The Videotape Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s supposedly brought movies in to the home for the first time. In fact you could already watch movies and your favourite television programmes at home - on film.
There were a number of companies releasing movies and TV shows in the smaller film gauges (sizes). Mostly 8mm or Super 8 for home use; and 16mm for commercial or industrial use.
Kodak introduced 8mm (later called Standard 8 or Regular 8) in 1932. It had large sprocket holes down one side of the film. Super 8 appeared in 1965. The film was the same size as before, but the sprocket holes were smaller, so the pictures were larger and of better quality when projected on to a screen.
Both were available in silent or sound versions, with the latter being more expensive. The equipment needed to run sound film was also more expensive.
Due to the limited running time of 8mm or Super 8 film, a full-length movie had to be put on several reels, which needed to be changed over during the programme. Annoying. Multi-reel films were also expensive.
Many films were therefore released in shortened Abridged, Condensed or Digest versions, on just one or two reels. Short subjects such as theatrical cartoons could be released full-length, but usually just one short subject per reel. After the arrival of television, a number of popular TV programmes also appeared on film. Usually there were only a handful of episodes available, rather than full seasons. Again, these were often shortened versions of full-length episodes.
Film was expensive. The equipment needed was also expensive, and technical. Film was therefore never as popular as videotape would become, which was simple and easy to use, as the tape player just plugged in to a normal TV set, which most people already had by the 1970s.
The running time of a videotape was also far longer than a reel of film, so a whole movie would usually fit on to a single cassette. No need to change tapes part way through a movie. Film libraries existed, where tapes could be rented, just as in a video store. There was also mail order rental.
Now to the actual subject of this article. I wanted to look up the video tape releases of The Avengers TV series, and turned to my copy of The Complete Avengers by Dave Rogers (1989, published by Boxtree in Britain, and St Martin's Press in the US).
Nothing at all on videotapes, but under Miscellaneous there was a section on Super 8 film releases, mostly by the British company Derann Film Services Limited.
Derann, founded by husband and wife team Derek and Anne Simmonds, operated from 1965 (another source says 1964) to 2011, according to Wikipedia. It was based in Dudley, in the British Midlands. They sold and rented 8mm and Super 8 films, and later moved in to videotape, having a couple of their tapes on the Video Nasties list in the early 1980s.
The Complete Avengers states that Derann released four Emma Peel episodes on Super 8 Sound film in the mid-1970s: From Venus With Love, The Living Dead, The Positive-Negative Man, and Return of the Cybernauts. All were from Season 5, and were in colour.
They were released in both a slightly condensed version (running time 45 minutes) on three reels; or a much reduced Extract version on a single reel (15 minutes).
There was also a full-length version of the £50,000 Breakfast by Centaur Films, on six reels. This was also from Season 5.
There is not a lot of information on these films, and even sales listings are uncommon. Both The Return of the Cybernauts and the Positive-Negative Man had the same oddly-coloured and uninspiring cover, showing Steed and Mrs Peel, so I assume this was common to all four episodes.
Only the title varied. The cover states 'Sold for private and domestic exhibition only'. Other films from Derann are listed on the back of the box - including several starring Elvis Presley.
Front and back of the Derann box.
From the Super 8 Database is this page from a Derann catalogue listing three of the episodes.
That is all I have been able to dig up so far.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
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