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Topic: KEN FILMS
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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator
Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted January 23, 2004 03:42 PM
Chris,
I always liked Ken Films as a kid because they had the shlock horror/monster titles. Ghidrah, Varan, War of the Colossal Beast, Equinox, etc. were fun to screen at home. It was pretty exciting when they announced their deal to release 20th Century Fox's library in color, sound and even 400' versions. Unfortunately, just as Brad said, their editing (merely ok to begin with) got progressively worse. "Planet of the Apes" and "Beneath" were done very poorly. "The Crimson Cult" is awful, with the narrator referring to Boris Karloff's Professor Marsh as "Mr. Boris"(!) and basically making up the names and the story as it goes along. Editing "The Day the Earth Stood Still" would seem to be a no-brainer. Just include all the Spaceship/Robot scenes. But Ken fills most of their precious 8 minutes with an expository scene between Michael Rennie & Sam Jaffe. I will say however, that they did a super job with "Alien", one of the best cut digests ever. Too bad the majority of their releases didn't reach that standard.
Doug
--------------------
I think there's room for just one more film.....
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James N. Savage 3
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1375
From: Washington, DC
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted January 27, 2004 07:46 AM
I think Ken reached thier high point as far as quality editing around 1980, with the 400 foot editions of "The Omen", "Alien", both "Empire Strikes Back" extracts, as well as the MGM digests that were coming out at that time (I'm not sure if they used the same editors for those but they were great).
I can't really comment on the 200 footers, as I usually opted for the longer versions. However, there were two titles that I did purchase in 200 foot format first- Star Wars and Squirm. I found the Star Wars 400 footer a huge improvement on the 200, but was very dissapointed with the Squirm 400. All they did was lengthen the talking scenes, no extra gore (which is what I liked at the time) ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Nick.
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Tom Photiou
Film God
Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted February 01, 2004 09:50 AM
This is a favourite subjects and i am interested
In seeing everyone’s views on it. When I mentioned
It in the FFTC mag over a year ago I didn’t get one
Response!
As I understand it from Paul Foster the 3 x 400 marketing
Films generally seem to hold colour very well whereas the full
Features are suffering badly It appears that the full features were printed
By a different company and on different stock, is this correct? Does Anyone have any 3 x 400 marketing films on the turn? On the subject Of editing, those Columbia 400fts! Blimy, there were times I could have Asked the editor to resign, and the narrator, laughable at times. I think it’s many of the poorly edited 400 footers from the likes of Columbia / ken that gave bootlegs cinema a bad name and the demand for Full length feature, Mountain films supplying some of the very worst, even When the editor was given 4 x 400 ft to play with they still got it so wrong. Its ironic that they began to pull their socks up as the VHS video Was becoming a threat. Oh BTW any films kept in lofts or humid heat in centrally heated,(this has a lot to answer for) bedroom cupboards ets will almost certainly turn.COOL or cold is the word,and dry.
Ps. Don’t forget to keep up the replies referring to the FFTC mag, I shall use some Of the comments and ideas to put a case forward to Derann and most impotantly,
To us the collectors, lets turn up the heat on everyone!
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Andreas Eggeling
Master Film Handler
Posts: 467
From: R.I.P.
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted February 01, 2004 01:32 PM
Hi Tom,
I have Ken Films which were printed by martiz lab or at "Bergen".
The films were Bergen is written on it are on polyester filmstock
and the colours are true.
Marketing Film sold in germany only the german dubbed threeparters. They didn´t offered the german collectors full length, 400ft and 200 ft versions. On the other side they offered films which were not available worldwide.
The 400 ft version of "Prophecy" was printed in Germany at Atlantik Kopierwerk, Hamburg. The 200ft version of "Saturday Night Fever" was printed in USA on thicker polyester filmstock, I got it from Derann. As I looked at the end of this 200ft reel I found a picture with the german title "Nur Samstag Nacht". So it seems that marketing films were edited in Germany and the negative was shipped to the US-lab.
From other german collectors I have heared that the first feature films were printed in US-Labs. The last full feature releases were printed at the german lab. Another print of marketing film international I know was the 400 footer of "Saturday Night Fever". This print was made in Munich on fuji filmstock.
The last marketing film releases were printed on thicker AGFA prestriped polyester filmstock (The Final Countdown) or Kodak acetat stock. I think the stock of thin Kodak polyester was running low in 1982.
In 1994 marketing film germany was closed and it was sad for me to hear years later that much 8mm prints were thrown away, because they loose the contact to interested collectors. One or two collectors who heared that marketing film is closing found on the street in a garbage container some prints. It is supposed that there were also prints between which never comes on the market. "Love Story", "Charlie Brown"....
The brand "marketing film" was sold to an other video label.
Ken Films (or Warner/Columbia) worked also together with UFA, Germany. For exampel "Rebell without a Cause" is printed in USA, but I wonder, the starting film leader is German Industrial Standard at german tv-stations.
Andreas
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Tom Photiou
Film God
Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted February 01, 2004 01:49 PM
Andreus, thats really interesting, i think Marketin films had some superb titles, some of the best on the 8mm market. It was sad when they finished,its so hard to understand why films were thrown into the bins, in this country thats where a lot of 16mm films end up. When Marketing came onto the scene i remember the first batch of title like Saturday night fever, chinatown, godfather,to name just a few were so well recieved and so many versions in the uk, 200ft,400ft,3 x 400 and a full length. It was a market that collecters could purchase according to what they could afford, the choice was there. Do you know who produces 8mm titles in Germany today? we do see the odd feature in the lists come out in the uk and i know they are from German origin.
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