Trump’s COVID-19 ‘Cure’ Video Sparks Speculation Of Him Using Green Screen
Video screenshot via Donald J. Trump
Viewers thought they were seeing green with a tinge of orange in President Donald Trump’s 8 October video, where he spoke of an “incredible” drug treatment for COVID-19 that seniors will be able to obtain for free so they can “get the same care I got.”
“I’m a senior, I know you don’t know that,” he said in the announcement. “Nobody knows that. Maybe you don’t have to tell them, but I’m a senior.”
TO MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD! pic.twitter.com/38DbQtUxEu
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2020
Trump continued, “We are making tremendous progress with this horrible disease that was sent over by China… We have medicines right now. I call them a cure. I went into the hospital a week ago, I was very sick. And I took this medicine and it was incredible. I could have walked out the following day, sooner. It was incredible the impact it had.”
In social media users’ minds, though, there was one more thing that needed treating. Some thought the way he stuck out against a background of greenery looked a little unnatural, inciting claims that the footage could have been recorded with a green screen. The assumption was that the background was replaced during post-production.
“This is in front of a green screen,” tweeted actor George Takei. AMERICAblog News editor John Aravosis commented, “The background is fake and on [a] three-second loop.”
Viewers alluded this theory to the focus of the grass, the seemingly looping background, and the shadows, The Washington Post reports.
White House spokesperson Judd Deere, on the other hand, maintained that the video was filmed on the South Lawn on Wednesday.
Deere’s response has been supported by video experts, who don’t believe a backdrop was added into the clip later.
Hany Farid, a University of California at Berkeley professor who specializes in digital forensics, noted that there was no “clear visual evidence” of a green screen being used for the video. “The crisp shadows appear to be consistent with the sun as the light source, and the reverberation in the audio does not sound like it is indoors,” Farid elaborated.
Auckland, New Zealand-based television editor and documentary filmmaker Dylan Reeve took to Twitter to discuss at length why it wasn’t likely for the Trump administration to use a green screen in this instance.
Sped up, the video’s background is “continuous” as opposed to the last frame rebounding to the first, Reeve explained. “The sun is moving across the sky for the whole duration of the video—as it tends to do,” he added.
Reeve said audiences likely saw a loop because of Twitter’s standard compression of videos. “It’s the result of the Long-GOP MPEG compression that has a three-second I-Frame interval,” he described. “Every three seconds it basically makes a new JPEG of the image, and then slides bits around.”
Reeve told the Washington Post that the sun’s shadows also appear to change throughout the footage. Furthermore, it’s not easy to replicate natural outdoor lighting indoors.
If viewers thought they saw some unnatural green in the video, it could be “color spill,” where green or blue light is reflected on a subject in the foreground. However, that doesn’t confirm a green screen was used.
He also pointed out the blurring of Trump’s hands as they moved, which is an indication there was no artificial backdrop added to the video.
The filmmaker said people have been searching for “little lies everywhere” due to Trump’s statements.
“My advice would be before looking for why something might be fake… start by trying to find out why it might not be,” he detailed. “[Are] there any other angles, corroborating details, hints in the image that it’s all one thing? Then does it being faked make sense?”
In the video, Trump shared that the “powerful” drug, previously confirmed to be an antibody compound from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc, will be distributed to “vulnerable” senior Americans.
“We’re going to make that and others that are similar to it, almost identical. We’re going to make them available, immediately,” the president stated. “We have emergency-use authorization that I want to get signed immediately… Things that have taken two, three, four years [with the FDA] are taking a matter of weeks or even sooner than that. That’s because of me.”
“We’re taking care of our seniors,” Trump declared. “You’re not vulnerable… I want you to get the same care that I got. I got incredible care at Walter Reed, incredible doctors. And this medicine in particular, one medicine was unbelievable. You’re going to get the same medicine, you're going to get it free. No charge.”
This is in front of a green screen. https://t.co/vDVQg6eY1x
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) October 8, 2020
If Trump is so healthy, why does it look like this video was filmed in front of a green screen? https://t.co/ZAmqd3YwMK
— John Aravosis 🇺🇸🇬🇷🏳️🌈 (@aravosis) October 8, 2020
And here's the whole video sped up to about 3 seconds. You can see the movement is continuous. The sun is moving across the sky for the whole duration of the video - as it tends to do. pic.twitter.com/3nNU3IXTd7
— Dylan Reeve (@DylanReeve) October 8, 2020
Another way we can tell it's very unlikely to be a green screen is the lighting.
— Dylan Reeve (@DylanReeve) October 8, 2020
He is lit with a high, very strong, hard light source with a fairly parallel beam... Like the sun.
Do to this with electric lights would require a very power source quite high up and far away. pic.twitter.com/Y2gydsBooT
So if they shot a real background, and shot the President in front of an outdoor green screen with similar lighting, they could still be green screening it.
— Dylan Reeve (@DylanReeve) October 8, 2020
But they're not.
Look at the motion blur here - it's heavily compressed, but is the same over his jacket and the BG pic.twitter.com/XGkbctspKx
By claiming that it's green-screen you're giving too much credit to the producers. It means they lit him with very realistic direct sunlight (in a large studio), added wind effects on the hair, had him speak in a tone appropriate for exterior and added subtle street sound design.
— Captain Disillusion (@CDisillusion) October 8, 2020
[via The Washington Post, cover image via DANIEL CONSTANTE / Shutterstock.com]
