Welcome to the new 8mm Forum!
The forum you are looking at is entirely new software. Because there was no good way to import all of the old archived data from the last 20 years on the old software, everyone will need to register for a new account to participate.
To access the original forums from 2003-2019 which are now a "read only" status, click on the "FORUM ARCHIVE" link above.
Please remember registering with your first and last REAL name is mandatory. This forum is for professionals and fake names are not permitted. To get to the registration page click here.
Once the registration has been approved, you will be able to login via the link in the upper right corner of this page.
Also, please remember while it is highly encouraged to upload an avatar image to your profile, is not a requirement. If you choose to upload an avatar image, please remember that it IS a requirement that the image must be a clear photo of your face.
Thank you!
Regarding UA, which had the rights to early Warner Bros. films, I have Derann's THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON and THE SEAHHAWK, parts 1 and 2 of each, in the original boxes, and they are linear, so to speak, and not standalone digests. They can and should be played consecutively. So maybe the "rules" were loosened eventually.
Just last night I watched ANOTHER WILD IDEA with Charley Chase from Derann. The quality was so-so, and not nearly as good as a Blackhawk Charley Chase.
I've never timed them, but the hubs on the "400 ft" reels look a bit large so they probably do hold closer to 300 foot max. I do have a Derann 2-parter that I obtained on an 800 foot reel, though, and it seems pretty full. Judging from the splices, and a slight change to framing lines after each splice, it is probably one of the ones where each part was self-contained.
I do think that is a perfect length (32 - 40 minutes) for digests, since they don't seem so quick, and are repeatable on a frequent basis compared to full-length. Back in the 80s, those U8 2-parters were perfect after dinner treats when we had guests. If you said you were to show a 100 to 120 minute film, most people probably would have politely declined unless it was planned in advance.
Oh, I watched part 2 now -- so they did release 600 footers on one reel for more modern stuff.
So, also referencing info on the other thread on THE WIZARD OF OZ, Derann used single rank (correct terminology?) 16mm negs to print double rank Super 8 prints? As opposed to double rank 16mm negs to double rank Super 8 as Backhawk usually did?
At least in the U.K. Super 8 stuck around after VHS became popular whereas it disappeared here in the States. It was the price of silver that jacked up film prices which was the primary reason for film taking a nosedive more than anything else, I think. Wasn't silver also used in color stock?
My family stopped buying Super 8 because VHS was cheap but frankly we rarely bought pre-recorded ones until much later in the 80s when you could get a decent movie for $20. We stuck to renting for about $2 like every else did. Plus the Super 8 catalogs from Blackhawk, Willoghby's, Red Fox, etc., stopped arriving in the mail so we all assumed Super 8 was no longer being produced. You had to go to speciality stores even in the 70s for a decent selection, and that was primarily Willoughby's in NYC for me, although other cameras stores in that area also sold digests from the other manufacturers. Department stores in malls sometimes had Castle extracts, but that stopped by the 80s. The catalogs I received never had any U.K. distributors' product, so I didn't hear about Derann or Walton until the mid to late 90s when I got back into the hobby.
It is a shame that so many color films have now faded including early Deranns due to Eastman color stock. I have an Avengers from Derann that has faded but the last time I watched it it still had some color left.
"However, sometime around 1990, Derann's releases stopped being distributed regularly on the superb Kodak LPP stock and were instead distributed mainly on AGFA stock, which at the time was considered an even better low-fade stock than LPP. However, the years have proven this belief to be false, as Derann's releases from the early 90s on AGFA began to show signs of fading in 2020: they maintain all the colours BUT the black is turning brown. "
It does go on to say that some copies of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST were on LPP.
Plenty of screenshots and even some videos at that link.
So that's yet another questions to ask sellers of Deranns that they probably can't answer! (Lpp or Agfa). But at least they can't claim they don't know because they don't have a projector to run the "tape" through, lol.
I seen around the Web some groups of people buying Derann Disney prints so they can scan to digital since they have been unhappy with Disney Blu-ray releases and how they are too "scrubbed" with altered colors from the original theatrical and even early VHS releases. It's pretty telling that people are preferring scans of Derann prints to the fairly recent Disney digital versions on shiny discs that were scanned from original 35mm camera negs (or something close to it)!
I have watched the latest scan of SNOW WHITE on Disney+ and it looks great and supposedly has the original colors due to prior complaints. My 2 Super 8 extracts have faded a bit but are still pretty decent. They are the U.S. releases and in my experience the "colour" ones from the U.K. were printed on better stock, and the ones I have aren't faded at all. I've tried to read the stock but I couldn't make anything out, it was too light.
Tweet
Comment