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Author
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Topic: Watching Digests Without Watching the Feature First?
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted June 27, 2016 03:35 PM
-as I said on "What did you watch last night", I have this 800 Foot compilation of the songs from Singing In The Rain I bought at CineSea the last time. This is of course a major classic among film musicals: every time there is some compilation of classic films you simply can't avoid seeing Gene Kelly soaking wet swinging that umbrella on that famous cobblestone street.
I've watched it a couple of times, and I really enjoy it, but in my disturbingly lengthening life I have never, ever seen the whole film! (I intend to fix this soon...)
Digests and extracts are a staple of 8mm film: you'd really be hard-pressed to avoid them if you decided to! They have a place in many shows: just a sample of what the feature is like, kind of like those little glasses at a beer tasting!
Because they are so widespread, it's basically inevitable we will see some of them many, many times before we see the feature, assuming we ever do!
What are your experiences with digests, extracts and full features? Did seeing one of these shorts first change how you watched the feature? Did seeing the feature change how you enjoyed the digest? (Did it ever ruin the digest for you?)
Years ago I got the Walton/Derann extract "Wildlife Interlude" which is nature scenes culled from "When the North Wind Blows". There is basically none of the feature's story left here, so when I found it feature length on five reels about a year later, the scenes in the extract became kind of an echo of the story that was missing. I also notice where they moved in sequences to blot out the actors. (No humans were shown in the production of this movie...)
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Tom Photiou
Film God
Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted June 27, 2016 04:32 PM
Well Steve, they certainly hold a place in our household, in our early days of collecting the digest was the norm, you could hire feature films,(we never hired a cine film all our lives), or if you were very well off there was a handful of features you could buy.
I have several types of film showings, basically they are all what i want to see, ive eraned them so i show all sorts and not in any particular order,The thing with digests is that you can watch many films inside a few days, and for the ones which are edited properly you do feel as though you have seen the whole film. Quite often a good 400 foot digest will be a support to a long evening ending with a full length feature, it will begin with a trailer, an advert reel, or maybe a cartoon, then a supporting film which may be a newsreel or a 200 or 400ft digest, then a full feature. Quite often it will be a 200, followed by a 400, then a 600 and end with 3 x 400 abridged feature.
The point is the digests are great, a whole evening of universal classic horrors, westerns, war or adventure/action, they allow you to get so much in during one evening. I for one love them, of course we do have many full lengths, but as has been said before, the likes of GWTW or T2 romancing the stone etc can only be viewed now and then, i know some people will watch there favourite reel of a feature but then isn't that the same as watching a digest? We did go through a period of buying only full features for a while but i kept looking at the lists and just had to get some of those well edited 400 or 600 footers. Recently we have added the 400s of Boys from Brazil, The Medusa touch, porridge,Saturn 3 and Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, all with good colour, all from ebay and each one a good price, not some of the ridiculous prices being asked on here and other places of late, and all very well edited, and easy to view all these films in one evening. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
The two digests we bought that did prompt us to get the features were Dark Star, (a well edited 2 x 400) and the Derann 400ft digest of Texas Chainsaw, this particular digest was very inadequate and not a good digest in my view, i never saw the iver 400 version but i understand it was much better, it did show all five killings where as Deranns cut out the first and best two. We opted straight for the 4 x 400.
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Tom Photiou
Film God
Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted June 28, 2016 06:58 AM
Daniel, i can see exactly where your coming from there, if my first Digest was either the first Derann 400ft version of Texas Chainsaw or Columbia's Close encounters i would probably never buy another cut down again unless it was at least 3 x 400,(or 2 x 600). Many people speak highly of the Close encounters cut down but i for one thought it was abysmal, when you watched it up to where the mother ship arrives its quite acceptable but the whole ending for us was mared by those incredible shots of the mother ship rising over the mountain and the full shots as it begins to turn around, these were among the best hold breath images in the film, were not included. More than once the obvious cuts on the soundtrack made some of my audience to turn around to see if the projector had gone wrong. It was an awful cut.
However, we also have two odd reels of features, reel 6 of singing in the rain and reel 5 of Master & commander, both are great reels on there own,(especially M&C).
A trailer of the film snapped on at the start can help make it much ore complete. On the other hand marketing generally did an OK job with there 3 x 400 mini features on some superb titles but i have to say they also completely lashed many titles up, how the hell you can have 50 minutes to an hour to make a decent version and lash it up is beyond me, as Graham states, MGM did superb jobs on Mutiny on the Bounty and Where Eagles Dare,(among others), using fades and dissolves to help with the cuts. Its one of the very best on 8mm along with Deranns excellent The Wild Geese and 633 squadron in scope, probably better to watch than the feature.
It is of course down to peoples preference but generally a very well edited 400 ft digest,(preferably 600), can often be as satisfying as the feature and often better if it cuts a long padded out film into an action packed reel. 20th Century Fox's Alien 400 footer was another good example, but unfortunately they didn't follow through with a 200ft ending release, this was talked about but never came to fruition.
Mind you if it did it probably would have been a different quality to it, different frame line and mis matching sound like there Star Wars two parters & i for one just dont have the inclin or time to re-record the sound, you pay enough for them without doing all that, nor have i got the patience. If i buy a film with crappy sound it goes back.
One thing that did ruin many good titles was that columbia narrator, some wernt too bad and did generally help it, but many were simply embarrassing to watch, one that comes to mind was The guns of Navarone, a great film, poorly edited and the narrator was so very annoying and made the whole reel an embarrassment to a classic movie.
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Melvin England
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 707
From: Hull, East Yorkshire, UK
Registered: Feb 2016
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posted June 28, 2016 09:29 AM
I think the question of watching either the digest or the feature can very much work both ways.
Films I have seen full length that are excellent but provided a less than impressive digest would include The Sound of Music. The 400' is lousy whereas the trailer is far more interesting.
Strangely enough, there are full length films I have seen that I promised never to waste my time getting on 8mm. However,the 2x 400' digests of each film did cross my path recently at a good price and so Mr.Hypocrite invested. GOOD DECISION! The films in question are "The Hindenburg" and "1941." Two films which,full length, just didn't work for me.Too long winded and,in the case of 1941 the humour was just too spread out. Cut them to 30 minutes and....hey!... a well paced thriller with the "we know what's going to happen" ending and a laugh a minute Spielberg.
Not sure if I have been prompted to see a full length film after seeing the digest. Maybe one that I have yet to see full length that completely satisfies as a 400' is "Two Minute Warning." - The sniper at the football stadium.So well edited it gives the feeling of completeness. Whereas the likes of "Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother"..... 400'of pants. Ditched that one a while back and no desire to see it full length. However,several years ago at the Blackpool convention, the trailer to "Avatar" was shown on Super 8 at the time of its dvd release. I remember turning to my wife (yes folks!Some wives DO enjoy the 8mm experience)and saying "Won't waste my time watching that!" The look on her face told me everything.... she'd got it on dvd for me for Christmas.It WAS viewed and my opinion of the film did change dramatically.
As Steve pointed out, there is another way digests are used instead of being a truncated version of the full film..... and,when it comes to musicals, is to produce a "best of...." digest. Do away with the storyline,but just include the songs. The perfect example of this is given by Steve... "Singin' In The Rain." I have both reels of this "best of song and dance" digest and,unless the 8mm full length crossed my path for pennies,feel happy I've got everything I need with it.I would be interested to hear Steve's comments after he does eventually see the full movie.
I suppose we all ask ourselves what we want from our hobby? The cost of film has always been expensive, hence the very existence of digests instead of,in most cases, the equivalent full feature on 8mm. They were around at a time when a large chunk of the market consisted of us non earning younger teenagers wanting the thrill of seeing classic moments from our favourite films, projected on a 6 foot screen and, with domestic video and/or big screen television still a pipe dream, this was the way to do it.....but it cost.... and a 400' would be several weeks pocket money, or the main birthday/Christmas present. It would be shown to friends who had either seen the movie on its first run,re live the excitement in 16 minutes, tell their friends how good/bad the full film was, and they had the choice to catch it on its second run,which cinema's did in the 70's.
Nowadays, after being in employment for many years, the collection has grown. Yes, I do have several full length features for the projector, but still own a room full of 1,2 or 3x 400' digests which are viewed constantly.But these days, if I see an enjoyable 400'.....I get the dvd from ebay and see it. It does work the other way..... Seen films where I am still on the prowl for the digest. But if I say that the examples in question are "Alien" and "Raider's of the Lost Ark," you will understand why. They are still going for silly money.... but I'll be patient!
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"My name is for my friends!"
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Luis Caramelo
Master Film Handler
Posts: 494
From: Funchal
Registered: Feb 2011
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posted June 30, 2016 07:39 AM
hi!i do agree there,s a few good digests indeed well edited,but in my case i do prefer the full lenght,i enventualy collect a digest if there,s only available,i do got features witch i had the digests before in my opinion it,s not comparable.to the full leght even if it,s a slowly picture,the digest because of the running time tend to get the action packecd,but there,s a lot of details we lose with out see the feature,about singing in the rain,like others musical ones,to me only the full lenghts,they are sevel musical numbers they cut in the digests,we can find some complet,but even so it,s not the same,for ex:in my case when i bout the digest of sound of music several years ago,i could,t imagine than i had the chance to get the full lenght from derann(scope)and with all do respect,there,s no comparison
about one thing and another,i give you another one exemple:the adventures of robin hood and the digests of the same.
i would like to know if some fellas shared the taste of collectig features like me,and why?
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