Items from Bowling Green State University’s (BGSU) Center for Archival Collections (CAC) made their television debut, featured in HBO’s new horror series “IT: Welcome to Derry.”
“IT: Welcome to Derry” is located in a small town in the 1960s, where the citizens are devoid of human decency. Adding a wicked and wild entity who can shape their victims’ greatest fear against them, including a clown. Deeper into the entity origins than any previous adaptation has done before. “IT: Welcome to Derry” is based on Stephen King’s novel “It”, according to an article released by the New York Times.
Allison Brandeberry, athletics archivist for BGSU, said HBO rented the film canisters and two readers for the series.
“They’re really just round cylinders that the rolls of microfilm would have been stored in. The microfilm readers are more of an older style type of viewing machine,” Brandeberry said. “You would load the microfilm along the top and then as you scroll through the film, the images get projected down into a hole in the machine, which you can see in the pictures.”
Brandeberry did not contact HBO directly; it was through a vendor.
“They [HBO] contacted one of my supplied vendors, who happened to remember that I had things in storage. He is the one who actually connected me with HBO’s representative to talk about whether or not they may want to use what I have and if we would be willing to let them use it,” Brandeberry said.
Brandeberry believes that HBO has kept the readers and film canisters through the whole season, but does not know what scenes they were used for.
“They kept them about eight months or so before they shipped them. It makes me conclude that they kept them through the filming of the entire season,” Brandeberry said. “We were told that they were in the first episode. As far as I know, that’s the only scene.”
HBO originally wanted to buy the readers, but since BGSU is a public university, it is not allowed to sell equipment to private individuals.
“We just decided that it was easier for everyone if we went the rental route. HBO paid $1200 to rent both the microfilm readers. It was just more the fun of the experience than money,” Brandeberry said.
Even though the library knew HBO was using their film canisters and readers, they did not know what the project was.
“When we first sent them off, we just knew that they were going to be used in some sort of TV series. They were getting packed up and getting shipped to Canada, which is where the show was filmed. We really had no other information, “ Brandeberry said.
On the film canisters, there is a sticker placed there from the show and the library is going to keep it on.
“Yeah, I do believe we are because most of those canisters were not in use as actual film canisters. So we’ll be keeping them as kind of a memorabilia,” Brandeberry said.
Erica Harris, a sophomore majoring in psychology, has watched the first two episodes of the show and she enjoyed it.
“Not all episodes are out yet, but so far it’s done a great job as a prequel to the movies. It’s intense, scary and I am excited to see what the rest of the season holds and how it will connect more to the origin of Pennywise the clown,“ Harris said.
The library was not allowed to tell anyone while HBO was used in the filming process. Afterward, they were allowed to tell students and community members.
“I did not know there were items from the BGSU libraries in the series, but I would totally go back and watch the series to look for them,” Harris said.
Some people can not handle the scary series and would not watch it even if items in the library were used.
“I would definitely be more interested in it, but I’m not a scary gore type of person. I probably would still avoid it as much as possible. Maybe I would look up scenes that have the stuff from our library in it,” said Madelyn Blevens, a freshman majoring in early childhood education.
A new episode of “It: Welcome to Derry” will be available every Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO or HBO Max to watch
“Subsequent episodes of the eight-episode season will continue to air Sundays on HBO and HBO Max leading up to the season finale on Sunday, December 14,” said a press release sent out by HBO Max.
For more information about the CAC: https://www.bgsu.edu/library/cac.html
