Rarely does a camera show a close-up look of a flying saucer that not only shows the details on the surface of the ship itself, but actually shows the vehicle close up and departing at speeds far beyond anything any known military aircraft (even the most top secret ones) could perform at. And so when this UFO footage from Devon came onto the scene in early March it was met with mixed reviews. Despite this, it seems most experienced ufologists are declaring this one a hoax. But how did they go about spotting a hoax? We cut each frame and show you how to decide like the experts on clips like this one.
Believers say it’s revolutionary and could turn the field of UFOlogy on its head. Unfortunately, it appears there are more than a few discrepancies pointing in the direction of a hoax. The camera moves from an almost steady position and looks like it may be an artificially moving camera designed so a static image will sync up with a possible CG image in the background. But then as the camera zooms into the distance, we can see something floating sideways in a straight line from the left to the right of the frame as if it were placed into the film and was nothing but a static image in itself. But it moves behind a clump of trees. Proof, says many believers in the footage.
As wonderful as proof would be at this point (it has been several years of searching) unfortunately there is a new technique being used among hoaxers. When we look at UFO footage, in the past we had only to deal with the possibility of someone putting a fake object (like an unidentified flying object) into the film. But now that we have entered an age where computer graphics have reached such a technologically advanced stage, new techniques can make anything look real even if it wasn’t actually there. In this case, a series of trees which the object passes behind that might not actually be there. If you look closely at the trees themselves you might be able to spot how they are slightly different from the more fuzzy trees around it. Their branches are more defined making the act of the object passing behind them all the more incredible. The image is likely actually filming a shot of a live scene, as we can see when the dog runs in as if on cue at the end of the segment.
This technique of hoaxing is being seen increasingly in shocking CG hoaxes that seem upon first sight to be absolute proof and far too high budget for an individual to fake. But in fact it is an effective way for everyone from film makers to student film makers to bring impossible imagery to life in a convincing way, seeing use in such high profile films as The Battle of Los Angeles. Obvious CG objects passing behind normal looking non-CG objects is convincing, but the static nature of the object itself, passing across the screen at all too perfect angles is less convincing.
Naturally it’s never easy to pin down the intentions of any given hoaxer. But given this video wasn’t submitted for financial gain, we can easily understand it might have been a well intentioned joke, a project to showcase their skills or an experimental art piece. And by separating the more convincing footage from the clear hoaxes, we can move on to the real evidence causing us to question our position in the universe.