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Updated: May 10, 2025
I was anxious to film the whole line from an aeroplane. "Well," said he, "what about the height? I think I had better call in the Captain," and pressing a bell an orderly quickly appeared and was sent off to inform the Captain that his presence was required. "I say," said the Flight Commander, "this is Malins, the War Office Kinematographer." He then explained my mission and requirements.
I am Appointed an Official War Office Kinematographer And Start for the Front Line Trenches Filming the German Guns in Action With the Canadians Picturesque Hut Settlement Among the Poplars "Hyde Park Corner" Shaving by Candlelight in Six Inches of Water Filming in Full View of the German Lines, 75 yards away A Big Risk, but a Realistic Picture.
I have striven to make my pictures worthy of being preserved as a permanent memorial of the greatest Drama in history. That is the keynote of this record. As an Official Kinematographer I have striven to be, and I have tried all the time to realise that I was the eyes of the millions of my fellow-countrymen at home.
We followed Scott and Shackleton into the regions of eternal ice, we climbed the Himalayas, we saw the world from the height of the aëroplane, and every child in Europe knows now the wonders of Niagara. But the kinematographer has not sought nature only where it is gigantic or strange; he follows its path with no less admirable effect when it is idyllic.
How I came to be entrusted with the important commission of acting as Official War Office Kinematographer is an interesting story, and the first few chapters of this book recount the sequence of events that led up to my being given the appointment. Let me begin by saying that I am not a writer, I am just a "movie man," as they called me out there.
During the early days of the war I worked more or less as a free lance camera man, both in Belgium and in France, and it was not till the autumn of 1915 that I was appointed an Official Kinematographer by the War Office, and was dispatched to the Front to take films, under the direction of Kinematograph Trade Topical Committee.
"This is about the most charming joy-ride I have had for many a day," I replied, "but let me introduce myself. I am Malins, the Official Kinematographer, and my friend here is the Official 'still' picture man. We are here to get scenes of the German retreat, but it seems to me that one cannot see Bosche for dust. That is Villers-Carbonel, is it not?" I said, pointing up the road in the distance.
My position as Official Kinematographer has afforded me unique opportunities to gain knowledge of the whole system required to wage the most terrible war that has ever been known to mankind. I have not let these opportunities slip by.
They did not understand why a motor-car should be coming back apparently from the German lines, and their attitude was decidedly unfriendly till I assured them I was not a German, but only the Official Kinematographer out for pictures.
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