From: vaughan@bilbo.pic.NET (Vaughan Wynne-Jones) Subject: How WOULD you fake the autopsy film? Instead of slagging off the curly phone cord or number of digits the alien has, lets consider the logistics involved in producing the film. Please feel free to add to this. Since we are going to be making some assumptions, let's wherever possible, try and assume that the expert witnesses have a reasonably good idea of what they are talking about. On that basis, I suggest we assume : - The props are authentic or good fakes, and appropriate for the time period. (Phone,Clock,Instrument tray etc) - The Film is from either 1927,1947 or 1967 stock. - The gentlemen carrying out the autopsy are medically trained. THE STORY LINE -------------- One would have to research the Roswell incident pretty thoroughly to convince people of the authenticity. This is no great shakes, since the world and his wife could probably tell you the Roswell story backwards. THE FILM STOCK -------------- The first question any good con man wishing to make this film would realize is that the film would be scientifically tested for dating purposes. Therefore, he would have to find some film appropriate to the time. For that, he would need to know : a) What kind of film would have been used by the military (KODAK) b) How the film would be identified to Kodak as being from that time period. A quick trip round any good air force museum would tell him what type of film the air force was using. The next trick is to establish a suitable year. Because KODAK's codes repeat every 20 years, He could use any one from 1940-1947 without concern. Maybe he got lucky with '47, since it could just as convinvgly been an earlier year. Obviously he would have to avoid '48 upwards to the end of that film cycle, since that would raise (more) questions about the authenticity of the film. What we have to assume therefore is that he had some knowledge of KODAK's film coding system. Now, I'm sure this information isn't Top Secret, but it wasn't in their advertising either, so some amount of research would have been needed on his part. Once we've found that information, either by calling kodak or maybe doing some library research, or maybe talking to an ex KODAK employee, then we next have to obtain film suitable to the period. I believe 17 reels of film were 'shot' altogether. Since we are assuming this is a hoax, in all likelihood more than 17 reels would have been used. Outtakes, bloopers and so on. (Thinking on it a video compilation of 'Autopsy Bloopers' would probably be a big seller - The Alien gets up for a smoke during a break, the 'doc' slices through a real artery by mistake - What do you think, Ray?). Perversley, the better the director, the more 'outtakes' there are likely to be, since he will want to take more time making the film look authentic. So lets say we need 24 reels of film with a 1927/47/67 code on them. Two questions come up at this point, which you can consider 'action items' if you wish : ACTION ITEM 1: Find out how easy it would be to obtain undeveloped film with suitable codes - say 2 dozen reels. ACTION ITEM 2: Did the film that was shot show any evidence of 'splicing' ? This is important - If it did, then the film could have been edited to remove 'bloopers'. If it didn't, then each three minute segment was shot free of errors. In which case (and this is signifcant) if an error occurred during the cutting of the body itself, the whole set would have to be 'reset' and started again. This would increase the time taken considerably, as the 'body' would have to be made up to look how it did at the start of the segment. Now this stopped me in my tracks for a bit, before I decided that we'd just have to trust to luck, and hope there were no cock ups during filming. THE CAMERA ---------- Again, we would have to go to the museum and find out what cameras were being used by the military in the '40s, and get hold of a working one. Trying to 'fake' it would be too easily discovered by the trained eye. Assuming we got hold of one, we'd have to use up some film on it testing and familarising ourselves with the equipment. THE PROPS --------- We'd probably need to talk to a medical professional who knew what items would have been used in an autopsy of the mid '40s. We'd need to talk to General Electric and the Bell Telephone company to find out what equipment they had available that could have been supplied to the military, and we'd need to know what a military field autopsy lab would have contained. Nobody seems to have asked many questions about the radiations suits so far. Were these authentic for the time period? Since nobody seems to question them, We'll say yes. On that basis, we'd then need to find all this equipment and a cool, dry place to set it up. ACTION ITEM 3: Where would one buy these Radiation suits? THE DOCTORS ----------- There has been expert testimony stating that the gentlemen carrying out the autopsy are probably real surgeons, not actors. Perhaps they are both. In any event we would need two trained surgeons, with some acting ability (though not much beyond the ability to accept direction) and a willingness to take part in our hoax. How would we locate such individuals? And how would we buy their silence? Obviously, the most effective way would be to give them a cut of the royalties from the sales of the film - If it is revealed to be a hoax, they're royalties would drop. And so, ACTION ITEM 4 : Is Santilli required to publish his Balance Sheet and Income Statement (P&L) at year end? If so, Royalties distribution would appear in this. If this financial transaction were occurring, it would show up here. THE BODY -------- Assuming this is a hoax, we have one of three possibilities 1) It is a dummy 2) It is organic (Deformed humanoid) 3) It is a mixture of both The film crew that reviewed this film seemed very certain that the making of a dummy of such authenticity would be all but impossible given current special effects techniques. The likelihood of finding a humanoid with close to the right deformities needed both internally and externally is even less likely, which presents us as 3) being the only logical choice available to us. This is one of the reasons that I stated earlier that the 'set' would need to be cool. The Body, which would need to be a pubescent girl with non-black skin could probably be obtained by one of the surgeons, assuming they were a mortician, and assuming they could get away with it. ACTION ITEM 5: How does one go about getting hold of a dead body without too many questions being asked? Now the polydactyly (six fingers and toes) could be handled with some current SFX technology. It would have to be good however, to look natural as this did. The distended stomach could in fact be false - a place to keep the alien organs. The ears would have to be false, but hiding the real ones would probably involve removing them, and some plugging and painting. The eyes would have to be removed of course, and the sockets widened. This would be a good time to remove the brain (through the eye sockets) then feed in a black silica mass to take its place - basically pushing it in through the eye socket, then expanding it with air once inside. ACTION ITEM 6: Is this do-able? I would think so - It would mean that when you saw through the head, you would be sawing through organic tissue, which would give the desired effect the SFX guys felt they weren't able to duplicate. Replacement eyes would now be inserted and rolled upwards, then patches placed over them. The SFX guy appears to be good at his job. Very good. Which means he could probably get money for this anywhere, and so again he would need to be in on the royalties for no small amount. ACTION ITEM 7: How much do good SFX guys make? THE PITCH --------- Here's the tricky bit. We have to come up with a story convincing enough to spark public interest, but which cannot be easily disproven. In addition, we have to be prepared for newshounds to expect to investigate and finally track down our source. Therefore we need someone who served in the military in the mid forties, preferably as a cameraman, and who may therefore have had access to the Roswell 'events'. Having found them, we'd have to explain the story to them, and offer them enough money so that they'd keep totally quiet initially, and then spin the yarn we gave them when finally discovered (which should be any time now). CONCLUSION ---------- Above, I've tried to demonstrate how it might be done, but there are several problems with this : 1) The people factor - mouths and money etc. may make the exercise too costly. 2) The Logistics - Getting a body, setting it up to look alien, disposing of it afterwards, plus all the props etc. This would be a nightmare 3) The Moral factor - Assuming the above scenario is true, you'd have to be a pretty sick individual to attempt this, and you'd need three or four other sickos to help you. (Could this be a government sponsored film after all?) 4) The Law - If the above scenario occurred, then several laws have been broken. 5) Luck - You would need a lot of it! The right film; no bloopers; nobody backing down and blowing the whistle. 6) The above does not take into account any additional footage on the 'raw' video, since my copy still hasn't turned up yet. There may be additional problems there which make this project unviable. When all is said and done, I would have to say that it may be possible to fake the film, but, to my mind it is just too improbable. You would have to be a certifiable maniac and a certifiable genius to be able to pull it off. Anyway, thats my two pence worth - I would be interested to hear any reponses on the action items above. Vaughan Wynne-Jones : Internet Specialist Vaughan@pic.net