MovieChat Forums > It Happened Here (1966) Discussion > Amateur Cine World remembered!

Amateur Cine World remembered!

posted 18 years ago by mike-1828
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I've finally been able to see this film, an extraordinary effort.

When I was in my early teens, I subscribed to a UK magazine 'Amateur Cine World' and every month was enthralled by Kevin Brownlow's articles on the trials and tribulations he was encountering in making 'It happened here'. I assume that these articles formed the basis of the book.

I seem to recall a lot of it was filmed with cheap ex-Government silent 16mm cameras, and on the ex-Government film stock that you could get at the time in war surplus shops like Haringey Photographic. I must find the book, so I can discover how they managed to get a commercial distribution!. At the time, I never realised that the producers weren't that many years older than I was...

[–] patk 18 years ago

I worked on this film for several years -- you'll find me listed on the credits as 'Pat Kearney' -- and I distinctly remember Kevin Brownlow doing most of his own 16mm photography using a Bell & Howell 70DR which I believe was his own. Where he got the film stock from I have no idea, but I believe the processing was done at Humphries Labs which, like many other independent labs, is probably out of business by now. The decision to switch to 35mm occurred when Stanley Kubrick
gave Kevin the short ends from "Dr. Strangelove" following a screening he saw
of the fake newsreel sequence. It was then that Wolfgang Suschitzky's son Peter took over principle photography. This was Peter's first feature film, and he did
a remarkable job. The existing 16mm footage was re-examined, and any that it was
decided to keep was optically blown up to 35mm. One sad omission was a brilliantly staged battle sequence between partisans and German troops.