Alongside research work undertaken for Channel 4, '33' began the installation of community-based video and film equipment and editing facilities. The work (led by Dermot Byrne, Gary Whitely, Jean McClements, and Gavin Hodge) included workshop projects, documentary making and professional productions.

The team formed the '33 Film & Video Group' and further developed a range of innovative work, leading to the 1984 creation of Gorilla Tapes. The collective was founded by Gavin Hodge, Tim Morrison, Jon Dovey, and Jean McClements, to develop innovative approaches to the artistic use of video, especially developing the genre 'Scratch', which is the art of sampling and repeating found images and sounds, thereby making a new work. With simple video editing equipment and images recorded from television, during the mid-1980s Gorilla Tapes made sharp satirical and political videos collaged from old film footage and the TV news imagery of the mid-Thatcher years.