In the past, courageous leaders were faked with paint and canvas. Source

For some time now, they've been faked with computers:

An actor plus studio props help fake a drunken 'Yeltsin' fall. Computer compositing does the rest. Source: Generation P

From Wikipedia:

[Generation P] ...presents rather far-fetched but not totally impossible vision of the world governed by virtual puppets created, upgraded and controlled by the media corporations. But "not totally impossible" should not be understood literally.

The actor known as Boris Yeltsin is not the only leader to dangle on a line:

Boris Johnson stuck on a zipline. Source

Both Borises show off their coordination skills in social settings:

Boris Yeltsin dancing. Source

Boris Johnson dancing. Source

Today's political events are created in a two-step process:

First: an actor plus computers, plus sound and video editing, creates, say, a Putin-like politician:

Actor + computer + video compositor equals 'Putin'. Source: Generation P

Did they even show a little bit of John F Kennedy in the bottom right of the first frame?

Anyway...

Second: the actor acts events among stage props. Events that can be blamed on - or credited to - the newly computer-composited politican.

Reports about "news events" often show the fingerprints of studio-set film production. In a studio, for example, the bottom of the stage backdrop meets the back of the stage floor. They meet in a straight, horizontal line. Hiding this straight line used to be a challenge.

Film-maker Stanley Kubrick hid the line by disguising it to look natural; as though it were part of the scene. Typically by hiding the line with rocks:

Intersection between stage floor and backdrop in a faked moon scene. Source: Aulis

Hiding the line on a Kubrick studio set. Source: Kubrick's Odyssey

Westworld transformed the same problem into a dramatic landscape feature:

Moving rocks really is a massive endeavour. But not on a sound-stage. Source: Westworld S01 Ep04

Credit to Westworld's production team for the work on sound and light levels required for that scene.

BBC News also uses rocks, or even agricultural sacks, plus background blurring (crushed depth of field):

Rocks in the background at 8-10 secs; sacks at shoulder height from 12 secs in. Source: BBC News, 2022-05-04, 13:00

Nine seconds in, the BBC helpfully shines a light on where to look. It's hidden in plain sight and bright light.

Other special effects devices are sometimes hidden in plain sight. And sometimes even emphasised as part of clothing or equipment:

International Space Station; international crew. Source: Stolen History

• The space crew's boots...
• The light blue tapes at the lower front of their trousers...
• The thick, dark hip bands...
• The dark-coloured tapes at thigh and chest height...

Look closely. They cover padding. This is particularly noticeable over the actors' thighs.

The light blue tapes seem to be taut. They seem to pull on the fabric of the suit legs.

These suits are suspension suits. They are used for suspending actors upside-down on a stage-set.

Let's view it the way it was supposed to be viewed:

Upside down ISS actors. Source: Stolen History

Now we see why the blue tapes are taut. They are carrying weight from the hip bands to the boot clamps.

Fake it till you make it.

Some manufactured news goes far beyond exaggerating and faking current events.

It makes real global history.

Producing that kind of news requires very large studios. Earth-sized studios:

Many of you are troubled by the concern and anxiety this story of an epidemic might cause to your relatives. Source: 2001: A Space Odyssey

I am sure you are all aware of the extremely grave potential for cultural shock and social disorientation contained in this present situation. If the facts were prematurely and suddenly made public without adequate preparation and conditioning.

More like this

• How to Analyze Current Events, Jef DeMolder

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