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Topic: Has anyone got any of these....
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Barry Attwood
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1411
From: Enfield, U.K.
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted June 11, 2008 02:37 AM
I was reading through an old Ken films flyer last night and I noticed three titles that were supposedly released as 200' or 400' B/W Sound editions by them, but I've never come accross any of them, and I was wondering if any of the Forum members have them, the three titles are (200ft) "F8 The Day The Earth Stood Still" , (200ft) "F9 Curse Of The Fly" , & "F5 The Longest Day" (400ft), I've also given Ken's F number as well, it'll be interesting to see if anyone has any of these releases. I'm sure I've seen the Michael Rennie film as a silent edition, but not in sound. It may be I've just never come accross them, but as I've had thousands of films over the years through my hands, I do doubt it a bit, any way, what do you think. I think the flyer I've got must be around 1976, as there is no advert for "Star Wars" yet.
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Mal Brake
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 591
From: Neath, South Wales, UK
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted June 11, 2008 08:24 AM
Hi Mike,
It's a combination of reasons, and you've touched on them in your post.
Good feature films on 8mm were almost unheard of at the beginning of the boom years. Remember this was before VHS/Beta became available. The likes of Columbia, Fox, Universal etc released 16-18 minute versions of well-known titles and when well edited were a thrill to own.
Most of us remember key scenes from films and that's what we got and they were very repeatable, a major plus. They weren't cheap but there again we didn't have anything to compare the cost.
Major feature length films did eventually become available, as print quality rose, so did the price. They became an investment for most of us. With the advent of DVD and crucially, good quality digital projectors at a more affordable price, features on 8mm are not economically viable to the majority of collectors so the cut-downs attract interest once more.
Of course, members of this forum are a different breed to the masss market collectors and many are willing and able to buy 8mm features.
This is just my opinion having been a collector for almost 40 years, others will have a different point of view.
As for me, well Mike you know I still give 8mm presentations to various groups with shows lasting about 1 hour. So cut-downs are very useful, witness my search at the BFCC.
As you say 16mm is a different story.
regards,
Mal
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I'm gonna live forever or die trying
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted June 11, 2008 10:29 AM
Just to add to what Mal has already said so well, I think the major attraction of digests is the ability to be able to see the best scenes of a movie in about 20 minutes. This particularly applies to musical films, where in most cases the story has been almost entirely left out, leaving just the musical numbers on the digest. So digests of musicals work very well and are very repeatable indeed. Most of the great MGM and FOX musicals were available in 400ft and 800ft digest versions. Less succesfull are digests of drama films, where it is almost impossible to get the full story and impact of the film condensed down to 20 minutes. One utter failure in this regard was MGM's 18 minute digest of 'Dr. Zhivago'- originally almost a four hour film, this was a completely unsatisfying viewing experience. A standout success was Universals 2 reel 40 minute condensation of 'The Sting' which seemed to retain all the impact of the feature film, and there are many other great digests of drama's such as Columbia's excellent 'Requiem for a Heavyweight'. The best ones are where the editors allow the digest to quickly build up to one great key scene which is showed in entirety. Universals 400ft 'Psycho' is another good digest that comes to mind.
So, digests are definately a mixed bag, but as Mal points out, they brought great classic films into the home, long before video appeared on the scene, and many of them are still great to watch. Musical digests can be given a new lease of life by re-dubbing the sound tracks in stereo.
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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted June 11, 2008 11:40 AM
Speaking for myself, Super (or any other film projection) is not just the watching of the films, but everything that goes into it, putting up the projector, hearing the projector and listening to it like a fine tuned car for ay little off sounds
... and being mesmerized by that image on the screen. I just won a print of the feature "A Star is Born" from Joe Taffis, also a forum member, and I can hardly wait until premiere night.
It's honestly a feeling that i don't get when I check out a DVD from the redbox. That is just "available, this is a rare treat!
As for digests, I find that I play my 400ft scope STAR WARS far more than the feature because, quite frankly, it has most of what I want to see if I don't have a lot of time to spool up the whole feature. Digets are also pretty novel and cool for people who are used to seeing the whole features as well, rom what i have "scene".
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Barry Attwood
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1411
From: Enfield, U.K.
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted June 12, 2008 02:52 AM
So it seems "Curse of the Fly" is the real rarity out of the three films I mentioned, although the other two don't crop up very often, it seems. It is curious, how even today, the 200' & 400' digests are still very popular (especially genres like Horror & Sci-Fi), I think that it's a combination of the short running time and the hunt to find that elusive title, and lets face it, most 200' and 400' titles are not going to break anyones bank these days. I also think that some collectors who have moved over to some kind of digital medium, still keep a projector and a few films, just to keep there hand in, so to say, and these are the people who buy a lot of these small reels. Some are actually coming back into the hobby in a more serious way, and starting to buy some of the titles they originally sold, I do believe it's more to do with the atmosphere you have to create yourself, and not just slipping in endless discs into a DVD player.
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David Kilderry
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 963
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted June 12, 2008 05:00 AM
Doug, I love my Earth Stood Still 200 footer. I do take into account the 8 minute length, but every time I watch it the scenes take me straight back to childhood where my dad sat me down in front of our TV and said " you'll enjoy this, I saw it as kid and loved it".
I do of course know the full film well and am a fan of Robert Wise, but most 200 footers from features are just a few scenes or a song or two, I think they at least tried with The Day The Earth Stood still. I would agree however that it probably was not Robert Wise himself who edited this extract!
.......and Michael, I have just always thought of Super 8 as a shorts medium and it mostly was until Derann started with their high quality features.
In fact most of my film collection is shorts and cartoons regardless of what format 8, S8, 16, 35. The box art is important too.
As I have been in the cinema business since I was a teenager, I have been able to watch films free as often as I have liked, so owning the feature at home in any format (even DVD) does not really have appeal to me. I love the cinema experience and that is something very hard to achieve at home.
I known many of you have nice home theatres, but I am talking about 15,000 watts of 8 channel sound and 25 meter wide screens. My film collection is more like what was screened in newsreel theatres; shorts, cartoons and tavelogues. These do not require the large cinema environment like a modern feature.
Even the few features I do have on 16mm, I'd prefer to have on 35 or 70 in their correct aspect ratio and sound format....and see them in a cinema.
David
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Adrian Winchester
Film God
Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted June 15, 2008 07:07 PM
This has made me wish that I'd kept my 'Curse of the Fly' but I sold it because I didn't like the editing. I got it brand new from Portland Films, must have been around 1984 when they got hold of quite a lot of Ken 200' versions, but I recall 'Curse' only appeared briefly. One interesting point was that the one I had - unlike every other Ken 200' I've owned - came in a hard plastic case, the type that swings open, as used by Techno. Does that apply to the ones seen or owned by others here?
I also bought 'Day the Earth Stood Still' from Portland around the same time and kept it. I'm pleased I did, in view of the above-average print, as already mentioned, and the nice box artwork. I'd say that the print was better overall than the full length feature that CHC produced about 10 prints of some years ago.
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Adrian Winchester
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