What was the deal with Film Ventures International

[GrantM]

During most of season 3 and 4 of MST3K they often riffed on movies from a company called Film Ventures International, but there are a few things I don't get about them. For one thing why did every FVI movie on MST3K during the opening and closing credits use footage from different movies, did FVI simply aquire movies and add their cheap credits to them or did they have a hand in making them, was it true most of the movies they aquired were originally public domain, etc

Just wondering

[Doc Steve]

During most of season 3 and 4 of MST3K they often riffed on movies from a company called Film Ventures International, but there are a few things I don't get about them. For one thing why did every FVI movie on MST3K during the opening and closing credits use footage from different movies, did FVI simply aquire movies and add their cheap credits to them or did they have a hand in making them, was it true most of the movies they aquired were originally public domain, etc

Just wondering

All FVI films were public domain.  As far as I have been able to determine, they tended to pull a few Sandy Frank moves.  That is, they would edit t.v. shows into features and the like (see Master Ninja).  Obviously, these sorts of things needed credits in the style of a feature film, which they didn't already have.  Why they did this for "real" movies like The Cave Dwellers is a damn good question, however.  I suspect that the name changes were done to fool people into seeing a movie they might have seen before, so they also needed new title sequences matching the FVI renaming. 

[mrbasehart]

Could it also be a rights issue? By putting a new credit sequence of their own making, they're claiming copyright over that version of the movie? I have no idea if that'd work though.

[Doc Steve]

Could it also be a rights issue? By putting a new credit sequence of their own making, they're claiming copyright over that version of the movie? I have no idea if that'd work though.

Yes, that works to a limited extent.  That is, you or I could come along and re-edit the pilot of "The Master" into a feature film, because the underlying t.v. shows are in the public domain.  However, we couldn't call it Master Ninja I. 

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Well, I now know that footage used in the trailer of "Pod People" was taken from an existing different movie (damned if I can remember the name of it0.


I'd like to point out that Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster had footage from a different godzilla movie, which seems rather pointless and bizzare.

[Lazlo]

I'm not particularly sure.

From what I read, FVI would change the names of the movies their re-releasing (I.E. Pod People was origally titled The Unearthling) for possibly a ridiculous reason. What I don't understand is why they would use different movies during their credits sequence (I.E. clips for a movie named Galaxy Invader during the titles of Pod People). It shows a company's stupidity.