8mm Forum: 16mm digests

This is topic 16mm digests in forum 16mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by David Coppola (Member # 4209) on April 14, 2018, 07:02 PM:

How prevalent were 16mm digests and who put them out?
Pretty sure Universal 8 was one of the few.

Also curious as to the quality of them?

Posted by Brad Kimball (Member # 5) on April 16, 2018, 11:55 AM:

Apparently there were more out there than we think. Many of them were made for “Film Study” classes taught by schools and colleges as I have cutdowns in 16mm culled from major studios’ properties and CLEARLY not intended for the consumer market hence all the warnings that preface the movie. Just like a typical digest they have a beginning, middle and an end, They were often more carefully edited than many of the stuff the 8mm home movie market had available.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on April 16, 2018, 02:58 PM:

Disney did cut-downs from their features and reedited with a commentary which offered a moral tale. They were sold on the Educational market.

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on April 17, 2018, 08:41 AM:

Castle released product on 16mm so I believe at least some of their feature digests/extracts were released on 16mm, but perhaps someone more familiar with Castle can confirm this.

There are plenty of Universal releases in circulation and all are the one or two reel (i.e. the 200' or 400') Super 8 releases, as their shorter and longer releases don't appear to have been offered on 16mm - but if anyone has evidence to the contrary, please let us know! I'm unsure whether EVERY Super 8 release on those formats made it onto 16mm, which would be interesting to know. E.g. is there a one reel AND a two reel 16mm release of 'Frenzy'? As for the quality, I'd say the 16mm reflects and upgrades he quality of the Super 8 released, so (e.g.) the one reeler of 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon' is significantly better that 'The Revenge of the Creature'. My 16mm 'Psycho' two reeler is very good - the sort of quality you would be pleased with if you were buying a feature. Has anyone come across the one reeler of 'Jaws' on 16mm, because that would surely have sold well, but I've never heard of a copy.

Moviepack were another company that released quite a few 16mm one reelers of extracts from features, although often not with original titles. E.g. 'The Black Emperor' has scenes from the 1930s Hammer film 'The Song of Freedom'. Moviepack also released some product on 8mm but I can't recall ever seeing a Moviepak 8mm sound release.

I've come across one or two other 16mm one reeler digests that were clearly produced for sale. I think I have one for 'Vampire Bat' (1933), but this has the look of somewhat worn footage being spliced together and copied, so whoever released it may not have wished to draw attention to its origin!

[ April 17, 2018, 09:57 PM: Message edited by: Adrian Winchester ]

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on April 17, 2018, 10:27 AM:

Walton Films did some 16mm. Robert Kingston released some too.

[ April 17, 2018, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: David Ollerearnshaw ]

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on April 17, 2018, 10:02 PM:

If anyone knows, I'd be interested to know approximately when Walton pulled out of 16mm, as I'm aware this was at least a few years before they ceased trading. I have a couple of Walton one reelers on 16mm and one is an edited short comedy, but any feature digests they produced seem to be very scarce.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on May 09, 2018, 06:55 AM:

i have just purchased a 16mm cut-down of Madigan from Nigel Higgins, its a two reeler, (on an an 800ft spool), and it was brand new and sealed and to my very good luck and surprise there is no fade at all on it. I have mainly bought it as test film for when i do any work on the projectors, but this one is great, full of action and a perfect warm up reel. I wont be collecting these as i moved over to 16mm to buy features so this will be a one off for us. [Wink]

I will pop up a few images later tonight.

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