Silver Screen's Berton Stays in Pictures

Greg Berton is the manager of Silver Screen Video on Miller Ave., and has been with the local video chain for the past 12 years. Originally from Davis, Calif., the 46-year-old Berton lives in Fairfax, works in Mill Valley, and has a surprising linguistic talent. We caught up with Greg in Silver Screen on a quiet morning to discuss his business and working in Mill Valley:

Mill Valley Patch: What brought you to Mill Valley from Davis?
Greg Berton: Actually, in a roundabout way, I moved back to California after living and teaching English in Japan for several years.  When I first came back, I ended up in Petaluma, then San Rafael, and eventually, I ended up here in Mill Valley. I have been with Silver Screen for 12 years, split between the stores.

MVP: What drew you into the movie rental business?
GB: I love film, and I actually like the whole customer service aspect of working here in the store. I like people and talking to them. We have a wonderful group of clients here who make work generally quite enjoyable.

MVP: Aside from watching movies, do you partake in other parts of the filmmaking process?
GB: I am more of just a film fan. I entertain notions of writing a screenplay one day, bu, for right now, I’m just an observer.

MVP: Considering the competition nowadays – whether it's from Netflix, Redbox, streaming videos online, other video stores – how is business doing for Silver Screen now, and how does it compare to the owners’ expectations?
GB: It’s tough for these small, independent video stores to survive these days. In the early days, the video stores had the whole pie.  And now the pie has been divided into a lot of different slices. Our goal is just to not get too thin of a slice. The Silver Screen owners are pretty savvy and we have been able to roll with the punches, doing what we need to compete. This is the last video store in Southern Marin, so obviously they are doing something right.

MVP: What sort of business techniques have they implemented to ensure that 'piece of the pie'?
GB: Competitive pricing, selling off a lot of movies. We get a lot initially while the demand is high, and when the demand dips, we sell them off to get a portion of the income back – specials on sales and rentals. Whatever it takes to make a price point acceptable to the customers. Plus, a lot of people get frustrated with Netflix because their queue is long, and there are long waits on films, especially on new releases. The other thing with the Netflix business model is that people get tired of having to decide in advance what they want to watch. It’s kind of like trying to decide what you want to eat three days in advance. People like coming down here, browsing the covers, talking to people about their selections.

MVP: What’s your favorite things about Mill Valley?
GB: I like the European feel of the downtown square area with everyone hanging out, and playing music, playing chess, kids running around. Pretty friendly people here too.

MVP: If you could change one thing about Mill Valley, what would it be?
GB: The seven-days a week parking meters downtown.

MVP: If someone walked in and asked you to recommend three movies of any kind, which would you name?
GB: Oh Brother Where Art Thou? The Blues Brothers… man, there are so many good ones [laughter], and Wings of Desire.

MVP: Do you have any other hobbies, aside from watching movies?
GB: I am in two bands – Lucky Fin, a Mill Valley band that is more rock based and we perform around town, and Deep Bench with some guys over in the East Bay and it’s a blues band.

MVP: When you are setting in to watch a movie, do you have a movie ritual?
GB: I think the room lighting is important – some background, muted lighting, but no direct lighting, especially since I have a small TV [laughter] – and a lack of distractions is important, so maybe turn off the phone and give yourself that two-hour window to focus.              

MVP: Is there anything that people who come into this store would be surprised to know about you?
GB: I speak Japanese. People will come in sometimes, and I will be speaking Japanese and they definitely flip out.

MVP: If you were conducting this interview, what question would you ask yourself and how would you answer it?
GB: I would ask more about the store’s stock, and what sets it apart from a Blockbuster, for instance. The answer is that we don’t have a huge store here, but we have a ton of interesting stuff. We fit a lot of movies on the shelves. We have a couple of sections that I am pretty proud of. The DVD Spotlight section has recommendations, rare films, foreign films, films that just came out but are hard to find and staff favorites. We also have the Criterion Collection, which is a re-mastered version of a classic film with special features. You're not going to find sections like those at a Blockbuster or a Hollywood Video. 

MVP: Tell me a funny, PG story of something that has happened in this store?
GB: It never ceases to amaze me what we get in our in-store movie drop slot. Anything from Netflix DVDs in there red envelope, people have put US mail in there - even library books.

MVP: What is the largest overdue fee you have had to charge someone?
GB: We really try to work with people who have large overdue balances especially where it is on a movie that has been overdue for a long time. If it’s a seven-day movie, and you bring it back 300-days late, and it’s a $1 late fee per day, I’ll probably only charge the person $10. We’re reasonable here. That is something you don’t see from the bigger companies.