We are living in crazy times.

It seems that every piece of information that reaches us is framed -- given to us in a way that aims at manipulating our feelings instead of educating us.

Whom can you still trust? What can you still believe?

Certainly, you can believe what you see with your own eyes, right?

Well... when it comes to pictures on the internet, you have to be careful. We all have heard of Photoshop, haven't we?

But what about videos? You can still trust what you see in a video, right?

Nope. There is a thing called CGI, have you heard about it? CGI stands for computer generated imagery and it basically means that the video has been digitally edited using a computer. Another term that is frequently used is visual effects. We will use both terms interchangeably.

As you might know

a video is just a sequence of pictures shown rapidly one after the other -- usually about 20 to 120 frames per second. (A frame is basically a fancy word for one picture that the video is comprised of.)

We already know that you can edit pictures. Therefore, you can also edit videos frame by frame using the same methods.

However, these are by far not the only methods available for manipulating videos. Using "invisible" cuts can give an entirely misleading impression of what is happening in a video. And changing the playback speed can also be used to mislead -- or even playing the video backwards.

And there is the "classic" CGI:

Inserting entirely computer-generated content into a video... And there is also AI which stands for Artificial Intelligence -- maybe you have heard of deepfakes? That is a topic for another time...

But the take-away message is:

No, we cannot trust our eyes.

Or stated in a different way: We have to take a closer look at the videos and try to see more.

What do I mean with that?

Editing usually isn't done perfectly. Every method of tampering with a video leaves some hints to which method was used. We need to educate ourselves on what to look for if we want to be able to identify modified videos. Just like a detective who tries to solve a murder mystery, we have to be looking at the details. They can lead us to the truth.

And I just happen to "know" the perfect person for this job: Captain Disillusion.

Yes, he calls himself Captain Disillusion. And the guy pretends to be some kind of alien superhero. And his show couples the visual impression of a kid's TV show with sometimes inappropriate humor. 🙄

But don't be fooled by all that.

The guy is a genius when it comes to CGI and using a video editor. He is also a genius at debunking viral videos -- and sometimes also scams.

Let's start with our first example: Miss Ping

This is about a viral video from a couple of years ago. A -- let's call him "ping pong artist" -- does some insanely dangerous looking tricks with knifes and ping pong paddles. Upon very close inspection with the eye of an expert, it turned out to be mediocre video editing after all... Let's watch and learn! (The video is less than 5 minutes long.)

And speaking of insanely dangerous looking videos:

Maybe you have seen one of these traffic dodging videos before in which a person evades certain death on a busy road with some acrobatic moves. -- Don't try this in real life, here is why: (Less than 4 minutes of watch time.)

And I mentioned that Captain Disillusion also debunks some scams.

Here is the first video I have ever seen of him -- which led me down a rabbit hole of watching and re-watching every single one of his videos. Some even multiple times... (13 and a half minutes run time for this video. Maybe revisit this one when you have more time at your disposal if you're in a hurry.)

What do you think?

Did you like Captain Disillusion's videos? Do you like to know how the sausage is made? Or do you dislike him like a magician who despises a colleague for giving away all the secrets behind the magic? Let me know in the comments.

I published this article first on my blog on read.cash.

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