The comment most often made about the "alien
autopsy" film is professional creature FX artists don't
know how this could be faked.
Here at the Truly Dangerous Company we do,
among other things, creature effects.
So let's have a look at that particular claim,
shall we?
Special Effects -
The Fine Art of Fooling People
The job of a special effects artist involves
the following -
- creating stuff in an attempt to fool an audience
- looking at stuff other people created and trying to figure
out how they did it
- thinking about how we might have done that other
stuff
When we saw the "alien autopsy"
show, we did the same thing. Our opinion? Not only could
everything in the film easily have been done via commonly-used
makeup FX techniques, that's exactly what it looks like.
And as for another often-heard claim that this
"alien corpse", if phony, would have to be the best
creature effect ever put on film... well, not only do we think
it's a fake - we think it could have been a much better fake.
And we, pardon the expression, are not alone.
For example, the FX artist seen on that show wasn't the only "award-winning
creature designer" interviewed. A colleague of ours was
also asked to review the footage for the show. He pronounced it
bogus.
For some reason, his interview wasn't used.
Since the broadcast, we've spoken to many
other people who do this sort of work for a living. We have yet
to find one who thinks the "alien autopsy" is anything
other than a special effect.
A few notes before we start
- We happen to be skeptical types (boo, hiss!) but the
opinions expressed here are shared by other FX artists, some
of whom are a lot less skeptical about UFO's than we are. (A
partial list of their names is available
here.)
- Many of the makeup FX techniques explained here did not
exist until recently. So we should make it very clear that our
assumption here is that the "alien autopsy" was
not shot in 1947. Despite the claims of some, the
autopsy film has never been examined by Kodak or any other
reputable source.
NOTE: As of December 2001,
the above statement is still true.
Unless and until the alien footage can be
confirmed as 1947 vintage, we stand by our opinion the "autopsy
film" was made recently, using modern makeup FX
techniques.
The bottom line: whether you believe something
weird happened at Roswell, New Mexico or not, the "alien"
in this film sure as heck looks like a competently-made (but far
from perfect) dummy.
Want to know how to make your own? You got
it. Just don't tell anyone else about this stuff. These are
trade secrets!
So get your rubber gloves on - here
we go!
Note: The
how-to pictures included in the following
sections are used by permission of
Rick Lazzarini's
Character Shop (thanks, Rick!)
and are not to be reproduced in any form.
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