McPherson tape, real or hoax?

[dannybananny]

I don't know if you know about this tape, it's old story with much obscurity, some say it's true some say it's fake, there's even this guy called Dean Alioto that said he made original tape and later made remake. I was thinking about this story for a while and didn't know where to put it. Maybe it's only acting , maybe it's not but something smells here! Here are some clips of this tape:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfGuSlkh4GE

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=293294965124915343&hl=en#



Here is the later remake:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hALHfATq7Mw

You can see that first video is much more realistic and that the second video is something like Blair witch project!

This is what Wikipedia says about it:

The McPherson Tape is a docudrama originally directed by Dean Alioto, and later re-made with a larger budget into Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County. Both videos claim to be the final recordings and last-known whereabouts of a family just before they are abducted by aliens. However, the "McPherson scandal" later revealed that actors had been paid and that the films were a complete fabrication.

Dean Alioto has since contributed an explanation for the two recordings.

Now this is what he said:

Here is the whole unedited strange story of how my 1989 $6,500 video entitled UFO Abduction became the UPN special, Alien Abduction: Incident In Lake County.

In 1988 I was headed for my 25th birthday and I had not yet made my first feature film -- this 25th year mark is crucial for most filmmakers as it was the age that, Orson Wells, Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg all had made their first films by. Unlike them, I had a budget that equaled the size of craft service for a day on a studio feature film. One night after reading the latest books on the UFO phenomenon (Communion, Missing Time, and the books of Jacques Vale), I came up with the idea of making the most realistic movie on UFO abduction ever made. The best part of the idea was that it could be done for my miniscule budget. I wrote an outline of twenty action beats based on the claimed abduction experience. I hired a group of skilled improve actors, except for myself who played the 16 year old shooting the video, and shot the direct-to-video movie in one night, in one continuous take, on 8mm video. The guy who created the UFO craft and aliens has since gone on to be the production designer for the recent live-action Scooby-Doo films -- Bill Boes.

Here's where things get "strange". The video actually got distributed. However, a few months later the distribution company burned to the ground. I lost my 1 inch master tape and all of my artwork, leaving me with my original tapes and a 3/4 inch copy. I figured, "Oh, well -- time to move on" and forgot about my first attempt at a feature film. Five years later, 1994, I begin getting calls from Unsolved Mysteries, Hard Copy, and a show called Encounters. They all want to know if I knew who had found some mysterious UFO tape that had been passed around the UFO community for the past five years. The tape, without a title or credits, was believed by many people to be real footage of an alien abduction.

When I finally stopped laughing and told them no one had found the tape, that I had made it and own the rights, they told me what my little video had been up to. Apparently, someone -- much more crafty than myself -- had made an edited bootleg copy of my video and injected it into the UFO community, hyping it all the way to the 1993 International UFO Congress Convention where it brought the house down. A Lieutenant Colonel with 40 years military intelligence, who was on the panel at the convention, determined right there that the tape was real! When I tried to ascertain how all this happened no one was able to find "patient zero" -- the person who bootlegged the tape. I was aware that a few sample copies were made in 1989 by the distributor, before the company was burned, and that these copies were sent out to a few mom and pop video stores around the country. That's was it.

After I was interviewed on Encounters (by the same guy that would go on to produce Alien Autopsy), and the local news, Mr. American Bandstand, Dick Clark, would enter into this strange story. In 1995 I got hired to direct on a crime reenactment series called US Customs: Classified. There, I became friends with Paul Chitlik, the head writer. Paul had heard me mention the tape once and insisted I let him see the video. After I finally got around to showing it to him (I delayed giving it to him because, at the time, I was a little too embarrassed to show him something that wasn't as slick as my current directing samples), he told me he could get us a made-for-TV movie deal with the video. I laughed at him and flippantly said "Yeah, okay, Paul. I want a story by credit, you can write the teleplay, I'll direct it, and we can produce it together." He said okay and a week later we had a deal at Dick Clark to remake my little first feature. A year and a half later of turn-around nightmares at Showtime we ended up at UPN.

This time around I had a $1.2 million dollar budget and the guys from The X-Files were creating our space ship and aliens. Like in my original, we used little kids to play the aliens. We shot the remake in Vancouver in a week -- the first ever made-for-TV movie shot in 5 days. We did twenty minute takes and floated three weather balloons with lights in them above the house set so I could shoot 360 degrees without seeing a light. I directed the whole movie from a small remote camera monitor in a room in the back of the house. I gave camera directions to the cameraman and the actors followed preset precise blocking movements, like a play. I have to admit it was a blast. We came in $300,000 under budget and left feeling like we had created the most original alien story since Orson Well's version of H.G. Welles' War Of The Worlds. Then the you-know-what hit the fan.

While we were up in Canada making our movie, Paramount replaced all of the big execs at UPN. This sucks especially hard if you're a creator of a show that the new execs didn't green light. It is the ritual of all new execs to piss on the tree they didn't plant. I heard from the head of TV movies guy that the first big exec screening of Alien Abduction (which still had the imaginative title of The McPherson Tapes) was the worst screening of his career. The big boys were actually throwing food at the screen! A decision was reached by Dick Clark productions and UPN to dump Paul and I and bring in someone else to cut the movie down to one-hour and add several new interviews, one of them was poor Stanton Friedman. They ended up having to pay myself and Paul union damages for cutting us out. However, the worst thing they did was to remove the commercial bumper tags which were to read, "The program you are watching is fictional", like the ones used on the CBS movie Special Bulletin. This caused much outrage in the UFO community and even incited a nation wide boycott of UPN.

The last laugh would be enjoyed by myself however. The show aired and became the highest rated show ever for UPN's Tuesday primetime slot. Their website, which normally receives 10,000 hits a day, got 300,000 hits during the hour that the show aired. It was a hit! When they put back more of my abduction footage for the second showing they pulled in more great numbers and ended up with 1.3 million website hits! Another satisfying note is that my two-hour TV movie version was the one that was distributed in Europe. It has amassed quite a following and I still, five years later, get occasional e-mails from places like Denmark, asking about the movie. The original UFO Abduction has gone on to air on a Japanese Unsolved Mysteries type show and won them the best primetime network ratings for the week, even beating out ER.

http://www.badmovieplanet.com/3btheater/a/alienabductionII.html

What is interesting that if they were actors they preformed it better then some high paid actors(and he had budget of 6000$ for the original tape, with lower budget better actors, I don't think so) and you can see that in remake that these guys are real actors and here are their names:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142074/


What is interesting is why thee aren't names of of actors in original tape, and he said they used children to act greys, and these children must have been one great actors if they could act greys in such a way, and from where he could get so many good kid actors, 4-5 kids(3 plus 1 grey and little girl)?What is suspicious to me is also his story that distribution company burned down, what is a possibility that something like that happens? Maybe tape is real and his story and remake is cover up( C's said people would explode if they found out the truth, and people are left confused with these story and that is exactly what would PTB want if the story is true) and maybe he is telling the truth, but really i don't know! I would like to hear your opinions!

[Raison d'être]

There is no better hiding place for the truth, to spoken in the noses of people and to is rejected by them. The truth shown as a lie.

These videos, and the "mystery stories" behind the camera, always the same role "I had the tape, but the dog ate it" i smell like pure COINTELPRO!.  I think these videos only cause greater disappointment. And therefore, believe less in them. It's like the video to the blair witch. For the person who knows "something" can motivate you to investigate. But to others, to move more far away of the truth for the fear. This video is really disturbing. But, If the actors are fake or the children are "gray" . The truth spoken by Cass, once again surpasses fiction and is much more terrifying.

[Gonzo]

Well, I can't speak to the authenticity of the video but with respect to the likelihood of a building burning down and a master tape getting destroyed, one needn't look too far back for an example.

Fire hits Wallace and Gromit sets
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bristol/somerset/4326286.stm)
This fire resulted in an animation film company's loss of 30 years worth of archival film, props, models and sets.

Gonzo

[Laura]

It does sound like the after-the-fact explanation for the alien autopsy video which I think is real and the guy who claims to have made it is actually being subsidized to make those claims. 

[Raison d'être]

The video "original" is shown as a show. The remake, is shown to conceal much more, even is shown as "original" where for psychiatrist, "the child can not be acting". Even add more parts and effects. Would have to see the video "original" complete. Video, which does not appears the girl, the video is very cut and what remains to investigate, is the movie.

In the original video, the gray, is shown completely. In the remake no. And do not take into arms. in the original video, shot him in the house. In the original, is shot out of the house. These cuts are deliberately suppose to create more confusion.


A statement:

"One of the criticisms on the Internet was that when showing the video camera does not match with the clock to McPherson."

"When gradually began to leave the truth, ufologists reacted against UPN angry, accusing her of being part of the disinformation campaign. They said that the appearance of Friedman was a ploy to discredit him at the same time to discredit the issue of abductions. But just as the skeptic Michael Shermer appears. "They wanted to discredit him? I think not."


The director and script writer Dean Alioto said:

"Yes, Alien Abduction came out a year before Blair Witch, though my original version is UFO Abduction of 1989 [1]. I must admit it has impacted the nefarious cult that has taken my film on UPN. I just wanted to make the film more realistic abduction had never before seen. The way Dick Clark [2] and the UPN took my project and edited by adding the interview Stanton, was out of my hands, but that's only part of a very strange story."

Assumption:

"This film is the direct antecedent of the Blair Witch Project and probably inspired its execution."


   
Interview with Dean Alioto (Spanish): http://www.arte7.com.uy/Pag/06/old_notes/DeanAlioto.htm

A7: While jobs in the U.S., apparently not so easy for an American independent filmmaker to get local and international distribution. The festivals have become virtually the only windows in order to meet these jobs in several cases that deserve much more impact than they have. What do you think about it?


DA: That is the great risk of any independent filmmaker. Unfortunately, this is not how good it can be your film, but who the stars. The same goes for the Hollywood industry. Not so for festivals such as Sundance, Cannes, Toronto, Tribeca, Berlin.


A7: How did you feel with all the handling that those new UPN executives did with the final version of Alien Abduction? Beyond the success in the end as was your work, can you think is fair to people doubt whether what you are seeing is real or not? In an interview you said that this was not your intention.

DA: Yes, it was not my intention. But more worrying for me was the fact that millions of people let their children see this film. Several of them sent me messages saying they could not understand how they could get to sleep with the light on since I had seen. Although they like to feel what it was that intense ride, I felt nothing good to let them see her parents when at the beginning stated: "We warn the viewer that this program contains disturbing images."



A7: What do you think of the "mockumentaries" They were inspired by your movie, like The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield? Do you think it is still a good strategy to terrorize people, to feel more permeated in what you see?

DA: I think the fans want to feel the reality of terror, and showing them something that could be real, filmed from the point of view of a character will always be scary. The "mockumentary" has become a new tool for that.

[Approaching Infinity]

What is interesting is why thee aren't names of of actors in original tape, and he said they used children to act greys, and these children must have been one great actors if they could act greys in such a way, and from where he could get so many good kid actors, 4-5 kids(3 plus 1 grey and little girl)?

The shots of the greys walking were very creepy. It's weird, because to me, it looks like a special effect, but a special effect that would've been used in the late 90s, not the mid 80s. There's something "off" about their movements. I can't see children acting like that.

[mkrnhr]

I've seen the video a time ago, and I remember there were two versions, one creepier than the other.
In cinema, when actors want to show that they are scared, they do things with their faces to show that emotion (and eventually end up screaming).
The thing they cannot act (or with difficulty) is that when a real person is in a state of fear and chock, she has a blank face, with no "emotional" expression. I remember having seen that blank faces in one video and i thought "it's either real or these actors are the best actors in the world". It's one of the scariest footages i have ever seen.

[Prometeo]

Yeah I think the same that the later post, it looks so real the faces of each of the actors.

And the last scene, come on, is one of the worst. 

[Gonzo]

I tried to watch the original and found a message on YT that the video was removed due to copyright issues.  Does anyone have a link to a working version of the original?

Thanks,
Gonzo

[Raison d'être]

I tried to watch the original and found a message on YT that the video was removed due to copyright issues.  Does anyone have a link to a working version of the original?

Thanks,
Gonzo

I think this is what remains of the orignal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH6C1j_Vag4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RKFEOf1eyI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKqEdBuO9Xw&feature=related

[Paragon]

_www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8eIc7qD-gA

Here are portions of the supposed original tape with a UFO researchers comments and a retired airforce col, plus a new scene not found in other versions where you can see a red flash in the sky.

Personally, this video gives me the chills over my whole body, maybe it's just how real the emotions of the people in the tape are. Are we not hardwired to recognise real emotion when we see it? Because this certainly produces an emotional reaction in me when I hear the screams! And the scene where the 'aliens' come in? That really creeps me out. It actually terrifies me. It just 'feels' real.

Plus it doesn't have the Japanese voice over with the girl and audience laughing at key moments to condition and colour your thinking. Presumably to make you think that it's not real. Not sure if that would be an unconscious reaction that is produced, but I certainly noticed it straight away. IMO

My 2 pence worth 

[dannybananny]

It just 'feels' real.

I know what you mean, this was the case with me also, there was this sensing that something isn't right with official explanation.

[Laura]

It just 'feels' real.

I know what you mean, this was the case with me also, there was this sensing that something isn't right with official explanation.

Yup.  Same with the alien autopsy.   And it is not just the "official explanation" there is also the the loads of agents in the alternative communities that are there to garner following so they can vector people when needed.

[Paragon]

I showed this to my actor friend so I could get an opinion on the 'acting', but he laughed straight away at certain scenes, like when they find the spaceship and when the aliens come in the house. I blame this partially on movies that trivialise aliens and official culture, among a whole web of other lies upon lies etc. I can see why he thought it was fake, but if you just forget about everything you've been told officially about aliens and UFO's etc, and observe the peoples reactions and emotions, you'd probably get pretty spooked IMO

Also when you read the YouTube comments on the tape, some of the first ones are the ones that shoot it down instantly, which I find interesting. Either these guys are paid to do this or are unconscious agents, manipulating peoples opinion and Thought. As soon as someone says it's b.s, then The majority don't think about why that might be, they just accept it as fact.

And that is dangerous because that Is a reflection on society as a whole, acceptance of something as fact without bothering to check themselves. Someone else says it's fake, so it must be!

[Pashalis]

where can I see the full tape without added comments ?