How to tell if a video is Fake - any Experts out there?

I have used video editing software to slow down videos and frame by frame look for odd things that to me are tell tale signs that the video is fake.

But I am no expert. So I wanna hear from Experts.

How to tell if a video is fake?

If we put together a great tutorial it would be fun and educational.

(and possibly stop some fake videos from getting posted on ATS)

We should cover things like,

What types of software to use and how to use them.

Open source or Free vs paid for software.

The use of filters.

O.k. you don't have to be a Professional Expert.. as long as you know what really works, go ahead and add to this thread.

What do you guys think?


[edit on 9-12-2009 by JohnPhoenix]

Edit graphics and video yourself, learn what's possible and how it works. That way when you see something fake, you generally know it's fake because you've deconstructed it in your mind and recognize how it would be done if you were to do it.

My girl sends me those funny chain emails all the time with like doctored photos of whatever and she always asks how I know which aren't real and it's extremely hard to explain how I know without being able to use technical knowledge. All techniques in image manipulation have tell tale signs that are resultant of the process, but if you don't understand the process, it's really meaningless.

[edit on 12/9/2009 by ZombieOctopus]

Originally posted by ZombieOctopus
Edit graphics and video yourself, learn what's possible and how it works. That way when you see something fake, you generally know it's fake because you've deconstructed it in your mind and recognize how it would be done if you were to do it.
[edit on 12/9/2009 by ZombieOctopus]

That is one good way to do it. For this thread I think we can put down some general guidelines.. things commonly looked for that can be shown with good software.

A manual if you will for the layperson without learning all the things about video editing he doesn't need to know.. That's what I hope to accomplish with this thread.

it depends on how much the video is well edited. can you really say star wars is fake? however such fake videos\movies require very expensive software and hardware along with professional hardwork.
the following video almost fooled everyone for weeks until it was proven by video editors that it was made with flash. search for this video (ufi in KSA [i think]) for clues.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix

How to tell if a video is fake?

Simple. If it depicts something you don't believe in, obviously it must be fake.

Composite errors mostly.

Lets suppose you have a UFO move behind the leaves of a tree sometimes you will pickup masking errors where some of the pixels of ufo will move in front of the leaves , This is a dead give away. But unfortunately this is pretty rare with the quality of the software out these days.

Another error is the lighting or shadowing on the ufo may not match the video light conditions.

Another composite error I have noticed is where and object has like a fuzzy region around it this happens when the composite mask tolerances aren't high enough. But this doesn't apply to ufo's so much as the gravitic drive seem to give off a fuzziness around a craft. I would be more suspicious if I seen a clean edge saucer.

Well there just some of the things you can look for, But remember that you tube videos aren't great quality video to begin with.

[edit on 9-12-2009 by MOTT the HOOPLE]

A Good start guys.. none of you are mentioning what software you use and why.

Also I think some mention about downloading You Tube videos for home study is in order. I personally use the free SoThink Video Downloader to capture all me videos. www.sothinkmedia.com... They even have a converter to convert flash movies (FLV) to AVI format but the converter is payware.

The Free VideoLan (VLC) Media Player is able to play FLV and AVI files. www.videolan.org... You can use VLC to view the videos frame by frame.

I'd like to hear from some folks who are good at using filters to help test video authenticity. What filters do you use, and why? What programs?

I found some really good info on this here:

www.digitaljournalist.org...

I would need to study this and break it down for something we could use for our tutorial.

Also, Video Analyst® System by Intergraph is made by www.intergraph.com... It is a plug in for Adobe but I cannot find more info on this or pricing.

"Video Analyst® System is a comprehensive, effective, affordable, and user-friendly solution for video enhancement and analysis used for law enforcement, surveillance, or security applications in government agencies or private industry. Video Analyst incorporates a wide-ranging toolset, making it ideal for providing video analysis capabilities in a variety of applications. The robust Microsoft® Windows® platform allows even a novice operator to quickly learn and operate the Video Analyst System, eliminating the need for a highly trained and costly video specialist."

www.intergraph.com...

Another one is here: www.motiondsp.com...

Wikipedia has a good list of software here:

en.wikipedia.org...

This is mostly used by law enforcement to catch bad guys.


[edit on 9-12-2009 by JohnPhoenix]

I think that in the final analysis, assuming the 'editor' is top-notch, there is only one answer...

If it is digital - it could be fake.

With digital imaging, assuming you have no life and you are willing to go frame-by-frame over the course of the video, you can pretty much make anything seem real, given the processing power and sophistication of programs today.

Look what Hollywood can do. - I bet given enough time, it can be done on a personal computer.. especially those low-quality Youtube videos.

Can tell f it's fake by the actors. That's what I notice.

Lighting is almost always the first thing I look for in videos and photos (i mainly do photo analysis with photoshop) If I am really bothered by a video I shall split it into single frames using something such as Mplayer and then study individual frames.

There is alot of education of digital media that needs to be done, but as someone said before, its only when you work with such digital media almost daily can you understand the little details!