8mm Forum: Were any Editors Ever Credited for the Super-8 Digests?

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Posted by Claus Harding (Member # 702) on October 24, 2010, 10:27 PM:

I was curious....

Personally, I like features, but I do have 5 400-ft. cutdowns from the golden age:
"Alien"
"The Excorcist"
"Show Boat"
"Fun in Acapulco"
"The Black Hole"

Having watched "Alien" and "The Excorcist" tonight, I was very impressed (again) with the editing; the ability to make a feature riveting in about 16 minutes of well-chosen edits/sound cuts.
I was wondering if anyone had ever profiled the people who did these edits? Were they the same folks who cut trailers for a living in 35mm? It would seem a natural fit, as they would have the chops for condensing a tale down to the essence.

It could perhaps make for a nice little documentary; talking to the people who had a job now long gone, but which fell somewhere between "coming attractions" and "a feature in 20mins."

Claus.

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 67) on October 25, 2010, 09:28 AM:

I often wished that there was some way to contact the editors of some of the digests...particularly the person who did the wonderfully clever job on Castle's original Frankenstein. Just to congratulate them. It was obvious that the editor cared for the film and appreciated it. Some editors, however...not so much. Castle gave its editors more budget and better facilities to make wipes, fades, other opticals.....sound manipulations...new titles, etc...whereas some had only a work print and a splicer...and just had to cut scenes together.

Posted by Brad Kimball (Member # 5) on October 25, 2010, 10:02 AM:

I agree. Working as a Castle editor must have been nice work and very rewarding. I can imagine a conversation such as "...Hey Tom, here's your assignment for the week...Frankenstein. Spare no expense to make it look good. Now, take good care of her, she's a true gem. Make us proud." And at Ken...."Hey Porcupine, edit this down to 8 minutes and make it snappy (SLAP)."

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on October 25, 2010, 03:23 PM:

The 'Men Behind the Movies' DVD's over here answer all the questions with regards to the UK releases.

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on October 26, 2010, 06:50 AM:

Yes, some of the digests from the 70's were incredibly well-edited.

The most skillfully edited KEN digest, in my opinion, was the 16 minute digest to "The Omen". They took some creative liberties in that one and it worked so perfectly. I wouldn't have changed a thing (adding extra scenes from the German digest would interupt the perfect flow).

I've always thought that these editors should be credited for some of the fantastic, skillfull work that was done. Maybe some day.

James.

Posted by Ted Wilby (Member # 296) on October 29, 2010, 11:11 AM:

My Favorite was The Godfather. I think it was a Marketing 400ft digest. I should never have sold it, but it was turning.

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on October 29, 2010, 11:24 AM:

Wasn't it advertised that Spielberg edited or supervised the edit of the 400' reel of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS?

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on October 29, 2010, 01:26 PM:

On the UK side, Keith Wilton has done simply amazing work on many of the Derann UA cutdowns, especially considering some of the contractual edit limitations imposed by the studio.
I'm forever grateful to Ken Locke for his brilliant Raise the Titanic 600' edit.

Doug

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on October 29, 2010, 01:36 PM:

One of the best digests that I have is the Universal 8 The Sting. In its 2 x 400ft form it really is very well edited and manages to convey the full story without any obtrusive cutting. The superb Busby Berkeley digests put out by Derann in the UK, were I believe personally edited by Derek Simmonds and Keith Wilton - and what a superb job they did.

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on October 30, 2010, 02:51 AM:

The Derann United Artist releases were done by Keith Wilton, and Ken Locke. Alan Martin did many of the Mountain releases (recruited by Mr. Wilton) and David Billingham did many of the PM releases. All were film editors at the BBC.

Ken Locke's finest moment had to be Don Coscarelli's 'Phantasm'.

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