Oliver Castle - The Story Of A Fake (England) - Alternative View

Oliver Castle - The Story Of A Fake (England) - Alternative View
Oliver Castle - The Story Of A Fake (England) - Alternative View

Video: Oliver Castle - The Story Of A Fake (England) - Alternative View

Video: Oliver Castle - The Story Of A Fake (England) - Alternative View
Video: 3106【06再】Fake or Real?Two UFOs over Oliver Castle, UK本物かインチキか?英国オリバー城の近くを飛び回った小型 2024, March
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Oliver's Castle video is still one of the most famous and popular videos, allegedly capturing in detail the process of the appearance of the mysterious "crop circles" …

Probably, it is possible to guess for a long time how exactly complex pictograms appear in the fields, but according to the "generally accepted version" popular with amateurs or simply "experts on anomalous phenomena" - all the dots above the "i" were placed by the famous sensational video, which was made August 11, 1996 in the town of Oliver Castle (Wiltshire. England).

It was presented, in November of the same year in Finland, to the participants of the First Conference on the Exploration of Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Future of Mankind, by the already famous British crop circle researcher Colin Andrews. The cameraman's video camera dispassionately recorded the flight over the field of three pairs of glowing balls. At first, two balls, moving along a complex trajectory, seemed to outline the contours of the future "canvas". Then their maneuver was repeated by the second pair of balls, and literally before our eyes (in 1.5-2 seconds) the ears of wheat obediently settled down, creating a perfect pictogram. And then, as if checking the quality of the work, a third pair of "ball lightning" flew over the drawing.

Such sensational video material could not leave anyone indifferent. Well-known experts in the field of video editing and special effects were involved in the analysis of the unique videotape.

NASA Video Photographic Analysis Consultant, Computer Analysis Expert Jim Dilettoso concluded:

Hysteria continues even after a decade and a half, and some particularly knowledgeable "experts" still manage to cite this video as the main visual argument confirming that the "crop circles" are made by mysterious SHONGs.

As you probably already guessed right away, everything would be in the generally accepted version "almost like that", if it were not - a large-scale falsification. Considering that this case is not actually reflected in Russian-language publications, as a British ufologist fluent in Russian, I will try to compensate for this omission, as they say, first-hand. So, make yourself comfortable, now we'll figure it out …

Promotional video:

August 11, 1996, 10:45; at the Barge Inn in Alton Barnes, where crop circle enthusiasts gather (the local British name for crop circles enthusiasts), the phone rang. The man, who introduced himself as John Wailey, urged to urgently track down the leading researchers of the community, Colin Andrews or Peter Sorensen. The mysterious stranger claimed to have witnessed an incredible anomalous phenomenon this morning that occurred in the area of Oliver Castle. According to him, several glowing balls, right before our eyes, in a few seconds, formed a giant geoglyph, on a field adjacent to the castle territory, and it was incredible luck that an unwitting witness of a unique phenomenon had a video camera with him, with the help of which, he managed to photograph in detail the entire process of the formation of "crop circles". It was just a bomb! A meeting with a stranger was appointed for the evening, and the agonizing expectation of a sensational shooting began.

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Late in the evening of the same day, the unique material was delivered to the "Barge Inn", himself an eyewitness of the incredible phenomenon. Those present in the pub, a few members of the community of cereologists ("Croppies"), had a unique opportunity to see the footage, though … just through the viewfinder of John Waley's video camera. There was no limit to the delight of the researchers!

As the German researcher and photographer Ulrich Kox would later recall, while visiting fellow cereologists at the Barge Inn the day before, he definitely saw this man in a bar, and he pointedly declared that, despite the bad weather, will be monitoring, and is even going to spend the night right in the field near the castle Oliver. Everything was more than convincing, and the unbeatable enthusiasm of the lucky Wailey brought a unique result. Of course it was super sensation!

Following this, agonizing negotiations began on the part of the cereological leaders in the person of Colin Andrews, Peter Sorensen and Dr. Colette Dowell, about the transfer of copyright material, for study, and subsequent use (however, each of them, wanting to get material pursued purely their own interests). However, the mysterious stranger was very reluctant to negotiate, and referring to the fact that he was leaving for a trip to France, skillfully stretched the intrigue of agonizing expectations. Nevertheless, persistence brought the expected results, and soon, as a result of confidential negotiations, Peter Sorensen managed to persuade Mr. Whaley to give the materials at least for examination, with the categorical condition not to transfer the filming to TV companies and third parties. By some incredible tricks,these two researchers (Sorensen-Andrews) still managed to get hold of an introductory copy of the sensational film.

Despite the fact that much later Colin Andrews will write that already at the first study of the film, he immediately felt the rally, and even allegedly noticed the "editing connections", but … it was he who, in November of the same year, will present this film at the congress in Finland, for a long time perpetuating this generally uncomplicated forgery. However, he will not utter a word about his "guesses", neither this time, nor later, at the Ufological conference in Bristol, which took place on December 15 of the same year.

One way or another, the summary report on the results of the film's research was published only in May 1997 and it is quite obvious that the exposure of the fake was no longer beneficial to Colin Andrews, because it was thanks to this "sensation" that he suddenly became known and famous not only to the UK.

Formally, Andrews, "to put it mildly," made a number of false statements regarding the film's authenticity and continued to persist in gaining arguments in favor of its sensationalism (the mentioned 1997 report, drastically and secretly, will be redone in March 1999).

One of these arguments, was the NASA consultant Jim Diletozzo, mentioned at the beginning of the article (I will talk about him separately, a little further).

The exclusive, personal possession of an introductory copy of the film, strict conditions of non-distribution and a high degree of interest, plunged the English-speaking ufological community not only into acute controversy, but also into a series of revelatory scandals. It even got to the point that some of the participants in the ufological party made a number of grateful statements that it was they who made the fake, with foam at the mouth, pointing at each other with a finger, as a customer (for example, the story with Matthew-Andrews and others..). Against this background, I would like to make an important remark - until the spring of 1997, no serious technical studies of the film were carried out, simply because Andrews, having the only copy of the film, of a very dubious quality, offered to get acquainted with it, only to those whose opinion, to him was interesting or profitable. Because of this,all who were left behind discussed only the words of those who saw this film, or claimed to have seen.

However, in the confusion of sensation and intrigue, everyone forgot about the real author of the shoot - John Wheyleigh. And soon, a number of scandals associated with the film still forced Andrews to radically reconsider his personal strategy, and no longer interested in proving the authenticity of the film, he hires private detectives in order to prove the opposite (in his subsequent publications, he will try to move this moment a little maybe at the beginning of this whole story, but he is cunning..).

It soon became clear that no John Wheyleigh actually exists, and this man's real name is John Wabe, and he works in a special effects studio in Bristol. This is where the details from Andrews mysteriously end.

It is logical to assume that the mysterious "eyewitness" (D. Weib) should have had the physical ability, early in the morning with a camera and a tripod at the ready, to wander through the farm fields in the area of Oliver Castle, she decided to "scan" all the editing television studios of the nearest relatively large city of Bath (Bath), where, as she thought, the theoretical Weib could work. It soon became clear that a certain Mr. Weib, indeed, sometimes privately, uses a graphic station of the BDC Studio company (in those years, powerful computers were a rarity) in the city of the same name, to create various animation effects. Further, the thread stretched to Bristol, to the studio "First Cut". And soon, Dr. Dowell, found the job of the elusive prankster. The next step was to be his public exposure. For this, it was planned to use the Nippon TV television company,and at the same time, shoot a very entertaining story about the history of this "cereological video sensation."

A successful raid on Weiba took place on June 4th. Catching a smart guy right at his workplace (he used to work on editing, at a graphic station), and despite a desperate attempt to escape from TV reporters, he was still caught in the parking lot, where a number of uncomfortable questions were asked to him., he did not particularly deny, acknowledged the authorship of the film, but declined to comment, referring to the conditions of the rider of the Discovery Channel USA, who, as it turned out, had already bought the exclusive rights to use the film (!). Later, in collaboration with the same "Nippon TV", Weib will still make a thematic story called "repentance."

Following this, one by one, the conclusions of those who have slept through all, experts will begin to emerge, who will immediately find "obvious" signs of editing on successive half-frames of shooting, but also minor displacements of the trajectory of the "balls" relative to the main video sequence, arising from instability of the tripod. And then, just as naturally, they will figure out the simple mechanism of the "tremor" from manual shooting, just like others that have already become classic today - signs of digital editing. However, I have already described the reasons for this sudden insight a little higher.

In this regard, I would like to separately mention the role of the already mentioned expert Jim Dilettoso, who, in fact, became an unwitting hostage to the intrigues around the film. In fact, it is very likely that he was skillfully involved in controversy, simply distorting the words he said. The study of the circumstances of the "irresponsible" statement "about the authenticity of the video with Oliver castle," by the eminent expert, comes down to the fact that to get acquainted with the video, he was offered to take a quick look at a low-quality copy, in which, at first glance, he "did not see obvious signs counterfeits”(this is quite logical, given the low quality of the copy), advising to purchase the original master copy from the owner and send it to him in the USA for detailed analysis.

Obviously, the last request of Jim, in this context, is not cited, relying only on his preliminary conclusions about "the absence of obvious editing." In a similar way, a dozen other well-known experts and video engineers from England and the United States were “caught” by Andrews.

Director and producer Dan Drasin commented on the proposed copy of the film for review: 50Hz PAL to American 60Hz NTSC...

However, back to our story, soon, at the request of the "Discovery Channel", exposed by D. Web, in detail and clearly demonstrate how exactly made the fake, and in 2005, the documentary film "National Geographic" will be released (producers: Timothy Dilworth & Dana Kemp) from the series "Is it real?" (23rd episode: Crop Circles) where Weib himself willingly reveals the secret of creating his "sensation".

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The mechanism for making a fake is outrageously simple. Having previously filmed a plan of the field with a "fresh" pictogram, lasting a few seconds (1: General shot), John goes to the studio. Next, he cuts out from the general plan, a fragment of the "untouched" field, and aligns it along the lines left by the agricultural machinery, covering the pictogram image with a "patch" (2: Application). The field of this, at the top of the captured picture, adds a flight of glowing balls (3: Adding effects), the culmination of which is the gradual "disappearance" of the superimposed fragment, covering the pictogram already existing on the field (4: Combination). At the same time, the illusion is created that the pictogram appears literally before our eyes.

An example of an application sequence
An example of an application sequence

An example of an application sequence.

However, with regard to the circumstances of the shooting and the organization of the "event", a significant discrepancy unwittingly arose, which I did not meet with the English-speaking researchers, and I suppose they simply did not take it into account. Its essence boils down to the fact that, as I mentioned, Weyb was seen in the Barge Inn pub late the night before, where he made a memorable statement about his desire to spend the night on the field near Oliver Castle. However, this alignment assumes two options. The first - the pictogram was actually made by crop makers that night, and Web, as he claims in his "official version", stumbled upon it early in the morning, and feeling creative inspiration, made a general shot, after which he went to his studio. Then, in just a couple of hours, having made a fake video, by the evening of the same day, he presented a fake one for the judgment of the first viewers. It doesn't sound bad, but,it's not like that at all…

An important detail, the phone call to the Barge Inn, with the shooting details, rang out in the morning, therefore, by 10:45 am, Weib already had a copy of the fake that was completely completed and re-shot from the editing monitor, which “does not fit a little” in time, and speaks in favor of a completely different assumption …

It is not clear why, for a number of key technical details, eminent experts did not pay attention at all. Actually, and after all with this, and it was necessary to start checking the circumstances under which the recording was made. Pay attention to this right away, at least one researcher - and the deception would be revealed even at the initial stage.

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Pay attention to the general shooting plan. The operator, located at the top, in the center of the rampart "Oliver Castle", and from the embankment, filmed a general plan of the field, with a pre-made pictogram. Now, some fun astronomy. Pay attention to the indicated directions, from where the sun should have shone at sunrise and sunset …

  • Azimuth of approach: 290 (approximately 20:00)
  • Azimuth of sunrise: 65 (at 6:00, posted by Weib)

Therefore, now, pay attention to the direction of the shadows (indicated in the figure), on the edge of the stacked icon elements. You are not mistaken - the shadow really falls in the southeastern directions, and not vice versa, as should come from the "official version" of Mr. Weib, therefore, the shooting could not have been done in the morning, since the frames show that the sun was in fact at sunset in the western part of the sky.

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Consequently, another version suggests that Weibe had no less mysterious accomplices who made the pictogram in the evening, at sunset. Obviously, it would be impossible to shoot a general shot the next day (the pictogram would have already been found by the "croppies" patrols), and since according to the "official version", the shooting was made at 6 am (the sun should be in the east, and in general, shaft).

In my opinion, events developed as follows: the night before, at about 20:00, having filmed a general plan of the field, with a fake pictogram already made by his accomplices, Web calmly went to the Barge Inn (from Oliver Castle to Barge Inn, 25 minutes drive), where he attracts attention, stating that he is going to spend the night on the field, after which he goes straight home to Bath (an hour's drive). And in the morning, he starts editing the video, and as soon as the idea of the future sensation has taken on specific technical outlines, he calls the Barge Inn, tells “how it all happened,” and makes an appointment for the evening. Then you already know. If my assumptions are correct, then this is not only a brilliant provocation, but also a good business!

In this regard, behind the scenes, it remained unclear, but almost obvious Weib's connection with the famous forger Rob Irving, the one who falsified the UFO footage for the Fortean Times, and who also lives in the town of Bath. A number of British researchers are inclined to believe that the successful businessman, in addition to making good money from TV broadcasters, through the rental of a video, within the framework of this provocation, also managed to crank up an advertising campaign for Mcan Erickson, which produces professional photo optics. The participation of this company in the creation of fake crop circles, by the way, is the subject of a separate conversation. Also unknown were the accomplices who made a fake pictogram for Weib. Based on my experience, there should be 6-8 people, and using standard mechanical stacking methods,a pictogram of such an area and complexity can be made in about 2-2.5 hours …