Indonesia Sep 2011 Security Cam, page 1

Originally posted by bayuamus
reply to post by FormerSkeptic

I think it's from September 2011

It's suppose to be a viral marketing campaign from a deodorant brand consisting of three videos posted in YouTube, telling a story of how an angel fell down from the sky in Citos -- one of Jakarta's famous hangout place. The story was spread fast through twitter and Indonesian forums, however since the acting was beyond par it was quickly raising doubts, and upon further investigation by the news media the Citos's PR quickly explained that it was a marketing campaign shot in their venue.

PR meaning press release? And how reliable is that? Surely any government would do whatever's necessary to control mass hysteria.

Here's my analysis. And I do, in fact, have some familiarity with radiosity effects in animations. Pros and cons as follows.

The convincing aspects:

The lighted surfaces especially on the lintel beam at the upper left is a big clue. It's not something generated by a uniform CGI light object. Same for areas on the right above and behind. It looks more like strobing and multi-directional light, which is near impossible to generate in software. It's also fairly consistent in its movements. Lighted surfaces and shadow movements are complex in an organic or fractal way, so hoaxing such detail would be extremely tedious and unnecessary. Perhaps possible with very advanced and powerful CGI, but why bother if so few viewers notice such detail?

Then having to create the mall imagery as background, like for an overlay splice as a hoax, requires quite a precise 3D modeling of the entire scene. I've personally done this for a smaller space, and the time it takes is absolutely annoying. This means getting everything — even the diameter, shape and curvature of those tree trunks. The upper trunk right behind the glowing object produces an appropriate shadow!

The timestamp is consistent and regular. Though it's hard to tell a 6 from a 9 etc., there's no obvious jump like from a splice.

The kids running over to look are very convincing. Sure it's night. It's dark. It's quiet. It's a mall open to the sky. Kids do carry flashlights. The one who hesitated halfway is revealing of their bewilderment. They find nothing on the ground. That's some amazing acting for such a short hoax.

But the questionable aspects:

Having no people in the scene during the flash is the only point in question. This opens the possibility of a spliced-in scene. But then again it seems extremely difficult to hoax.

All in all, it's just an anomaly. Definitely not debunked. And being "explained" by the local government is not proof. It's still entirely open to speculation.

edit on 8-1-2013 by FormerSkeptic because: (no reason given)