This is a pretty astonishing little (1.08 MB) video. The question is, is it for real, or was it, uhhh, whatever is the video equivalent of Photoshopped?

I'm thinking it looks pretty real... but then, what do I know?

Oh, and if you can watch it without saying "Oh, Sh*t" at the end, I'll be impressed!

tanstaafl.

I say its fake. Look at the riders head in these two sequential frames.

It's impressive......but suspect

Photoshopped == Cinepainted ?

Fredrik

I'm not clever enough to pick out frame by frame like you, but in my office we think that you can just see the very top of the crash helmet going along behind the top of the van a few frames later: i.e, the rider actually lands behind, it's staged, as opposed to being edited.

The little cloud of smoke/dust that appears just below the doors of the van looks suspect, especially when watched frame-by-frame.

little cloud of smoke/dust

I thought the same thing, but I justified it saying to myself that it could be the air being compressed under the van, but I still couldn't believe that.

Now I'm looking at the position of the rear tire in the three frames before it enters the van. This has to be retouched. The rear tire seems too low to make it into the van three frames out. Miracously the tire gains about 6-8 inches of vertical position in the very next frame. But the guy did a good job.

I say its fake. Look at the riders head in these two sequential frames.


Hmmm... I would guess he is traveling at 45-50 MPH, or about 30-35 feet per second. One frame to the next is 1/25 of a second -- enough for his head to travel more than one foot. So I could understand his head disappearing in that length of time.

Also--if he did actually land in that van, the impact of his front wheel hitting would certainly snap his head down below the top of the door in a few hundredths of a second.

I'm not saying that this is a true happening... but I don't see anything that definitively proves (to my eyes, anyway) that it is fake.

tanstaafl.

we think that you can just see the very top of the crash helmet going along behind the top of the van a few frames later: i.e, the rider actually lands behind, it's staged, as opposed to being edited.


I don't see the helmet behind the van -- maybe my monitor isn't good enough. But landing behind (i.e., along the left side) wouldn't explain the effects the impact had on the van itself. Note the way it rises and falls on its rear suspension, the way the van slides about eight inches down the hill, and note especially how the front wheels roll while the rear wheels slide -- as though the emergency brake was set or the vehicle was left in park.

Finally, note the absolutely seamless and authentic integration of the sound, particularly at the moment of impact. This wasn't staged the way you suggest, or if it was, then some very skillful editing was done afterwards, and I cannot imagine how they could have created the motions of the van.

tanstaafl.

The little cloud of smoke/dust that appears just below the doors of the van looks suspect, especially when watched frame-by-frame.


Unless... perhaps we are seeing dust/dirt knocked from the motorcycle itself. After all, just a few seconds earlier he was accelerating hard, spinning that great knobby back wheel and getting dirt all over everything. Not surprising that an impact like that would knock some of it loose. Also, assuming they used the van to haul the motorcycle to the site, there could well be dirt inside the van that would be disturbed when the motorcycle landed.

tanstaafl.

This has to be retouched. The rear tire seems too low to make it into the van three frames out. Miracously the tire gains about 6-8 inches of vertical position in the very next frame.


Remember, that bike is traveling at perhaps 30 feet per second when the front wheel touches down. The front wheel is inside the van, the rear wheel is below the level of the van floor just about to hit the rear bumper of the van. What happens in the next 1/25th of a second (next frame)? The rear wheel hits and compresses the bike's suspension (there's probably 12-15" of suspension travel in that thing) and forward momentum of the bike carries it in.

Remember, all you're seeing are snapshots, taken 1/25 of a second apart, with as much as 15 inches of horizontal travel between shots.

tanstaafl.

I've got no proof but common sense, and my answer is:

Hell Yeah it was faked!

-Zeke

I say it's a fake. The audio seems a bit contrived as well.

I would guess he is traveling at 45-50 MPH

Isn't that, right there, enough to tell you it's faked? Go rent a dirtbike, get it up to 45MPH, and slam on the brakes. See if you can stop in less than 10 feet. I'd say if it was real, we'd see his head going through the front windshield. If you put any useful crashpads in the van, you'd barely have enough room to fit the bike in the van. You'd also see the van kick forward from the impact of the bike in the van. That little thing called "momentum" doesn't appear to be conserved in that video...

No kidding. With a stop like that, I expected to see him end up in the front seat or something.

I've got no proof but common sense, and my answer is:

Hell Yeah it was faked!


Well, I'm not saying he did it on purpose! If it isn't faked, it happened because they forgot they parked the van just over the rise of the hill. Surprise!

On the other hand, it is hard for me to imagine someone being so careless. And, think of the camera operator -- obviously he was in a position from start to finish of the video to see that the van was there, and it is not unreasonable to assume that he might have warned the rider.

I think what I'm after is to find some flaw in the editing that would demonstrate that it was faked even to my uneducated eye.

tanstaafl.

I say it's a fake. The audio seems a bit contrived as well.


Hmmm... funny. I thought the audio was one of the most compellingly believable aspects of the whole thing. The seamless transition from engine sound to crash would be hard to fake, I think.

tanstaafl.

Go rent a dirtbike, get it up to 45MPH, and slam on the brakes. See if you can stop in less than 10 feet.

Not a problem if I'm shedding velocity by running into the divider that separates the passenger compartment from the cargo compartment of the van!

If you put any useful crashpads in the van, you'd barely have enough room to fit the bike in the van.

Who said anything about crash pads? I'm not saying he did this on purpose! If it isn't faked (unlikely, I admit) it happened because he forgot the van was there when he began his run.

You'd also see the van kick forward from the impact of the bike in the van. That little thing called "momentum" doesn't appear to be conserved in that video...

You certainly would. Take a close look -- that van slides forward the better part of a foot, with the rear wheels locked and sliding, the front wheels turning, and the impact raises the van on its rear suspension about six inches. I'd say that ws a pretty reasonable transfer of momentum given about an eight to one mass ratio van to rider.

As I said before, it probably is faked -- but I'm looking for some visible flaw in the editing to demonstrate that, and so far haven't seen it.

tanstaafl.

and it is not unreasonable to assume that he might have warned the rider.

Over the noise of the dirt bike's engine? Unlikely .