Why Make A Digest, Of An Existing Digest?

[Osi Osgood]

This doesn't directly apply to Phillip and Lee's ALIEN digests, but the thought occured to me that perhaps this would help explain the need for alternate digests of different titles, old and new. How many of us, watching a classic super 8 digest or "selected scenes" 400ft, watch and ask ourselves, "How in the heck could they leave out the best dang scene in the whole blessed film?! I know I've ran into that countless times. This is why, in my last two years, I have been going over my favorite digests of the past, and making brand new 600ft digests of them. How can I tighten a scene? How can I get that precious moment in the digest? How can I edit it to create even more tension for the digest? Thus far, this has led to 8 different digests, all 600ft ( I prefer 30 minutes for a really good edit, 400ft just seems too short ), and with the Italian lab, I can get a digest that is miles ahead of the classic era digest in picture and sound, for a fairly decent price. So, there's my explanation for creating a new digest, of an existing digest. Your thoughts?

[Larry Arpin]

Most older digests are faded. That would be the biggest reason to redo a 400 foot digest, such as JAWS 2. I'm not crazy about the full length movie but the 400 foot digest is just right. I have a faded scope version.

[Osi Osgood]

A good example of what I was talking about about, is "Battlestar Galactica". Now, the original 2X400ft digest, running approximately 32 minutes, is basically the whole of the first 40 or so minutes, containing the attack on the fleet, and the destruction of the home planets, and everyone taking off to the heavens, looking for earth ( prepare to be let down folks 🙂). Now, while this is an enjoyable watch, I was disappointed that they really didn't cover the whole of the feature. Then, a group of mega fans, went back into the original series and not just remastered in AI, but even recreated the special effects, ( they took the actual special effects and literally re-bluescreened the effects, making brand new effects that didn't clash with the original footage and made these special effects look like they had originally spent millions on effects instead of what they did), that fired me up! One thing that I always loved about the original theatrical trailer to the original feature, was the build up in tension with the one "tech" that counts down how close the cylons are coming (" thirty microns, fifteen microns, five microns"), and so, in this digest, I recreated that, but added even more tension, cutting frames here and there, to add even more tension and excitement, taking a sequence and making it even more impactful than it ever was originally! That's the fun of editing, and even making the digest letterboxed, as, though shot in academy ratio, (full 35mm frame), when screened in theaters, it was letterboxed. It takes this format the we love so much, and making it that much more fun!

[Rob Young]

Osi, I totally get why some would want to recreate a digest with great colour. For me, however, owning the original is sometimes equally important too.

Actually, Galactica is a good example. When I was 11 years old my uncle took me for my birthday to my favourite shop, "The Movie Cabin".

He told me to choose anything I wanted (what an amazing uncle) and I chose part 1 of Galactica, but the owner persuaded us to buy both parts at a discount (good salesman that guy).

I still have it to this day, and yes the cylons do look all pink now, but owning that original print that we bought together all those years ago is so nostalgic. Just running it and knowing its the same print gives me goosebumps.

Like yourself, I admit to being initially a little disappointed with how it ended, having seen the feature version at my local cinema. I later understood when I watched the Blu-ray release that what Universal 8 had done was to make a digest of the Saga of a Star World Part 1 (ie. the the first part of the broadcast pilot). So it now made sense.

What would have been nice was a second 2 x 400ft version of the Saga of a Star World Pt. 2! Sadly, as you'll know, they opted to do Mission Galactica as a 2 x 400fter. A rather disappointing title that was, of course, razor sharp with great sound and held it's colour. Typical!

Fun fact; John Dykstra who was the effects maestro was quite annoyed with Universal for giving Galactica a theatrical release, as he stated that he had created the special effects to level suitable for television and not to hold up to theatrical standards. I think they hold up pretty well myself.

[Patrick Walsh]

I have always wanted to make a 600ft digest in scope of The Poseidon Adventure, I even got the DVD ripped into my computer and started to edit it down to try and make a longer edit than the old Ken 400ft release, but time has not allowed me to play with it any further for now, I have also "toyed" with the idea of a 600ft cut down of Titanic from 1953, again Ken released this as a very abrubt cutdown, being B/W and 4:3 I thought it would make a nice 30min release. Some of the later 3x400ft releases where good like The Towering Inferno and Were Eagle's Dare, just a bit more "guts" left in the storyline without two much being cut out.

[Oliver Feld]

I would want for a better cutdown of ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. I never liked the marketing 3-parter because the beginning at the station, the death of the family - and the first appearance of Henry Fonda wasn’t considered, but the cover of part one shows it.
I even dislike the full frame decision.

[Osi Osgood]

I thought it was a bad call to not make that at least a letterboxed film. By the way, were you talking about "Once Upon A Time in the West"? I don't think Henry Fonda was in the other film. The idea of making a 30 minute digest of "Poseidon Adventure" is pretty good. One of the best disaster movies ever made

[Melvin England]

....... not so much a digest of an existing digest, but with all this colour fade we have to suffer nowadays, just LPP reprints of classic 400'ers would suit me down to the ground. "Kwai" would be the stunner it never was !

[Oliver Feld]

Osi, You are right: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST!

[Osi Osgood]

I have heard that there is actually an extremely rare scope addition of the "Kwai" digest. Bet it's faded as well. That would make a good 600ft digest as well! ( Best not leave out the demolition of the bridge! Madness .... Madness!)