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Author
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Topic: Castle or Ken?
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Gary Crawford
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 979
From: Manassas, VA. USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted October 22, 2014 11:21 AM
There really is no comparison, Ken vs. Castle. The only Ken advantages were 1. They had more comptemporary releases, so if you liked modern films, Ken had the advantage. 2. Ken offered more than just 200ft versions. They had 400footers. BUT.....`beyond that, Castle wins hands down ...in terms of 1. the care involved in the editing. Ken usually just cut scenes together with no fade outs, lap dissolves or sound editing, making for a sometimes rag tag presentation. Castle editors for the most part had more leeway, more money to produce their own main titles and credits, to use clever sound editing and mixing to make for a better, clearer presentation. They used dissolves and wipes and any manner of transition tools to smooth things out and condense the story. They managed sometimes to make a nine minute one reel version of a film more of a complete experience than the Ken editors with their 400 footers. Find the Castle version of FRANKENSTEIN, for a prime example. 2. Print quality----Castle wins hands down. Castle usually had access to original 35mm materials and their cut-downs generally looked as good or better than the original features from which the Castle editions were derived. Ken films looked generally like they were made from 16mm prints that the editors simply cut up and then prints were made from those. Some were pretty good, most were just "ok".
So if you wanted comtemporary films , like Star Wars and Alien, etc., then Ken was king. If your tastes went to older classic films, mostly in black and white, Castle was king. In quality, Castle was totally the winner. In terms of editing prowess, Castle was king. They spent more money on each reel than Ken.
And in some cases, you could tell the person doing the cutting down and editing actually knew and respected the feature film they were slicing up. Just look at that Frankenstein reel....they superimposed the main titles over Dr. Frankenstein and Fritz sneaking into the cemetery, saving footage and time for later use. After the "it's alive" scene, bang...an iris type dissolve to the monster....and the editors used the music from the main title of the feature to punch that up. Just a very good job. A loving job. Now some people don't like it because it changed the original feature presentation...but to save footage, to make the film feel complete and whole on its own, they had to do it. And they did it well.
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