8mm Forum: Hybrid Features made by Collectors

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Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on August 06, 2016, 03:35 PM:

Reading Ossi's article about the various versions of Ben Hur reminded me that my own unique "hybrid" version of Ben Hur still out there in circulation. Like Ossi, I started out owning a 400 extract before graduating to a 3x400 when it became available via secondhand. I was reasonably content with my mini feature in terms of colour and sound and whilst it contained the key scenes I did in a way hunger for a longer version. An avenue for expanding my film came when Derann published on their second hand lists odd reels of Ben Hur "white box specials" as they called which were either surpluses left over from their reel by reel scheme they operated or might have slight imperfections. Priced at around either £14.99 or £19.99 at the time for each 400 reel it was a reasonable price to experiment around with a title.

Surprisingly, both sources were good matches for each other in terms of print colour and sound quality. The Derann being slightly sharper than the 3x400 and unless you knew you would never really see the join. This boosted the length to around the 75-80 minute mark. When another couple reels turned up in a later list I bought them and added them so my total footage equated to around the 2 hour mark.

This lent itself to a nice repeatable more satisfying feature film which if I am honest would have been ideal at around 1 hour 30 minute mark. I did yield to the temptation to add additional more waffly scenes which affected the flow. I think it was for this reason plus the opportunity to buy the full feature that I parted with my creation. I think Barry was the happy recipient in a trade for one of his titles. Once I had my feature I realised my mistake. Great move about a hour too long!! I think I watched the feature may 2-3 times before I sold it.

Other little creations out there from me are the following

Son of Frankenstein 200 and 400 spliced together a nice 21 minute digest. Getting prints that match for this one is very difficult.

Psycho Trailer and 400 digest and Midway Promo and Digest.

Patton Speech scene 200 plus 400 digest gave it less jumpy start to a good digest.

French Connection 400 became a very satisfying 3x400 by picking up the last two reels of the feature. Don't ask me where the reels came from but it must have been a Ken print as it matched the colour of digest. Again when I bought the feature I sold it to a collector who thought it was a brilliant cutdown.

A popular hybrid feature out there is That's Entertainment which seemed to have more white box specials on Derann's list that any other title. Again sold on 400 reels it was very economic to compile. My version was about the 1 hour 20 minute mark and believe me it flowed without the boring bits.

Fantasia I compiled just by adding the bits I liked without the boring twaddle that brings down the flow of the feature. To complete, I actually bought some segments new as odd reels or white boxes where frustratingly few and other collectors had the same idea as me on this title when it appeared on a list. My version ran at about 72 minutes.

American in Paris was another experiment at 70- 80 minutes that flowed very well but on the Kelly musicals front it wasn't one of my favourites so I traded in on for another title once I had compiled.

If I hadn't had the full feature of Singin in The Rain I would have been tempted to compile a white box feature. You definitely couldn't have matched the 2x400 digest with the Derann feature as the print quality
was so strikingly different.

I would suspect in the collecting world there are more hybrid versions out there in circulation. I remember Gone with the Wind being offered to me at a bargain price and I was tempted to buy and let's say create a new 2 and half hour version.

I can hear the villagers lighting their torches already lol [Razz]

Posted by Kevin Clark (Member # 211) on August 06, 2016, 06:01 PM:

Hello Mike

This is a very interesting subject especially as some home-brew edits turn up from time to time on dealer for sale lists.

Personally I've never been brave enough to take the plunge and buy parts or combine digests mainly from a concern the appearance and sound of the combined parts may not match well enough than for any other reason.

You may need to keep your 'hard hat on' for a while for suggesting a self edit of a certain already owned full length feature though.

I guess we all have titles we would prefer condensed and if the Lord Of The Rings features or Peter Jackson's King Kong had been released on Super 8 I would happily have shaved an hour or so off each.

Kevin

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on August 06, 2016, 06:27 PM:

I had fun taking the out-of-sequence 200' digests that Castle did for GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA (two each) and assembling them into the correct order.

I had been thinking about getting the German 800' digest of PHANTASM and splicing a few scenes into the Derann 400' version, but when I actually obtained it, I chickened out because nothing really screamed out to me to be included. May eventually change my mind. The German edit is surprisingly lousy.

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on August 06, 2016, 06:38 PM:

The Frank Langella version of Dracula is another title that can be customised. The 400 version is Walter Mirsch talking about the film plus a long promo trailer with scenes that dont feature in the 2x400. John Williams score is problematic. I had another collector talk me through were to cut so it turned out well. I actual bought 2 brand new 400 plus the 2x400 at Blackpool 87 from Derann £4.00 per box. Cut in the extra scenes to the 2x400 plus had an untouched 400. [Smile]

Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on August 06, 2016, 06:45 PM:

The Muppet Movie is another excellent example. The entire 200' version can be slotted into the 400' version about 5 minutes from the end, where they decide to head to London. An excellent 600' hybrid.

Marshall - I assume the 800' german version of Phantasm would be dubbed into German instead of English?

.

Posted by Joe Taffis (Member # 4) on August 07, 2016, 10:41 AM:

Marshall, I sent you a PM...

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on August 07, 2016, 11:37 AM:

Yes, the 800' PHANTASM is in German.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 08, 2016, 12:25 PM:

Mike, that was an awesome read! I actually toyed with making a "digest" version out of my scope BEN HUR feature, (as, I almost never have enuf time for that long of a feature, especially with my kids about), but I finally decided that I'd just leave "well enuf alone". [Smile]

Posted by Bill Harris (Member # 5473) on August 08, 2016, 02:53 PM:

I bought an edited feature of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. I was amazed that the climactic raid on the indian village was not included. So I took a chance and bought the 400 ft digest. There was the raid sequence, so I edited it into the feature.

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on August 08, 2016, 03:26 PM:

Hi Bill

I forgot about that one. The problem with She wore a Yellow Ribbon was the old Portland / Mountain print quality varied so much. I had a reasonable 400 digest and when I got a Derann 4x400 reprint I realised they had cut the raid sequence there is some difference in print quality but you can live with it and it makes a better quality edit. I have seen edits of Sands of Iwo Jima that way that have been merged between the Powell abridged feature with odd reels from the full feature which I think either Ivy or Niles released.

Mike

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