One of the nicest ways of distributing underground video is to dub them on the end of hired tapes.
You've just finished the all time classic peacenik cutup inversion of Rambo and would like to get it out to some folks who need to see it. Just get on down to your local vidmart and hire the most popular tape of the genre you're detourning (technique has added impact if your cutup comes from the same movie). Watch the video whilst dubbing it off. Take notes with times where useful scenes occur for further mulching into the cutup compost. Dub your fab vid thing onto the end of the tape. Rewind and return tape with the nice little surprise at the end.
This method of distribution has distinct advantages; *It is done by the maker, and doesn't rely on any middlemediators like video festival bureaucrats or cringing TV producers to get the tape out to 'the people'. *It's 'illegal', and therefore I'd advise keeping a fairly low profile - like don't put your contact address at the end. This forced anonymity brings with it the freedom from the cult of the creator. You're obviously not doing it for self aggrandisement and so the viewer can simply enjoy the tape for what it is. It comes at them level and direct, not as art by artists. *There's no money involved. It's a surprise gift from the maker to the viewer an consequently free from commodity problems. This can help get a more critical view point across to a sceptical audience, they've not bought the experience and so expect nothing from it. *The viewer is in control of the tape. They can stop, review, copy or erase it. Again, this more equitable relationship between maker and viewer can help to get ideas flowing. Freeing both from art baggage.
Once we put a bit of sticky tape over the record safe hole on the hired tape it can be very tempting to actually dub into the middle of the movie itself, but we would advise against it. Be respectful of your audience at all times. They may hold positions that you wish to criticise, but they are the other end of the communication loop. You've seized the media, snuck on stage at the spectacle, and have their attention. Once they close their mind to your message, the tactical advantage of the moment of surprise is gone. Also by dubbing at the end of the tape you're not actually interfering with the property of the video hirer, and so are more likely to get away with it. Remember the shop has a computer record of who hired the tape.
If you have two VCRs always plugged into each other ready for cutup you can easily do this to every movie you get out. It would probably be advisable to hire from a number of stores and rotate your end dubbing activities to avoid setting up easy patterns for them to trace through their data bases. Don't be too discouraged, this info would probably get trashed on a regular basis, we can't see them holding more than a three month backlog of info. And we have never heard of anyone getting busted for this sort of fun and friendly media activism.
Pretty soon you'll hire a tape and find a cutup surprise already at the end of it. JOY!
Nefarious Artists dub them on the end of hired tapes.