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Super 8 film newbie here. I see Super 8 feature films sold on eBay a lot. They are usually just one 6" reel (20 min approx.). Were Super 8 films not full length? I figured most Hollywood film on Super 8 would span multiple reels, to be full length (1hr 30min approx). Or maybe reels are lost over time? Just curious. Thank you.
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Many sellers, who don't know any better, will advertise they're digests as feature films, and not necessarily on purpose, they just don't know any better. That's why it is more important that the buyer knows what they are interested in, as you can't always trust a sellers knowledge. -
What must be said here is first welcome to the forum we are always on the lookout for a new super eight film collectors
what you speak of are called digest Prints as Osi says. Perhaps you know this already but I'm going to say it anyway
A digest print is a short version of the movie with some narration in between the action scenes with most of the non-action scenes from the feature length version deleted.
these sold for much less than a complete feature and the advantage was to have a bunch of these and show many different movies within a two hour motion picture length in the privacy of your own home.
And everything Osi said as well is correct.
CGComment
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To answer the original poster’s question directly - you get both digests and full feature lengths on super 8. I believe you even get full features on regular 8.Comment
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Thank you for the replies. I kind of thought what I was seeing on eBay were maybe "shorts" of full length films, but wasn't sure. I'm surprised people would buy these back in the day, or even now. I can't imagine watching a very shortened (narrated) version of a Hollywood featured film. But that is just me. I'm also a bit surprised that the Hollywood studios would allow the release of a shortened film, but I'm not well versed on the economics of Hollywood 😊 Anyway, I haven't seen any feature films on eBay sold with multiple reels, which would indicate a full length film. At least not on Super 8. Granted I haven't been looking for too long yet. Maybe there are some specialized online resellers that do this elsewhere. I was kind of wondering what is available these days on Super 8 besides home movies. Thanks again for the welcome, and for the replies!Comment
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Jerry,
Welcome to the forum, if you look at the film index thread on here you'll see what's available, it's amazing what has been released on super 8, Mark.Comment
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Old friend of mine has over 300 Standard 8/Regular 8 sound features Derann being the highest producer I would say. Ghost of Frankenstein, Psycho, Invisible man and High Noon being my own faves all good prints.Comment
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Jerry
Click on my attachment to see an old listing from Derann.
Wayback Machine (archive.org)
After you enter, click on the top Super 8 which now gives a further screen to click on. NB Not the sales listing.
Derann issued many full length features on Super 8.Comment
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Chip, the narration in the digests is an American specificity. European digests don't have it (and that's a good thing !)Comment
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If you watch the You Tube film of an open day at Derann you will hear a good reason for these digests, that people may want to watch their favourite parts many times and not wish to sit through the whole film. Also some were the promotional shorts released before the actual film could be seen in cinemas so collectable for that reason as well.Comment
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Here is a link to the YouTube film mentioned above by Brian.
Film 86 - Super 8 collectors - YouTubeComment
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Jerry - Welcome to the forum. You are in the RIGHT place for super 8 talk (and 16mm !)
To sum up, super 8 package movies are available in these formats, amongst others....... and are not limited to the subject matter mentioned....
1x 50' - Usually contains one or two trailers
1x 200' - These can be cartoons, documentaries and super abridged versions of full features. They run up to approx 10 mins.
1x 400' - The usual format for digests of full length features..... usually the best bits. Some are superb edits (The Wizard of Oz)... others not so. These can run up to 20 mins.
2x 400' - Again, extra long digests of full length features (The Sting, The Hindenberg etc). Theoretically they can run up to 40 mins but usually are a bit less.
3x 400' - As above, but a nice long digest.(Where Eagles Dare)
4x 400' - These are usually "slight" digests. Most of the action is there barring possibly either irrelevant bits or maybe a sub-plot.
5x 400' onwards - Usually the full feature and, depending on the total running time, could run to around 8x 400' which, according to a recent photo on this forum, would be the size of Gone With The Wind.
There could also be variations which use 600' reels but I won't go into that.
Two websites I would recommend (unfortunately for you, these are in the UK) are.....
www.classichomecinema.co.uk (just click on the super 8 lists)
and
www.bfcc.biz (then go to the bottom right hand side and click on Independent 8. A huge selection of films, and the person who runs it, Barry Attwood, is a member of this forum)
In the States, the best place to go is Steve Osbourne's website...
www.thereelimage.jimdofree.com
Hope all this is helpful.
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EDIT - Just posted this as Melvin added his reply with his very useful info!
Hi Jerry. It's probably worth putting things into context. The height of popularity for the 400ft / 15-20 minute edited version of super 8 feature films was probably the 1970's. At this point home video wasn't a reality for most and wouldn't really arrive until the early 1980's.
On the other hand, lots of people owned a super 8 projector for making home movies. Add to that film was still expensive. So a relatively affordable "digest" versions of big movies from the era proved popular. Put them in attractive packaging and sell them through the multitude of photographic retail shops and catalogues that existed and soon you could have a variety of the latest big titles with which to play in your "home cinema".
Of course some feature length versions were available on super 8, but expensive. And standard 8 edited versions of movies had long been available before that (as well as features).
The content and ways in which the editors told the story in limited run times is well documented here on the forum, both great, average and just plain bad.
As a 9 year old back in 1980, to be able to watch films such as Star Wars, Alien, The Empire Strikes Back, etc. on a fairly large screen at home was just heaven, even if the run time was about 17 minutes, or longer if you could afford the different extracts available. And remember no VHS or Beta at home yet.
I think most distributors saw these package movies as promotional material and were happy to license titles to third party companies such as Ken Films, who paid, say, 20th Century Fox for the privileged.
And companies such as Universal 8 who bought Castle Films and produced their own package movies saw it all as extra revenue, without fully releasing the whole movie into the private hands of the collector.
But even in the 80's Universal 8, Marketing Films (Paramount product) did sell licensed full length versions.
In the UK Derann and Walton movies amongst others produced 400ft versions / 2 x 400ft versions, but also released full length versions for those with the cash (although it does get a little confusing many were edited down to 1 hour versions on 4 x 400ft spools for cost / licensing considerations).
When video took hold in the 80's and full length movies became available to rent or buy at a fraction of the cost of film (also add in the cost of silver situation going on at that time) super 8 package movies almost vanished as they no longer made sense to the average consumer.
This is where companies such as Derann saved the day and continued with super 8 releases. Although I think it's fair to say that they struggled to obtain rights with studios who often didn't understand that a demand still existed, or who were terrified of piracy in the "new" video age. In the 80's, 30 minute / 1 hour edits of classic / popular films were made available to cater to the home cinema connoisseur appreciated the film quality above that of video, but still had the cost of a print to consider.
And through the 80's and 90's, full length super 8 features became more popular with collectors as the quality really still outshone video projection of that era. Although it is probably fair to say that the market became increasingly niche (albeit sustainable) as it became more of a hobby rather that a pass time and a quite pricey one at that.
I know that is a very potted history and one thing I've come to realize over a lifetime of collecting super 8 is the that there are still surprises about what was released / by who and when.Comment
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Beautifully put, Rob. I think between the two of us we have just about nailed it, notwithstanding the other fine contributions made on this topic.Comment
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Another helpful website to spend some time on: www.super8database.com
It lists over 6,000 Super 8 films of various lengths--including full-length features. If you enter "3x600" in the Search box you will get a number of feature-length titles, many from Derann. Do the same for 4x600, 5x600, 6x600, 7x600 and 8x600 and you will see additional feature-length films that were distributed on 600 ft. reels. You can do the same type of search for films sold on 400 ft. reels. For example: 5x400, 6x400... etc. As advised by others here, prior to purchasing something one does need to confirm if it is indeed the full-length feature or a slightly abridged version as the length of a feature can obviously vary.
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