OK, I’m going to lay it out one last time, and then it is time to leave it alone because it is all getting very tedious and I think we all want to move on with our lives.
Mike’s version:
Early on, I was loaned the “Spanish” print by -1. I didn’t end up using much of it, but I had it scanned at 4K. I was also loaned a “so-so” Tech by Person #2, and a really nice Tech by Person #3. For safety, Person #2 was given digital copies of both his AND Person #3’s scans. Person #2 was, at the time, assumed trustworthy, if for no other reason than self-interest. But then things changed. Person #2 decided to give ALL the scans in his possession to -1. Person #3 rightfully freaked the fuck out - he wanted nothing to do with -1, for all the reasons which should now be clear, but it was too late. Of course, relationships have been severed and damage done.
I am not disputing any of the facts here. Actually, what I have learned over the last week or so supports all of these facts:
-1 loaned Mike the LPP
2 Tech prints were scanned, one belonging to person #2 and one belonging to person #3.
Person #2 decided to give all the scans to -1.
All of that is clearly true. I can prove beyond a doubt that person #2 paid for the scan of the print belonging to person #3 and that while he was planning to give all the scans to -1, he was talked out of giving us the second one, even though that one was based on his own print, because Mike had actually paid for that one. Mike never claims in his statement to have actually paid for either scan, he says he “had” them scanned, as in he arranged for them to be scanned, though I know he did in fact pay for the one we didn’t get.
The rest of it is opinion and hear say. We only have Mike’s word that person #3 freaked out, perhaps he did, I don’t know and I can’t prove it either way. Perhaps Mike’s frantic chat that night was in response to person #3’s freak out. I have been told that is not the case, but that doesn’t make it any more true. But if it was true, wouldn’t person #3 (who members of the team have apparently been in touch with several times both before and since these events) have made a request for us not to use that scan?
Mike told me in a private email:
It costs me around $30k to do a scan. That’s about 15k per exposure pass – although in truth, the Scanity kicks enough ass that one pass is probably sufficient for 90% of scenes – plus about another 3k in drives.
Now, if you were person #2 and you agreed to pay $33,000 for a scan of a film print wouldn’t you feel entitled to do whatever the fuck you liked with it? I know I would.
It is Mike’s opinion that this makes person #2 untrustworthy. It is my opinion that this clearly indicates a lack of communication between person #2 and Mike Verta. It is my opinion that Mike assumed person #2 would keep it to himself and not share it, while person #2 had other ideas. It is my opinion that person #2 could do whatever he likes with something he paid that much money for. The fact that he chose to send the scan to Team Negative One to see what they could do with it does not, in my opinion, make Team Negative One the bad guys in all this. Nor does it make anyone else the bad guy.
This all happened nearly 2 years ago and I wasn’t involved in any of it. I was too new to the team to be privy to such information, and it put me in some embarrassing conversations with Mike Verta on Skype, where he knew we had at least one of the scans, and other members of Team Negative One knew we had it but I did not.
Now I’m not going to say any more about this. Ever.
I don’t think we did anything wrong here and that’s good enough for me. If it isn’t good enough for all of you, oh well.
So let’s put all of this behind us and move on.
I think the ban on the team account should remain, because that user clearly broke a lot of rules despite multiple warnings.
I’d also like to see all of Team Negative One’s project threads locked immediately. He is not coming back and while not all of the threads have yet reached their logical conclusion, they are all many pages long and I will create new threads to continue the projects as necessary.
I think that the Tech scan will be forever tainted by what happened here, and therefore I don’t think we should continue to use it. Instead, we shall try and make a new scan of the same print that Mike cannot lay any claims to and take it from there.
I’d also like to have this thread locked in the next 24-48 hours, after everyone has had a chance to have their final say.
Finally, I want to say that I don’t personally hold any grudges or ill will towards anybody, not Mike Verta, not Frink, not Person #2, not -1 or the other members of the team, not Jay, not the people who brought all this to the attention of the mods. So let’s call it bygones, hope Disney does the right thing and hire’s Mike Verta to at least consult on its official OT release, and in the meantime, keep doing what we love. Tinkering with Star Wars.
Peace.
