From: James Easton <voyager@ufoworld.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002 04:47:09 -0000
Fwd Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002 14:21:59 -0500
Subject: 'Alien Autopsy': Made in Germany?


On UFORL, I recently highlighted the following disclosure:

"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
theinterview!"
[END]


I came across this article, online, at:

http://www.mhvf.net/forum/scifihorror/posts/124218244.html

Is this truly a drunken confession [doubtless much lamented next
morning], or a tall tale invented when 'completely plastered'?

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.


Ittenbach needs to be located and interviewed. I've asked the
article's author if he can assist and whether he can recall some
further background to those claims.

Meantime, it's only an intriguing story that has to be verified.
[END OF EXTRACT]


I subsequently noted:

Regarding:

 >From: "James Easton" <voyager@ufoworld.co.uk>
 >Date: Mon Mar 4, 2002  5:09 am
 >Subject: 'Alien Autopsy': The Origin Revealed?

I wrote:

 >Ittenbach needs to be located and interviewed. I've asked the
 >article's author if he can assist and whether he can recall some
 >further background to those claims.

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.


I added:

 >Meantime, it's only an intriguing story that has to be
 >verified.

This is crucial to keep in mind. For a number of reasons, I
would be more than a little surprised if Ittenbach _was_
responsible for creating the 'alien autopsy' [I see that rumours
of his connection were actually being circulated before the
apparent July, 2001 confession to Don May and others].

Only Ittenbach can fully resolve whether he did take credit for
the original footage and if that was in fact a justified claim.

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.

I'll explain more in due course.


Incidentally, I note some caustic remarks which may well relate
to the Ray Santilli we know! See:

http://www.tomrobinson.com/new/trb/trbhist3.htm [END OF EXTRACT]


After further discussions with Don May, President of 'Synapse
Films', I'm assured Olaf Ittenbach was indeed, unless Don is
significantly mistaken, acknowledging that he created the
_original_ 'alien autopsy' footage.

We'll see...

An update, including the promised explanation how I discovered
Ittenbach was "certainly a 'player' in those early days", will
be publicised shortly.

On the point that, "rumours of his connection were actually
being circulated before the apparent July, 2001 confession to
Don May and others", it was announced on 5 March, 2001:

"Also, rumor has it that Ittenbach was responsible for the
infamous Alien Autopsy footage...":

http://www.vidjunkie.com/barebones/archive.htm


Vorsprung Durch Technic...?


James Easton.
E-mail: voyager@ufoworld.co.uk
www.ufoworld.co.uk