Bigfoot: Shawn Bannon Studiodrome Hoax

[kitakaze]

This is a repost from the Bigfoot: Anybody Seen One? Thread that deserves its own discussion. I have posted about Studiodrome before back in 2008, but never in as much detail as here...

bigfoot is a jogger.

And a pretty good jumper, as well. That is a different cut of a hoax I've linked here countless times. Let me break it down for you. I won't be posting any images because the person who made the hoax states the images on his website are copyrighted and can not be reproduced or used without legal permission. No problem, I'll just link to them.

The film is a hoax created by LA-based California Institute of Arts vegan and cycling enthusiast film student Shawn Bannon. I struggle with even calling the film a hoax, because while Shawn never winks and insists in various venues that the film is legitimate, it is flatly obvious that the film is a transparent maneuver for attention. Shawn is an aspiring filmmaker and I think it would take someone breathtakingly credulous to even pause to consider if the film might show a real Bigfoot.

I am around the same age as Shawn and as a fellow artist who shares some of the same interests, I'm not particularly enthusiastic to lambast someone for what is clearly art. On the other hand, Shawn pushes the creation as reality and I am not down with hoodwinking and boonswoggling in the name of hype.

This is Shawn Bannon's bio on his website...

http://www.studiodrome.com/shawn_bannon.html

He likes Joy Division, New Order, The Cure, Brian Eno, and My Bloody Valentine. Neato. Shawn likes some of my favourite musical influences. What is clear to me is that Shawn has the shoegaze bug. If you are not up on your Gen Y lingo, just hit this link on shoegazing.

Now continuing on with Shawn, you can see the main page for his Studiodrome website here...

http://www.studiodrome.com/shawnbannon/Home.html

I think he takes the name Studiodrome from his love of film and cycling (think velodrome). You can see his filmography on imdb here...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1068630/

His latest film is a 2010 release entitled Brainwashed Love. For me personally after watching only the trailer, the film looks to be a vapid and innocuous Gen Y Dawson's Creek lift of some excellent films including Control, Lost In Translation, Donnie Darko, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Girl fretting over pregnancy test applicator in bathroom scene? Check. Blech. Maybe if I sat down and watched the film it might turn out to be good, but I barely have the time just to make this post. Anyway, Shawn has an eye for style and detail, but my own personal opinion is that he needs to find himself as an artist rather than emulate others too much. Of course, Shawn could come here and turn around and say I'm a DJ/producer too influenced by electronic music of the 70's, 80's, and 90's and he might be right. It's a non sequitur matter of opinion, and this is not a discussion about my music or Shawn's films, but rather a Bigfoot hoax Shawn did as an aspiring film student back in 2005. The thing is still up on the Internet and he still pushes it as really Bigfoot.

The two most common versions of the hoax can be seen here...



And here...



Those versions are crappy Youtube resolution. You can watch the video in HD here on Vimeo...

http://vimeo.com/7073148

The guy with the little Steve Zissou hat and film camera in hand is Shawn. Shawn made the film in the Giant Sequoia National Park in California. You can see Shawn at the 1:00 mark. The Steve Zissou looking for his jaguar shark vibe is pretty obvious to me, right down to the film countdown intro. Man, I love that movie and I actually used it in a film class I was teaching in Tokyo around the same time Shawn made this little short. It has one of the best soundtracks ever.

One thing you might note is that the Youtube user channel has the handle "ParisRoubaix". Who's Paris Roubaix? Not who, what. Paris-Roubaix is a famous cycling race in Northern France that is known for its rough terrain and cobblestones. On Shawn's Youtube channel you'll see his other videos and most recently the trailer for his Brainwashed Love movie...

http://www.youtube.com/user/ParisRoubaix

Shawn's user page on Vimeo can be seen here...

http://vimeo.com/shawnbannon

What I do like is that at least Shawn went to some solid effort with this hoax and used film rather than video. Now let's get down to the Bigfoot meat and have a look at what he actually was filming for a subject. As I said, I don't think I can post the images, so I'm linking to his website where he shows the Bigfoot...

http://www.studiodrome.com/shawnbannon/bigfoot.html

The last image is the best look, I think. The following is the story for the hoax included at the bottom of the page...

The Story


In October of 2005 my friends Eric Baxter, Aaron Wise and myself Shawn Bannon went backpacking in the Giant Sequoia National Park. We were out on a photo expedition, something we do several times a year. The drive is about 4 hours long, the last hour of it being on curvy mountain roads to a nice elevation of about 7,000 feet. We arrived to the trailhead at about 9 p.m. on a friday night and hiked in about 5 miles to set-up camp, carrying a total of around 125 pounds of gear between the three of us. Not a big task since we mountaineer several times a year. What we witnessed the next day has changed our lives forever.


All of the Bigfoot footage you are about to see was shot within the matter of about a minute, by Shawn Bannon, Eric Baxter, and Aaron Wise. The Images you are about to see are not retouched, the only adjustments made to the images were brightness, contrast and gamma levels.

Back in '07 Loren Coleman covered the video on his Cryptomumble blog and said it was interesting, but he was wary of it because the makers had film connections. Loren, of course, was savvy enough not to call the film an outright and obvious hoax. He benefits from people thinking it might have been real. I won't link to Loren's coverage of it because I have enough consideration for my fellow members not to subject them to the dish washing detergent ads that come blaring at you when you look at anything on his site. That site is essentially unwatchable to me now and more of a nuisance than anything. Craig Woolheater, please note, if people want to be bowled over by TV commercials, they can turn on the TV. The same incessant dish washing detergent ad with the accordian hip hop that keeps playing and can't be disabled is ass. You do know you can keep the lights on over there with static image adds. The noise ratio as gone nuclear and it is actually a excercise in patience to look at that site. Not one person on the planet could read an article on that website without being able to recite the Finish Quantum diamond standard quantum advanced formula for removing food residue or having the Frank's Hot Sauce ad club music trappend in your brain.

One thing of note is that Shawn did not respond to any attempt at communication by Loren, but at the time his website had an extended version of what I already quoted above...

Bigfoot
Thursday, January 11, 2007

Latest
The Hi-Rez and Ipod version of the footage currently are not available. All of the footage has been and is under investigation by expert primatologists, an anthropologist, cryptozoologists and paranormal experts.

Youtube
The footage is available on youtube at the recommendation of a primatologist who is correct in assuming that other people who had spotted the creature in the same area would come forward with similar evidence, and they have.

Conservation
If the habitat of the bigfoot was not in danger you can be assured we would not be making this footage public.

Part of the Story
Believe it or not about a year ago in October of 2005 my friends Eric Baxter, Aaron Wise and myself Shawn Bannon went backpacking in the Giant Sequoia National Park. We were out on a photo expedition, something we do several times a year, we packed up a variety of film stocks and several cameras. The drive was about 4 hours long, the last hour of it being on curvy mountain roads to a nice elevation of about 7,000 feet. We arrived to the trailhead at about 9 p.m. on a Friday night and hiked in about 5 miles to set-up camp, carrying a total of around 125 pounds of gear between the three of us. Not a big task since we mountaineer several times a year. We hiked for a few hours wearing headlamps and backpacks. Really just looking for a nice spot that was far away as possible.

What we witnesses the next day has changed our lives forever.

All of the Bigfoot footage you are about to see was shot within the matter of about a minute, by Shawn Bannon, Eric Baxter, and Aaron Wise. The images you are about to see are 100% un-retouched, the only adjustments made to the images were brightness, contrast and gamma levels. All of the photos and motion footage was shot with extremely long telephoto lenses. It appears we might be close but we are at least 100 feet away at any given time.

Yes, you'd pretty much have to be some form of dolt to think the film is real and to their credit most people commenting at Cryptomumble thought it was a fake. So who were the dolts? Well, The Burg (interdimensional Bigfoot wingnut Neil Burgstahler) did not disappoint...

Intriguing

PROS
Jet black color
Large dangerous agile leap with no obvious injury
All three persons accounted for
Typical bluff charge with no follow through
Quick retreat by alleged Bigfoot
No neck
Extremely long arms
Possible 12″ to 18″ long fire hose @ 1:44.5 seconds
Good Bigfoot pace on retreat
Convincing terror by streamside drinker
Timing of streamside drinkers first move to exit looked legitimate
Rapid escape by streamside drinker who bolted first and then looked back second
Cameraman was too rattled to keep the camera steady, as opposed to proven hoaxes like the Memorial Day footage where the camera was relatively steady
Appears to meet the long hair, no neck, long arm, with dangling fire hose defining Bigfoot criteria

CONS
Someone else took the video so it has to be a fake, so the decks are still clear for the next great Bigfoot footage to be captured.

Conclusion: worth further study and cross examination of witnesses

Conclusion: Neil, you're one of the wildest asses I have ever had the pleasure of communicating with.

So I would say that in the end I enjoyed Shawn's hoax. It was done with much better effort than most Bigfoot hoaxes and it wasn't malicious and massively fraudulent in the way that the 2008 Georgia Boyz hoax was. I am going to email Shawn Bannon and invite him to the conversation and share details on how he did the hoax. I think that would be interesting and would give Shawn's filmmaking skills good attention without having to insist the film was really Bigfoot and keep up with the boonswoggle.

BTW, Shawn, if you read this, sorry I didn't like your film. It was too forced and shallow for me. It felt like Reality Bites 2010: Return From Dawson's Creek. If you join the conversation, feel free to tell me how much my opinion sucks. Maybe some people will agree with you. I definitely disagree with the no bad publicity addage, but in this instance I think there's an opportunity for good publicity. Good luck with your future efforts and don't be discouraged, you do have passion and skill.

 

[DennyT]

Now that guns are legal in national parks I guess we won't be seeing many more of these.

 

[kitakaze]

The following is from the email I just sent to Shawn Bannon inviting him to join this discussion. There is an interesting dynamic in that Shawn is a passionate film maker who has a forth coming feature film release and I am a passionate musician and music producer that is seeking to make a documentary film. I will show Shawn respect and interest, and i really hope he responds and doesn't insist the film is of a real Bigfoot...

Hi, Shawn.



(snip), though most people know me as Kitakaze or just Kaze. I am a DJ, producer, musician, and fashion model that lives and works in both Tokyo, Japan and Victoria, BC. I am currently in Canada. We have some musical tastes in common (New Order, Joy Division, Brian Eno, The Cure, My Bloody Valentine) as well as some film tastes, I think. I'm a huge fan of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Control, Donnie Darko, and Lost In Translation. Sophia Coppola did much of the writing for Lost in Translation just down the street from my condo in Nakameguro (Tokyo neighbourhood). My DJ/producer work is mostly in the House and Techno culture, but I have done a lot of work in Rock and Jazz as well. My fashion work is mostly in magazines and fashion shows with labels like Comme des Garcons and magazines like Huge. I also used to teach film in Tokyo and have worked on translating film there also. My most experience with film is shooting videos for music, but I am no film maker as of yet. I am a musician first and foremost.



Why I am contacting you has nothing to do with my music or fashion work, but rather your film work and particularly your Bigfoot documentary that your website states you have been working on for five years. You see, in addition to being a music person, I am also I fairly well known skeptical writer that has specialized in the subject of Bigfoot. I was pretty nutty about it when I was younger and even after abandoning a belief in the creature, I maintained an interest in the subculture and the perpetuation of the myth. I very much enjoy Bigfoot as a modern myth and I think you have contributed to the myth with you 2005 Giant Sequoia National Park film. For the last four years I have written mostly on the James Randi Educational Foundation forum, but have also contributed to a few Bigfoot enthusiast websites as well. I also have a website that I am creating that will focus on film, art, music and monsters. I am currently working on a documentary film on the subculture of Bigfooterywhich has gotten wide attention on the Internet. One of the key elements of the film is my attempt to show actual proof that the famous 1967 Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film is in fact a hoax. I'm sure you are very familiar with the film.



Today I submitted a detailed examination of your Bigfoot video and concluded it was an obvious hoax. I also said I was hesitant to call it a hoax, because it seemed obvious to be art to me. The reason why I do still call it a hoax is that as a film maker you never let the audience in on the film being a hoax and in writing on your website have insisted the film to be real. I think it was clear that you undertook the project to showcase your film making talents and get attention. As a longtime veteran of the music industry, I know firsthand the necessities and challenges of effective promotion. I want to be clear that I am not accusing you of being a fraud or anything ridiculous like that. As far as I know, you have not tried to make any money off the claim that the Bigfoot video really shows an actual Bigfoot creature and not a man in a suit. Please note that as a musician, writer, and investigative journalist seeking to make a documentary in which Bigfoot is presented merely as a myth, if you were to release a film on Bigfoot that presented your 2005 Bigfoot film as really Bigfoot, I would then take issue with it and consider you a hoaxer. I don't think of you as a simple hoaxer at this time.



I would like to invite you to the JREF to discuss your Bigfoot video and how you filmed it. I also want you to understand right now that I was critical in my investigation of your Bigfoot film. I also mentioned your upcoming feature film Brainwashed Love. I have not seen the film, only the trailer, but I was of the impression that it was not for me. I praised your talents as a photographer and film maker, but I personally felt it seemed like a lift from Control, Lost In Translation, and Donnie Darko. I know you may strongly disagree with that opinion and I welcome you to do so. I think if you engaged in discussion of how you created the Bigfoot film and the creature depicted, it would be an excellent opportunity to showcase your abilities. I'm hoping you would not insist the creature to not be a man in a suit. As a skeptic critical thinking is important to me, and as a fellow artist, so is creative licence. I think creative licence is compromised when you present something as real that you know is not.



If you are interested in joining a public discussion of your Bigfoot film that will be read by a great many people, I would be excited for you to join and I assure you that you will be treated with respect and civility. I might suggest the user handle ParisRoubaix? It would be consistent with your Youtube user name and your interest in cycling. I hope it doesn't seem weird that I know that - I do my homework. Anyway, I hope you join us and happy holidays to you.



All the best,



KK

 

[kitakaze]

I used my kung-fu on Teh Interweb and added Shawn Bannon as a friend on Facebook with a message saying I was the one who invited him to the JREF by email. Before that I went on Youtube and used my new channel to subscribe to his ParisRoubaix channel. I added him as a friend there and left a comment on his channel that I was the DJ/producer/writer guy looking to interview him.

It's crazy, check this out - his Bigfoot film has over 1,000,000 views on Youtube. That's pretty nutty, but then it's just weird. His Brainwashed Love teaser trailer that has been up for at least 10 months has only a bit under 500 hits. That's for ten months, mind you, where my first track uploaded on two weeks ago has more than half of that many views. I thought about it and had a boo at Shawn's new feature film page on FB. There again I was underwhelmed by the number of likes for a feature film by a guy that is certainly no dummy about style and film - 242. Seems to me the promotion has been very low key, but it doesn't sound like they haven't been trying.

Imagine if Bannon's first feature had been about Bigfoot. I'm a dork, but that sound far more interesting to me than a Gen Y love story. Sweet fancy moses, what has this bonkers interest done to me? Well, that's just me. Bigfoot chasing campers and wrapping somebody around a tree is more interesting than a Zooey Deschaney type grappling with an unexpected pregnancy. Try birth control! What I've been thinking is what grinch I would feel like if I went and watched the film and it turned out to be really good. I won't rule out the possibility, but on my chances of that film being interesting to me, I'm skeptical. I'll have some women I know have a look and ask what their impression is.

What I am most curious about is this Bigfoot documentary Shawn says he has been preparing for five years. He's setting it up now to be about a real encounter, but when you see what he has up, it's an obvious creation of theirs. What wouldn't surprise me is if that is just to spike interest and then it turns out to be a fictional movie. My interest is strong because of my own film project. On my end I have been progressing like a snail over the last couple months because of my switch of focus to music.

Regarding that, I now have two uploads on Youtube to test out the recording process and learn the editing process with the site. My plan was to get up about four or five and then start uploading things I have filmed for the documentary. I say film, but it's all digital video so far. It has occurred to me that I can now upload parts of my Morris interview any time I want, but I am going to wait until I have a few more music tracks up. Music will always come before bigfoot stuff to me.

I hope Shawn comes and joins us. He seems like a very interesting person and I would love to interview him. I imagine that there will be Bigfooters broiling in their seats that I would seek to interview someone that has made a Bigfoot hoax, but I did the same thing with Biscardi. When there is no Bigfoot in the world it is normal and right that people who do what I do would seek out the people who make Bigfoot and see where they are coming from and what they are thinking.

 

[Manzer]

I've been ill, so I'm just now catching up with things. This Shawn guy doesn't seem to want to play, but I was struck by this statement

I am also I fairly well known skeptical writer that has specialized in the subject of Bigfoot.

I feel like I have missed a lot. I didn't know you were a well known skeptical writer. Can you please send me a link to the magazine you write for? Or the online blog? I would enjoy reading it. I thought you only posted on the JREF and the old BFF. This is good news. Thanks for posting it.