8mm Forum: Phantom Menace Anniversary

This is topic Phantom Menace Anniversary in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 07, 2019, 12:56 PM:

The Phantom Menace was released here in the cinemas on the 10th June 1999. The film was very popular and we all went to see it. I always liked the film, so later bought the soundtrack and the Scope Super8 400 footer of the "The Pod Race" from Derann.

Well its now been 20 years and how time passes, so to commemorate its anniversary I went to the trouble of putting together a 35mm print. Two night ago I screened it, and boy the picture and sound quality was good. I am lucky to have good neighbor either side of where we live, because the Digital sound coming from the processor to the multi-channel input of the Yamaha amp was really something, which I don't get from Blu-ray discs.

Anyway, my better half Yvonne wanted to watch it, so for the second night in a row the platter and the old Ernemann 2 projector were doing there thing. 35mm prints like this are really something to screen, and "The Phantom Menace" is certainly one of them.

A couple of screen shots from two night ago..

Posted by Evan Samaras (Member # 5070) on November 07, 2019, 01:25 PM:

Graham,

It looks like a wonderfully sharp print! The Phantom Menace is my least favorite of the Star Wars films. It's too bad as a young Anakin was such a great story to explore.

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 07, 2019, 10:47 PM:

Hi Evan

I always liked it, but is saying that the following films did not do well out here or with me. I think the general public just had enough of Star Wars. One film I cant remember which one, Lucas I think shot in digital, and the image transfer to 35mm did not look good on the screen. I was disappointed with The Force Awakens. The only Star Wars movie I have liked since the Phantom Menace was Rogue One. I thought that movie was really good, After that one for me, it seemed that it was all going downhill. [Smile]

It will be interesting what the new one will be like, I do hope its a good one for the fans.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on November 08, 2019, 03:33 PM:

Interesting how there were no screen shots of Jar Jar Binks! [Razz]

FYI, bluray discs are not the original 6 channel theatrical audio mix. There is an entire sub-industry of people who have brainwashed the studios into believing the audio mixes must be "remixed" for "near field listening" so they can make more money fixing what isn't broken.

Basically they collapse the proper width of the stereo image, greatly tone down the dynamic range, kill off the true low frequencies, etc. They remix these things for people who purchased those "home theater in a box" surround systems.

Many people don't realize the mixes have been tampered with because they don't have the original to compare it to. I've compared many 35mm prints to blurays in my screening room and the difference is quite depressing to hear. This is why there is an underground community of bluray audio fanatics that are sourcing audio off of 35mm captures and re-syncing with the bluray image scan.

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 09, 2019, 01:32 PM:

Found one [Wink]

When we went to see the film Brad, that particular session was sold out, so to kill time until the next one went to the nearby "Pizza Hut". As we went through the door, we were met by a "Jar Jar" free raffle, so Yvonne put her name into the hat. Months later we got a phone call to say Yvonne had won, so now when you enter our we home cinema Jar Jar is the first thing you see.

When the grandkids were small, I used to lift them up to see him, but to this day I don't think they were very impressed, it might have been his teeth [Big Grin]

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