As fake UFO footage fools the internet, we reveal how easy it is to create a bogus alien video

FAKE footage of aliens purportedly bombing terrorists in Afghanistan fooled the internet this week. Now, we reveal how easy it is to create a bogus UFO video.

ERMAHGERD! Aliens! … Or maybe not.

Doctored footage purporting to show a UFO blowing up a Taliban camp in Afghanistan managed to fool sections of the media this week.

This isn’t the first time manipulated footage has duped the world — and here at news.com.au, we’ve tasked our crack team of video producers to create our own fake to show you just how easy it is.

The Taliban video in question was posted on YouTube this week, allegedly filmed by US Marines in March. It shows a UFO hover into view and drop bombs on one of the Islamic fundamentalist group’s compounds in the Asadabad district of Afghanistan.

However, it doesn’t take a forensic detective to realise that the video is a fake.

A few nimble clicks of the mouse reveal that the footage is a manipulated version of a bombing in Iraq from 2009.

The real video shows the use of Joint Direct Attack Munition — a US Air Force and Navy program — which converts uncontrolled, freefalling bombs into accurate, all-weather, targeted ammunition.

The creators of the fake, a “team of UFO hunters” called Section 51, flipped the original footage, manipulated the sound, added a flying saucer and — voila! — global news is made.

News.com.au’s video department created a similar fake this afternoon to prove just how easy it is.

Video producer Jeff Dolling found a piece-to-camera from PM Tony Abbott and superimposed an unidentified flying object onto the blue sky behind him.

The clip took him only about 40 minutes to complete.

“It’s a simple process of trying to marry the two together and working out how far you want to take it to make it look real or make it look fake,” Mr Dolling said.

“You can go quite in depth (but) I’ve made it a bit purposely clunky.”

If taken out of context, the video is sure to work the conspiracy theorists into a lather.

This is not the first time hoaxes have managed to convince the world. Here are five other famous fakes.

1. EAGLE SNATCHES UP BABY

This video, which has been seen by more than four million people, shows a golden eagle swooping down and scooping up a small child in a park. After doing the rounds online, it was declared a work of digital trickery. Four students in the animation and digital design program at the National Animation and Design Centre in Canada admitted to creating the eagle and the baby through CGI. It’s pretty convincing, so let’s hope they got full marks.

2. ALIEN AUTOPSY

This hoax military footage of the autopsy of an alien surfaced in the 1990s from London-based businessman Ray Santilli. The grainy, black-and-white film purported to depict the post-mortem examination of a extraterrestrial recovered from a crashed flying disc near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. In 2006, Mr Santilli confessed that the film was a fake but said it was a staged reconstruction of footage he claimed to have actually seen, but which had deteriorated past the point of use. The 17-minute piece was sold to TV networks and broadcast in more than 32 countries.

3. UFO SIGHTING

This video purports to show a UFO appearing above a highway in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Turns out, the clip is part of viral marketing campaign for a new kind of pizza box. Well that’s a let-down.

4. BOY IN BALLOON

Six-year-old Falcon Heene created a media storm in 2009 when his parents said he had floated off in their runaway homemade helium balloon. TV news was soon following the story and they broadcast live as the silver inflatable, shaped like a flying saucer, travelled about 80km before crashing to the ground. When the balloon was inspected, Falcon was nowhere to be found. It was revealed later that the boy was in the family’s attic the whole time and it was all a publicity stunt. Both parents ended up serving jail time over the incident.

5. WAR OF THE WORLDS

The mother of all hoaxes was achieved without video cameras — it managed to spark widespread panic over the humble radio. In 1938, with the world again on the verge of war, Orson Welles thought it would be fun to perform a documentary-style radio play of HG Wells’ classic War of the Worlds. The radio theatre troupe presented the story as though it was news and announced that Martians had invaded Earth. The program was so convincing that scores of adults reportedly required medical treatment for shock and hysteria, according to National Geographic.

Originally published as As fake UFO footage fools the internet, we reveal how easy it is to create a bogus alien video