Super 8mm Films...

Website · Post by **BigBeaner** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 5:24 am

Well recently I've purchased Star Wars selected scenes for super 8 off of Ebay and just curious if anybody else knows if there was such a thing for Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi. I saw they had Close Encounters of the Third Kind, oh wish I won that one. Thanks peoples, and if you don't know, how about talking about your favorite or coolest super 8 film from Hollywood that you've seen that amazed you or whatever.

Post by **Dusty** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 6:57 am

I've seen two digests of Star Wars (one 200' cut and another 400') and I think I seen one of Empire Strikes Back--not too certain, but I believe I have. I've never seen one of Return of the Jedi.

Speaking of digests, I really like them: you get to see a movie you like on real film, without having to pay dearly for the full thing. Some are better than others, though. I have one of Raiders of the Lost Ark that is just fabulous. 400', color, sound, widescreen, on Agfa film. And the story really doesn't lose much being so drastically shortened, you still hit all the essential points. Beautiful. On the other hand, I have a digest of Lawrence of Arabia that is just... well, the less said, the better. 400', color (faded to B&W plus highlights of red), sound, pan-and-scan, and so much had to be cut they had to add subtitles and a narrator for the story to make any sense at all.

Then there're the movies that have been changed to fit within the confines of 20 minutes. The Poseidon Adventure is a good example of this: same basic story, mostly the same characters, but the plot's been edited and the scenes moved around to fit. It's really a different movie all together--not bad, mind you; it's entertaining and holds up rather well, but it's not at all like the full version.

Post by **murchmb** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 5:49 pm

Yes. ESB and RotJ are out there. RotJ is pretty rare. One went for $80+ a few weeks back.

Post by BK » Thu Feb 24, 2005 6:23 pm

Hey Big Beaner,

Just drool over some of the titles available from Derann in the UK! Including Return of the Jedi ( In scope! )

http://derannlists.co.uk/derann/8a.php

Bill

Post by **timdrage** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 9:39 pm

Speaking of digests, I really like them: you get to see a movie you like on real film, without having to pay dearly for the full thing.

Plus, they skip all the boring bits!

Website · Post by **BigBeaner** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 2:01 pm

Hahaha oh man thanks for the link. I knew those suckers had to be out there...

pelluet · Post by **pelluet** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 6:16 pm

Also worth checking out Classics list of new and used films; http://valueservices.org/classichomecinema/ , like Derann they are in the business of printing new releases although there haven't been so many in the last few years

.

Derann have put out some good 400ft extracts from LOTR and The Matrix, they're in scope with stereo sound so make a good impact 8O .

You should also have a look at the film collectors forum; http://8mmforum.film-tech.com/ if you want to know what's worth getting and what to avoid

.

I have been collecting super 8 package movies for a few years now and can certainly recommend it as a great add on to super 8 film making, can get a bit compulsive though, I've probably got about 50 features and countless digests - great for the long winter evenings

.

Mike

Post by **Scotness** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 9:41 pm

A few months back I saw Revenge of Jedi on eBay (200ft Super8 ) -- yes Revenge not Return - it was an early promo before Lucas decided to change the name to Return of the Jedi -- now that would have hardcore collector value - can't remember what it went for - I think it was expensive which doscouraged me from bidding

Scot

Post by **Rollef** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:32 pm

Bump.

I just got some excerpts and features. Coma, The towering inferno, Meteor, Alien, Amityville Horror, Midnight Express, The dirty dozen among others. Some are really good, and of course the cool part is projecting it.
This is a whole new level of collecting. Cool.

Some lesser known films (to me anyway) seem as if they were made this short (20min). Where there ever made any films for the home market "strait to super 8" like Ã¢â‚¬Å“strait to video" today? or are they all short versions?

Post by **tlatosmd** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 2:57 pm

I suppose they're rather rare, as for old reduction prints.

As for new prints, see http://www.derann.com and http://www.classichomecinema.co.uk/.

Post by **super8man** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:30 pm

I have quite a few of the NHL hockey digests - some cover the playoffs (remember QUARTER FINALS, SEMI FINALS??) others cover the Stanley Cup series in a given year....talk about fantastic! Love that stuff. Yanks may prefer the football digests...same thing, covering the Superbowls, etc.

The best part was an old Stanley tools add stuck in the middle of my 400-foot sound digest - yes, a freaking commercial!!! I love it.

I really should run these through the workprinter. I could use an oldschool commercial in my movies!

mike

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:54 pm

I have the silent color version of A New Hope. Mine is clean but quite faded. It also stops right after the Millennium Falcon escape sequence... never gets to the end of the film. I bought it hoping that because it was color it would also have sound - I wanted to test my Eumig's sound playback.

Post by **Rollef** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 7:37 pm

A yes.. Star wars. Now that would be something. I just stumbled upon all these films, and suddenly I need more space to collect! This is a vicious cycle!

Evan: I'll trade you a cartoon with sound for something super8-ish if you want to test your Eumig.

Post by **etimh** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 9:01 pm

I've been waiting for this discussion to pop up. Maybe some of you collectors can give me some advice on this.

I bought a bunch of digests awhile back and I've found that most of the color films I got from the seventies are all faded to muddy red. I know why this happens but I was wondering if there is anything people do to "fix" this. I realize there is no magic to bring back what is lost, but I was wondering if there is some process to "improve" the image, maybe?

By the way, I also got quite a few B&W digests (both of original color films and B&W ones). These, needless to say, are still beautiful for the most part. I'm not even going to bother with older color prints anymore unless I hear about some amazing alchemy process to bring back color.

Tim

Post by **timdrage** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:46 pm

I think a lot of old prints are still good... none of the few I've got have faded particularly... tho none are very old, mostly late 70's/80s...

I think if they're kept welll the fading can be delayed...

8mmforum.film-tech.com would be the place to go for questions about preserving commercial s8 releases really... they seem to know their stuff over therE!=