Making THE BLACK HOLE a Digest?

[Oliver Feld]

Dear Collectors

For decades I am a fan of the (often underestimated) masterpiece THE BLACK HOLE.
I owned the german cutdown by piccolo film and sold it, because it was only the final of the feature and too flat for my taste.
(In my youth I watched the 70mm version when it opened in the „Royal Palast“ Cinema in Berlin and some features are not meant to be watched in flat!)

And now I dream of a better Super-8 version of that title. But would this even be possible?

All the best
Oliver

[Maurice Leakey]

Oliver
I have the Disney 400ft Super 8 of "The Black Hole". How does this differ from your suggestion?

[Oliver Feld]

Maurice
If You don’t know the storyline, the existing cutdown isn’t that good.
I know it’s just a dream, but this is one of the titles I always wished as a 2- or 3-parter.

[Osi Osgood]

I agree with Oliver. If one wanted to make a 600ft digest of this, that would be awesome, but I would suggest tracking down a scope 35mm or 16mm for the digest. If anyone has a low fade print of this in the above guages, in scope, I will actually make a "digital digest" from the DVD, and then do the same from the scope elements, as, just as said, this is one of those films that should be seen in scope!

[Carter Bradley]

Does anyone know if the Disney 200' digest contains any scenes not in the 400' version?

[Osi Osgood]

No, it does not. I used to have it. Interestingly, they did a much better "digest" with the 200ft, than they did with the 400ft, as the 400ft was mostly a long, nearly unedited sequence from the Black Hole. The 200ft was actually a true digest, of the 400ft section used for the 400ft.

[Brian Fretwell]

I also liked the "wireframe" animation trailer for this that was on the "Aristocats meet Scat Cat" 200ft release.

[Osi Osgood]

How long was that trailer, by the way? Around 30 seconds or so?

[Brian Fretwell]

I never timed it, but I would think no longer than a minute.

[Carter Bradley]

With "The Black Hole" it seems Disney Home Movies continued with their tradition of releasing a particular section of a film (such as "Whistle While You Work" from Snow White). Possibly they could have indicated that with a more specific title, such as "Entering the Hole."

[Osi Osgood]

I felt that the only misstep on the film was the "cartoons" robots with they're rediculous "eyes". As a science fiction, it worked really well. Critics didn't like the "Dante's Inferno" style ending, but I found it passable, the only downside being the ponderous long shots of the hellish realms. Most certainly, however, a new digest would HAVE to be in scope. I would be curious if the Disney studio, amongst they're library Digests prints of the late 70's, early 80's?

[Oliver Feld]

I own the Cinemascope trailer of THE BLACK HOLE and this is a stunning trailer with a breathtaking image! This is why I always wanted to own more.

[David Baker]

.....OK so is this thread about Making THE BLACK HOLE a Digest?
Or THE BLACK HOLE TRAILER ??
Please ,make up your mind , my fine feathered film shmoes .

[Osi Osgood]

Oliver, is that trailer a super 8 trailer? Interestingly, YouTube only has a flat trailer, running almost three and a half minutes.

[Philip Hamilton]

A NEW tightly edited 400 foot digest of THE BLACK HOLE in letterbox would make a very cool addition to my collection of Super 8mm films. But the question is who would be interested in purchasing such a digest for $275 USD or so? Editing is the easy part. Producing a 16mm negative needed to to produce Super 8 prints is expensive. I know of only one place that will do this and it's in Germany and they set the price. Pay it or pass.

Paying for a negative and selling maybe 10 prints does not produce a profit. It produces a loss.

Now, if you could drum up at least 25 interested AND PAYING customers for a new digest of THE BLACK HOLE - it might be doable.

I'll buy one. Anyone else? Should we start a kickstarter?