Your Take On The ISIS Phenomenon

[Tyler Rabbit]

I tired duplicating the lighting in the video w/ a single light source in 3D software. Came close, but I can't seem to achieve the same disparity as the video..

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-N ... al-or-fake

ISIS video: Is the Japanese beheading real or fake?
By Jessica Mendoza

True or false?

That seems to be the question surrounding a new video, released Saturday by the Islamic State, claiming that the militant group has executed one of their two Japanese hostages.

In the video, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto holds up a photo that purportedly shows the beheaded body of his companion, security contractor Haruna Yukawa. Mr. Goto, in an audio recording that plays over the image, reportedly blames Japan’s prime minister for Yukawa’s death.

Recommended: How much do you know about the Islamic State?
Goto also says that the militants are now demanding the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, who is currently imprisoned in Jordan for her involvement in a 2005 attack on three Amman hotels.

“They no longer want money, so you don’t need to worry about funding terrorists,” the voice says in English. “… Again, I would like to stress how easy it is to save my life. You bring them their sister from the Jordanian regime, and I will be released immediately — me for her.”

"This is an outrageous and unacceptable act," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told Reuters. "We strongly demand the prompt release of the remaining Mr. Kenji Goto, without harm."

The Japanese government has yet to verify the execution, BBC reported. And the US government is also reported to be trying to verify its authenticity. But suspicions have already surfaced. The audio recording of Goto speaking over a static image of himself is unlike previous ISIS videos, in which hostages were shown delivering messages themselves, USA Today reported.

One militant, via an Islamic State-affiliate website, has said that Saturday’s message was fake. Another said that the message was intended only for Goto’s family, while a third militant on the site said that the video was not released by the ISIS media group al-Furqan.

Saturday's video is the second purportedly released by ISIS this week. In both cases, questions have been raised about their authenticity.

The first video, posted Tuesday, showed Goto and Yukawa in the familiar orange jumpsuits of previous ISIS hostages. The two men were filmed kneeling on the ground on either side of a masked man in what appears to be an outdoor desert setting – also the same as in past videos.

In exchange for the men’s lives, ISIS demanded a $200 million ransom from the Japanese government by Friday.

Veryan Khan, editorial director for the Florida-based Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium, analyzed Tuesday’s video frame by frame and found a number of inconsistencies. The men’s shadows, for instance, converged with one another, suggesting more than one light source, she told Reuters. Under bright sunlight, the shadows would fall in the same direction.

She also noted that while the wind in the video seemed to make Yukawa’s shirt flutter, Goto’s shirt remained relatively still.

“It almost appears that there’s a fan coming in one direction,” Ms. Khan said.

That one video might be set in a studio with manipulated images also raises credibility issues with the second video.

As The Washington Post put it: “It's an important point: The image the Islamic State sends out to the world doesn't always correspond with reality.”

[Iamwhomiam]

Obviously the 2 Japanese guys were shot separately which means they could have been shot anywhere. Anywhere at all, probably against a green screen.

It seems to me to most obviously be a green screen studio composite and that could be the only accounting for the opposing shadows.

[Tyler Rabbit]

But what I can't wrap my head around: if it's a composite, why not just flop one of the guys so the shadows match? I don't buy the idea that "they" are fucking with us "in the know" by creating inconsistencies. That just seems like a really bad idea tactically..

[82_28]

I think it seems like the perfect idea. Make something janky in order to throw off the scent but most importantly to provide the scent all at once because of their already noted production capabilities. What I think would be "cool" is if they totally fucked with everybody by releasing the old skool grainy VHS terrorist tape after all this nonsense.

[Tyler Rabbit]

Feeling highly disturbed and wary of everyone, incl "video experts" who analyze stuff "frame by frame," I went outside and did and experiment. I aint saying it's not greenscreen or comped, or total BS, but the shadows aren't an issue for me anymore... See below.

What I find disturbing now, regardless of the videos' authenticity, is that the media gets them from these SITE guys. Like doesn't the news keep an eye on twitter feeds and shit? Just seems lazy and weird. If ISIS or whoever, is putting these things up for the world to see, why does it always come to us via SITE?

Don't shoot the messenger. Again, everything is weird and suspect about all this, but the shadows aren't impossible. Try it yourself.

[Iamwhomiam]

Had the shadow fallen to the right of your right hand, rather than the left, as it does in each, you might have been right to dismiss the argument.

It really shouldn't matter how the photo (of the hostages and their captor) was contrived, should it? Why would it matter? We know both were being held hostage and now one is believed to have been beheaded.

Is the assumption that ISIS is fake, that the photo was prepared as propaganda by us or an ally to foster hatred towards Islamists?

[Nordic]

The above is not a legit test for this.

Listen, I am actually a lighting expert. I do lighting on Hollywood projects, TV shows, commercials, feature films. That is my day job, and has been for almost 20 years. I do green screen stuff all the time, stuff to be composited later, and if I know anything, it's shadows. I'm actually REALLY good at lighting.

I hate to say "trust me", but trust me, the two Japanese men were not shot by the same light source at the same time. It's just so stupendously obvious. What's funny is that the shadows they case behind them is actually more accurate. So the whole thing is a mess.

It's so bad, that to me, it's a joke. To others maybe not a joke. But anyone who is competent enough to shoot this kind of video and composite it later, it seems, would know what a mess it is. So I can't help but think it's deliberate, or some kind of inside joke, or, fuck maybe the people who put this together did such a bad job that THEY got beheaded and the producers put it out anyway. You know, the budget was spent, they had a deadline ....

[Iamwhomiam]

The above is not a legit test for this.

Listen, I am actually a lighting expert. I do lighting on Hollywood projects, TV shows, commercials, feature films. That is my day job, and has been for almost 20 years. I do green screen stuff all the time, stuff to be composited later, and if I know anything, it's shadows. I'm actually REALLY good at lighting.

I hate to say "trust me", but trust me, the two Japanese men were not shot by the same light source at the same time. It's just so stupendously obvious. What's funny is that the shadows they case behind them is actually more accurate. So the whole thing is a mess.

It's so bad, that to me, it's a joke. To others maybe not a joke. But anyone who is competent enough to shoot this kind of video and composite it later, it seems, would know what a mess it is. So I can't help but think it's deliberate, or some kind of inside joke, or, fuck maybe the people who put this together did such a bad job that THEY got beheaded and the producers put it out anyway. You know, the budget was spent, they had a deadline ....

I agree, Nordic. It seems to me to be three separate photos imposed upon a fourth, which seems to me to be a studio drop of a desert scene.

Yeah, it's a crappy paste-up job, but what real difference does it make that it's apparent the photo was contrived. I mean, really, so what?

[Tyler Rabbit]

I think we work in simalar industries, Nordic. I've done a little greenscreen too. Mostly comping, some shooting. I owned a small greenscreen studio for a few years.. nothing major, mostly independent and in-house stuff on the greenscreen and commercially oriented comping, GFX, and animation on the workstations and render farm. There are a few shots of it in this video, (which, as an aside, you may find amusing) http://rabbitanimation.com/our_process.html ... I do 3D lighting all day but am definitely not a pro at actual physical lighting, I'll readily admit that. Given that I have at least a basic understanding though, if you explain why it's not a legit test, I'll hopefully be able to follow. It's not a matter of trusting or not trusting- it's just that when I saw those shadows going in different directions, I was like WTF!! and wanted to figure out why. What's interesting is that when I did a similar test with two balls on the ground, I couldn't get the shadows to go in different directions. I believe the different shadow directions are because they're being cast on vertical surfaces and the camera is between the two subjects. As you said the shadows on the ground were more accurate.

Am not saying it means the video is "legit." At this point I don't even know what that means and am not sure anyone does. But I think iamwhoiam has a good point, if am understanding it: regardless of the production techniques, and the identity of the producers, the show has the same narrative, same effect. And if I understand what 82_28 is saying, weird shit just throws people off. It inspires chaos and uncertainty.

[8bitagent]

All of these "jihadist" terror tapes tend to be anomalous. Remember all the videos of Ayman al-Zawahiri with a digital backdrop of a mansion library? Or how about the
Osama bin Laden video where it freezes right when hes about to reference a recent event? Weird artifact layering in the SITE videos.

Why would ISIS videos edit/censor beheading videos of hostages but not of captured Shiites or Syrian soldiers?

It's all Operation Mindfuck.

[cptmarginal]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/j ... ning-camps

The secret world of Isis training camps – ruled by sacred texts and the sword

We reveal how the terror group recruits and retains its members through zealotry, rhetoric and obscure theology

Saturday 24 January 2015

[justdrew]

remember most of the sun's rays hit the earth effectively parallel, only a few rays get scattered/bent by atmosphere. The Sun is not a point source.

[Nordic]

remember most of the sun's rays hit the earth effectively parallel, only a few rays get scattered/bent by atmosphere. The Sun is not a point source.

Well, it's far enough away that it is, in fact, a point source. It makes very hard, sharp shadows.

But it's so far away that, like you said, the rays are parallel here.

[Nordic]

The above is not a legit test for this.

Listen, I am actually a lighting expert. I do lighting on Hollywood projects, TV shows, commercials, feature films. That is my day job, and has been for almost 20 years. I do green screen stuff all the time, stuff to be composited later, and if I know anything, it's shadows. I'm actually REALLY good at lighting.

I hate to say "trust me", but trust me, the two Japanese men were not shot by the same light source at the same time. It's just so stupendously obvious. What's funny is that the shadows they case behind them is actually more accurate. So the whole thing is a mess.

It's so bad, that to me, it's a joke. To others maybe not a joke. But anyone who is competent enough to shoot this kind of video and composite it later, it seems, would know what a mess it is. So I can't help but think it's deliberate, or some kind of inside joke, or, fuck maybe the people who put this together did such a bad job that THEY got beheaded and the producers put it out anyway. You know, the budget was spent, they had a deadline ....

I agree, Nordic. It seems to me to be three separate photos imposed upon a fourth, which seems to me to be a studio drop of a desert scene.

Yeah, it's a crappy paste-up job, but what real difference does it make that it's apparent the photo was contrived. I mean, really, so what?

Because the whole effect of these videos, the whole "terror" aspect of them, is that there's some Ninja-like dude with a knife, with two helpless men, on their knees, at his feet. At any moment the scary guy in black can grab one of them and cut his head off. In fact, that's what people sorta are waiting for when they watch these. The cameras are catching a moment of Human Evil!

If it turns out that the Japanese guys were shot in an airplane hangar in Kabul, and the Ninja guy was shot in a soundstage in Hamburg, and they were composited together in a computer in Virginia, well, that kinda takes away the very power of the piece.

It's done so badly that I can't help but think it was deliberate. Some kind of "let's see how this terrifies people, and let's see how the governments of the world will respond to this even though they KNOW it's a fucking fake' and hell, I don't know, that's why it's so fucking WEIRD, WHY would they do this? I mean, these videos are weird as hell anyway, this just makes them even MORE weird.

Oh, this also calls into question (even more!) the validity of previous videos.

And if we know this one is a comp, we should all realize we have no proof that the others weren't comps as well, ESPECIALLY the shots of the heads resting on the bodies of the supposedly decapitated men, which I have always suspected were also comps. I've said it over and over, but Game of Thrones has better shots than these, much more convincing. Yet we all know those are fake. So why should we assume these are real?

No bodies, no physical evidence, just some video, which as we all know CANNOT be verified as real at all!

So yeah, I have no earthly idea why they would do this, but it seems like some kind of message, or an inside joke.

Pure speculation on my part of course.

[Nordic]

I think we work in simalar industries, Nordic. I've done a little greenscreen too. Mostly comping, some shooting. I owned a small greenscreen studio for a few years.. nothing major, mostly independent and in-house stuff on the greenscreen and commercially oriented comping, GFX, and animation on the workstations and render farm. There are a few shots of it in this video, (which, as an aside, you may find amusing) http://rabbitanimation.com/our_process.html ... I do 3D lighting all day but am definitely not a pro at actual physical lighting, I'll readily admit that. Given that I have at least a basic understanding though, if you explain why it's not a legit test, I'll hopefully be able to follow. It's not a matter of trusting or not trusting- it's just that when I saw those shadows going in different directions, I was like WTF!! and wanted to figure out why. What's interesting is that when I did a similar test with two balls on the ground, I couldn't get the shadows to go in different directions. I believe the different shadow directions are because they're being cast on vertical surfaces and the camera is between the two subjects. As you said the shadows on the ground were more accurate.

Am not saying it means the video is "legit." At this point I don't even know what that means and am not sure anyone does. But I think iamwhoiam has a good point, if am understanding it: regardless of the production techniques, and the identity of the producers, the show has the same narrative, same effect. And if I understand what 82_28 is saying, weird shit just throws people off. It inspires chaos and uncertainty.

It's not legit because you are holding up two hands on opposite sides of the the center of the frame, close enough to the lens and far enough apart that perspective comes into play and gives the illusion that the shadows are going two different directions (to you at least). They are certainly not going two different directions because the light source isn't coming from your forehead, it's coming from the sun, a few jillion miles behind you, whose rays are utterly parallel to us, in our tiny tiny slice of the 360 degrees of light protruding from said star.

Like I said if the light was coming from your forehead, then the beams wouldn't be parallel at all and you could legitimately claim that the shadows were in fact in two different directions.