On 27/04/03, ruffready wrote:
"quote:
'Olaf Ittenbach, director or PREMUTOS and LEGION OF THE
DEAD is the bad boy behind that controversy'."
During April, 2002, I published the following [not sure
if all the URL's are still valid]:
As first mentioned on the 'UFO Research List' [UFORL], I
recently came across the following:
http://www.mhvf.net/forum/scifihorror/posts/124218244.htm
l
[This URL will 'wrap around']
'Don's FANTASIA Diary 7-26-2001'
"Because of the dinner, we all skipped the 7:45pm showing
of FUCCON FAMILY (it's playing again later) and went to
Club 300 to keep getting tanked on more beer. About a
half hour after we sat down, Olaf Ittenbach, director of
tonight's LEGION OF THE DEAD joined us for a few
pitchers. The beer kept on pouring and we had a good
time. We had to get Olaf completely plastered to get
ready for his film's premiere, of course! I found out
that, a few years ago, some wacko actually held everyone
hostage at Club 300 and finally shot himself. It's a
great place to drink! Also, this might be of interest to
some... remember the 'Alien Autopsy' craze a few years
ago? Remember the Fox special that actually interviewed
Nacho Cerda about the similarities between his film
AFTERMATH and the 'autopsy' video? Well, here is a
surprise. Olaf admitted (I guess he can now that the
contact he had was so old) that HE was the one who helped
create that damn video! The truth is revealed!
He went into great detail about how they faked the film
stock, etc. and said that he did it because they paid him
a LOT of money to do it. So, there you have it, folks!
Olaf Ittenbach, director or PREMUTOS and LEGION OF THE
DEAD is the bad boy behind that controversy.
We talked briefly about the Stan Winston interview and
about how Winston was saying the autopsy was too real to
be faked. All Olaf said was that they probably gave him
LOTS of money to do the interview!"
[END OF 'Don's FANTASIA Diary']
A key figure in the 'alien autopsy' story was of course
Volker Spielberg, a fellow German and 'music publisher'
who allegedly funded Ray Santilli's acquisition from the
'Roswell cameraman' and statedly owned the 'film reels'.
I'm not familiar with Ittenbach, however, a cursory
research of his 'blood and gore' films does suggest an
'alien autopsy' would be consistent with the genre and
his interest in 'special effects' - see:
http://www.legionthemovie.com/legionolaf.html
As for the claim "they faked the film stock", that's
disconcerting as no 16mm 'alien autopsy' film stock was
ever made available, aside from those few frames with
anomalous images which didn't appear within the footage.
However, his 1997 film, 'Premutos', was shot on 16mm.
Although the author, Don May, has been of assistance, it
seems there was indeed, "a LOT of pitchers of beer" drunk
that night and recollections are a bit hazy!
However, Don has suggested how Ittenbach can be contacted
and I've followed that up.
For a number of reasons, I would be more than a little
surprised if Ittenbach _was_ responsible for creating the
'alien autopsy'.
Only Ittenbach can fully resolve whether he did take
credit for the original footage and if that was in fact a
justified claim. Incidentally, I see that rumours of his
connection were actually being circulated before the
apparent July, 2001 confession to Don May and others:
"Also, rumor has it that Ittenbach was responsible for
the infamous Alien Autopsy footage...":
http://www.vidjunkie.com/barebones/archive.htm
However, there may be significant misunderstandings
within Don's account of the inebriated anecdotes and I
might have pieced together the true story of Ittenbach's
involvement. I've discovered he was certainly a 'player'
in those early days and why the rumour, even if untrue,
could easily have surfaced in later years.
During 1995 [when the footage was first broadcast after
world-wide distribution rights had been sold], the film
and encompassing 'Roswell cameraman' story featured in a
documentary by 'STERN TV', a German news magazine program
on the RTL channel ['stern' is apparently German for
'star'].
My files contain the review from a friend in Germany, who
reports that the STERN TV broadcast was called, 'How to
Make an Alien' and they staged their own 'alien autopsy'
for comparison. It was created by "one SFX man and 5
students (physician) in five weeks".
I've located online the confirmation that Ittenbach's
credits include:
1996 Roswell Alien Stern TV 16 mm, 20 min
1996 Roswell Alien Report Video, 15 min
See:
http://www.splatter.de/fgrafie.html
Although the year doesn't equate, I'm assuming it's an
error and should relate to 1995, when Ittenbach had been
contracted to show how an 'alien autopsy' could,
inherently, be faked.
I have no record - during thoroughly documented 1996
developments - of any STERN TV interest during that year
and certainly not an attempted 'alien autopsy'
recreation, which would surely have been widely noted.
If these assumptions are correct, then Ittenbach's 1995
'alien autopsy' did not receive favourable reviews from
some who subsequently viewed the 'RTL footage'!
Although Don May, President of 'Synapse Films', is now
aware of Ittenbach's resultant 'alien autopsy' spoof, he
remains of the opinion that Ittenbach was acknowledging
he created the 'alien autopsy' footage promoted by Ray
Santilli.
Despite considerable efforts by myself and others to
contact Ittenbach, he has not as yet clarified matters.
Ray Santilli, who claimed to have bought film of an alien
dissection from the 'Roswell' cameraman, wrote to me,
"It's complete crap. I have never heard of the guy".
I suspect Ray to be correct and the explanation is as
revealed here.
[END OF APRIL 2002 PUBLICATION]
The above is for information and my reason for revisiting
this originates with another topical development, as I
recently highlighted on UFORL:
As many subscribers will recall, distinguished
photographer, Bob Shell, was involved with the 'alien
autopsy' story - Bob [a staunch advocate of the film's
authenticity] becoming embroiled in claims that Kodak had
ever actually seen any related 16mm film samples - let
alone verified its 1947 provenance.
It seems Bob has somewhat more to be concerned about
these days:
'The Roanoke Times'
Friday, June 18, 2004
[...]
RADFORD - Radford photographer Bob Shell and his defense
attorney lashed out at authorities this week, asking the
court to dismiss the homicide, drug and sex charges
against him and to bring sanctions against the
commonwealth's attorney's office.
At issue for Shell and attorney Marc Small is what they
call repeated and unanswered requests for evidence that
authorities must turn over to them before trial, now set
for Jan. 3-10 in Radford Circuit Court. Shell, 57, is
charged with felony homicide, three counts of defiling a
corpse, attempted sodomy, two counts of attempted animate
object penetration and three drug charges in connection
with the overdose death of one of his models, 19-year-old
Marion Franklin of Boone, N.C.
Franklin died June 3, 2003, in Shell's photography studio
in downtown Radford from an overdose of morphine.
[...]
[END]
For related 'Updates', see:
http://www.bobshell.com/update.html
and...
http://www.roanoke.com/archives/
[search under 'bob shell'].
[END OF 'UFORL' POSTING']
I corresponded frequently with Bob for a couple of years
plus and this is naturally quite a shocker.
James Easton.
( I had to go take a pee in the middle of reading that interesting story)
