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Popular ghost videos need debunking

With compression that bad anything's possible. Especially some amateur digital manipulation.

Now did he really have to make all those... noises?
 
Quite conveniently, the camera focus the cereal plate when its about to start moving...

Lights turning on and off and door moving are easy to produce, specially when you notice the framing hides the upper and lower parts of the door...

And the sounds he made... P0rn film "dialogues"...
 
A loosened doorknob, a nylon thread leading to the hand of a confederate hiding off to the right...

I don't think it would be possible to prove that a ghost did not rattle the doorknob, but it would be easy to demonstrate mundane ways in which the knob could have been rattled. Between the two, I'd vote for the mundane.
 
demonologist said:
Sure, but what about the door knob shaking?
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My first guess was what Spektator said: a thread being tugged.
For serious hoaxing/pranking potential, use hidden wirelessly-activated solenoids or motors to operate lightswitches, faucets, toilet handles, doorknobs, etc. (Though I doubt he went through that kind of trouble to make a doorknob jiggle.)

Or maybe the videos are genuine: the door and the bowl were trying to escape from the heavy-breathing occupant. :)
 
demonologist said:
Sure, but what about the door knob shaking?
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It's a good effect. I could replicate it with a solenoid and other hardware and electronics. However, when I find out the answer to many such effects I often find that they are much easier than I would have thought.

The second video is an example of old, very old, trickery. Typical of séances. And of course the give away, as Correa Neto points out, is why focus on the cereal bowl?

Not bad but not at all distinguishable from magic tricks.
 
Spektator said:
A loosened doorknob, a nylon thread leading to the hand of a confederate hiding off to the right...

I don't think it would be possible to prove that a ghost did not rattle the doorknob, but it would be easy to demonstrate mundane ways in which the knob could have been rattled. Between the two, I'd vote for the mundane.
Click to expand...

Sure, but how difficult is it to remove things like the thread in post-production? I read Shrinker's link and it doesn't sound all that easy. of course this guy might have experience, but I'm just trying to find out the degree of difficulty to pull off these stunts.
 
demonologist said:
Sure, but how difficult is it to remove things like the thread in post-production? I read Shrinker's link and it doesn't sound all that easy. of course this guy might have experience, but I'm just trying to find out the degree of difficulty to pull off these stunts.
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A mechanically inclined individual could rig a door knob to perform in such a manner in an afternoon. A door knob works on a mechanical principle that is fairly easily exploited using a solenoid, battery and wire.

I'm guessing it was easier than this however. Like I said, often when I find out the answers to tricks I'm amazed that they are simpler than I would have guessed. Not always though and I have guessed the mechanism behind some illusions.

Sorry, but a movie props department could easily knock this one out in a few hours. To make the video seemingly evident of something requires ignorance and credulity.

There's really nothing to see here. It is indistinguishable from a movie prop or carnival magic.
 
Yes, I know that. I knew it wasn't a ghost before I posted. I posted this because I wanted to find out how the trick was done, not just to be told that it is a trick.
 
demonologist said:
Sure, but how difficult is it to remove things like the thread in post-production? I read Shrinker's link and it doesn't sound all that easy. of course this guy might have experience, but I'm just trying to find out the degree of difficulty to pull off these stunts.
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It may look tricky in the link but somone with a experience could have done both those shots sat in Starbucks on a rainy afternoon. By that I don't just mean professionals - there are thousands of kids who want to get into VFX and spend all their spare time showing off their skillz on the net.

Btw, yes, I'm a vfx supervisor :)

ETA: I'm not saying they were done this way, its just impossible to rule out.
 
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these wouldn't even be difficult to make. i searched for "ghost" on youtube and found other joke or worthless clips. nothing that seemed actually supernatural or compelling. could be my theatre and magic background, but these didn't even seem worthy of much consideration.
 
This is as old as cinema.

First, you should watch this without sound.

Then watch it with sound, but use my title:

Asthmatic shoots poorly lit video to demonstrate his cleverness with monofiliment.

When I was in college, a fellow film student, (now a well known editor,) would get old porn films, and replace the sound track. When the starlet 'hit a high note,' you would hear the sound of Donald Duck sneezing.

Changed the mood completely!

Now you are told you are seeing something scary - so you suspend the disbelief.

And as Randfan said:
"A door knob works on a mechanical principle that is fairly easily exploited using a solenoid, battery and wire."

And I add: A hollow core door just makes it easier!
 
I'm positive that real ghosts perpetrated those events, as they are known to rattle doorknobs and slide things off of kitchen tables. It's what they do! Also, at least two ghosts were involved, because no single ghost could have both rattled the doorknob and slid the bowl off the table in one afternoon. Connecting with our world is simply too exhausting for them.
 
Thing is, with all these fakes around, what would be the reaction if something actually did get caught on tape that was unexplainable? We'd just put it down to trickery anyway. We can't 'win' or lose.
 
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