The videos hummed to the top of YouTube's "Most Viewed" list, and from there invaded discussion forums and news aggregator sites across the Web, where debate raged about their origin and authenticity. Skeptics pronounced the videos a computer-generated fraud, probably part of some viral marketing ploy.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
It came from outer space
2 comments:
Yep, posted the article in comments to "Another dubious (if striking) UFO video" yesterday.
I especially liked the demo video at the LA Times article site by the originator of "Haiti UFO" of two little old ladies using an RC deck to control the one-foot wide ducted-fan UFO model used in the original hoaxed video. And yes, he used Vue 6 to create the landscape with the cloned palm trees.
I have a feeling the gun has been fired in the race to create the most well-done ufo hoax video possible--seems like a grand ambition on the part of some yokels.
I guess because this kind of hoax certainly draws attention, when well done, and I suppose some kind of PR that can be used to play on and manipulate others' beliefs for fun and profit.
["It's just a joke. Ain't it cool? My next one will be even more authentic!"]
Digital street netcred, or a hacky cracky? To be expected, given the tools now available. *sigh*
It's apparent from reviewing the "demo video" that even that has a primary element of fakery--
the two little old ladies are not actually controlling the 1-foot wide model at all--that is being suspended on a non-visable string.