astonishing 97 times in a single week.

Seeking to bridge his technical involvement with his artistic inclinations, Zdenko purchased a high-end Panasonic video camera during a trip to Austria. This investment fueled new business ideas, leading to the expansion of the video store's services to include recording various family events such as weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries. Wedding recordings proved particularly lucrative, driven by a desire among neighbors to showcase their celebrations with professional video documentation, a novelty that often generated more envy than larger, unrecorded gatherings.