none said:
SKot wrote: I've been following this thread with great interest.
cheeky basterd. Thanks for the memories. Do you remember much about the IRC trolling? Was it SW based fans doing the distribution or the hardcore movie traders, guessing the later. Remember seeing AotC on an irc channel found off of the vcdquality irc, my first dip into that arena. But wouldn't be surprised if some of the more well known SW websites had copies of TPM for their moderators and crew. How bad was the podrace splice?
It was hardcore movie traders. I had to lie low for a while and listen in to get the feel of what they were up to and how they worked. I knew I was likely to be looked down on for only being there for one movie, and for having nothing really to offer in trade. But occasionally I found someone who would talk to me about it.
The podrace splice was pretty choppy, quite a few frames missing. I remember well that it happened right during the sequence where Anakin goes up the "ramp" and makes the jump. He hits the ramp, cut to him in the air, cut to him landing on the ground.
I think the telecine came along fairly late in the game in the trading circles, by which time TPM was (relatively) old news and the VHS/laserdisc was probably already on its way, hence its lack of exposure and low distribution. Nobody cared except for the most obsessive fanatics looking for the best possible reference copy...and I guess I fell into that category.
The Aluminum Falcon said:
Wow Skot! A telecine copy would be fantastic. I didn't know anything existed like that for Episode I. It would definitely be "one of the best sources ever." Hopefully, you can find it along with your copy of the Z version. The history in the bootlegging of TPM is really fascinating and seems to be growing more and more intriguing...
It is potentially a very great source; however, one thing to keep in mind is that although the quality of that telecine in full screen in 1999 seemed pretty amazing, I was probably running on a 17" monitor with a 1024x768 screen resolution. What looked decent then probably looks tiny and terrible now. My copy of the original camcordered SDCC showing of the Biggs cut scenes now looks positively microscopic.
If one could somehow track down the actual source of the TPM telecine, though...what if a higher-resolution original copy is out there? Or perhaps they didn't care anymore either once the DVD came out...
--SKot