Note:The iPod and HD versions are the same video, there is no HD version of this bonus video.
Martin Smith has done many Ultimate Tribute Videos of Past and Present Disney Rides. His videos include the history and background of the ride as well as a ride through. Per his instructions his videos are allowed to be passed along on the internet as long as copyright information is retained and there is no charge for downloading. I took his video of Journey Into Imagination and converted it into a format to be able to play on your iPod as well to be distributed through iTunes. Below is a message from Martin explaining how he first started the Tribute Videos. I will post more as bonus episodes, if you can not wait until then feel free to check out MouseBits.com which you can sign up for free and download his videos as well as tons of other multimedia through a torrent client.
Note from Matin: I was first taken to Walt Disney World in 1979 - we were staying with relatives in Canada and dad wanted to fly to Orlando for 5 days to see this `new Disney World`. I had no idea what this would start! We stayed at the Court of Flags motel, which I would later learn used the same modular rooms constructed for the Contemporary and Polynesian resorts. Fate!
We visited again in 1981 (our relatives had moved to Jacksonville) and even at the age of 9 was hooked. Roll forward to 1987, you now had a kid who was interested in computers, space, and anything technology related. Finally - EPCOT Center! Collecting press cuttings, books, anything I could get over the past 5 years meant I already knew the park like the back of my hand.
And next was 1990 - and dad had just bought an AG450 Panasonic Super VHS video camera. The quality was much better than normal VHS but this was a full sized, shoulder mounted beast. I looked like a news man! Imagine trying to take this on the attractions today! Thankfully, I did, with no problems from CM`s - infact I was quite often offered an unobstructed view to videotape (I was, for example, held back at World of Motions loading for a front row seat all on my own.) Little did I know how useful and valuable this footage would become.
Now jump forward 13 years. The Internet allowed me to download music I had never heard, and park and attraction videos I had never seen or would be likely to (Disneyland, Tokyo etc.) and I got a new PC with XP. One day I found Windows Movie Maker by accident and thought wait a minute! I plugged in my dads DV camera and got my 2001 DV`s out. In 4 hours I had thrown together my first edit - Test Track (not the one you can download. This one was more like a pop video!) Things had come a long way from linking 2 video recorders together to cut and splice an edit together...
I have a background in Corporate Computer Graphics and video editing which helped spur me on, and now work in TV Drama production as a Boom Operator (Long pole, fluffy mike on the end - guess who holds the pole up!) so putting together my love of Disney`s parks, how things work, computers and technology I decided to give something back to the Internet community since I had downloaded so much (thank god for broadband) and so uploaded my first edit - version one of Horizons - to Disney Central for people to see. Especially those too young to have seen this attraction (my favourite) and those who had forgotten it. That is why I don`t charge for my videos. I want as many people as possible to see these long lost classics. And since I ran out of classics (almost) I started doing current videos too, although nothing can capture the experience of actually `being there`. Plus there is the little thing called Disney Legal (Hi, guys) - any financial gain would make me ripe for picking (and a lawsuit) and quite rightly too. None of my work is for sale. A few websites charge peanuts to cover bandwidth costs of downloading, with my permission, and none of my work should be on ebay. I ask if ever anyone sees any of my videos for sale to let me know so I can put a stop to it. That is not why I do what I do.
