Super 8 feature film lengths?

[Melvin England]

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.

[Maurice Leakey]

Here is a link to the YouTube film mentioned above by Brian.
Film 86 - Super 8 collectors - YouTube

[Brian Fretwell]

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.

[Dominique De Bast]

Chip, the narration in the digests is an American specificity. European digests don't have it (and that's a good thing !)

[Maurice Leakey]

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.

[Lee Mannering]

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.

[Mark Mander]

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.

[Jerry Coker]

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!

[Xander van der Merwe]

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.

[Chip Gelmini]

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.

CG

[Osi Osgood]

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.

[Jerry Coker]

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.