Still frame from Standing's film "Discovering Bigfoot" |
and British Columbia Fish and Wildlife and hopes to prove the existence of bigfoot in court.
Today, I want to talk more about the film and particularly this still frame above and not really talk about the lawsuit.
I also must be clear that I have not actually seen the film and have only seen a few shorts clips from it. With that said I want to offer my opinion on what I've seen and the still frame above.
While the film has been well received there are many who still hold Standing accountable for his past. His past released photos and videos were met with very hard criticism and at the very least the images were very questionable.
This brings me to the still frame above and his new efforts. I watched a short clip that featured the above image. In the clip, best I can recall, Standing states that the camera is at 50x zoom. He also makes a statement to the effect that "due to the high sensitive of this camera..." is why the shot is so good. It is an effort to sell the clip as real, but in my opinion he over sells it.
As for the still frame itself, I have a few problems with it. First it appears there is some human pigment showing next to the eye. I have highlighted it in this image. This leads me to think this could be fake and just a person in heavy make up. Some suggested that it could even be Standing himself.
This figure appears to be very similar to the one in a film from a few years ago. That film was Sasquatch and starred
Another thing to consider is that the figure in the Standing's film appears to have a very human looking forehead and not the large brow ridge described by the vast majority of witnesses.
Also, how can hundreds if not thousands of researchers have a hard time getting even a blurry picture of bigfoot but Standing keeps getting clear HD face shots? Maybe he is just that good, I don't know.
All of this, along with Standing past questionable releases, makes me believe this is just a person in heavy black make up. That this is yet another hoax by someone with an agenda. Remember, his goal is to prove bigfoot and get a law passed, assuming in his name of course, to protect the species. If he was successful at this he would be a historic figure and his name would forever be uttered in the bigfoot community.
So, that is my opinion about this whole thing. I personally do not know Todd but know a couple people who worked with him briefly. They do not have anything good to say about him.
When you add all of this up, it is just very hard for me to put any stock in anything that has the name Todd Standing attached to it. He may be a great guy, I don't know, but I'm just going by what I've seen in the past, and what I'm seeing now. Remember, this is just my opinion and I don't have any vendetta against the guy. In fact, I have no ill will toward him and wish him well. This is just my opinion.
Regardless, of my opinion or what I have said here, his film appears to be doing very well and is getting a lot of good reviews. I imagine at some point I will watch his film and my overall opinion may change, who knows. The film has a couple other big names associate with it, namely Dr. Jeff Meldrum and John Bindernagel.
For those who are interested, you can watch Todd Standing's film, Discovering Bigfoot, on amazon. It is available for streaming and download purchase.
In case you could not tell, I struggled with this post. I really dislike criticizing people in a public type of setting. I don't care to give my opinion about the evidence presented but I do not want this post to come off as a personal attack on Standing himself. I try not to do personal attacks, even though I'm probably guilty of it in the past.
In the bigfoot world, it is better to proceed with caution than to swallow the whole hog.
Thanks
Tom
This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.
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Very healthy analysis. I'm dismayed to see certain figures that people respect, like the popular Survivorman, associating with him on their show. It takes the legitimacy down a notch. I don't deal in what others are doing. I let them do what they do because it is irrelevant to my research, but I am pleased when others call into question the consistently high quality Hollywood-looking figures that Standing touts. I also look to see if the person is trying to profit (films/books/shows) from their findings. That tells me much too. Thanks for this fair analysis.
ReplyDeleteI'm not dismayed to see Bindernagle, Meldrum, and Les Stroud at least look at his evidence considering there is no actual evidence he's ever hoaxed these images. Which I don't know if its real or not, but I don't join the bandwagon of people who have to appear skeptical to their peers, including this article. To the author here, the reason he gets such sharp images is he's using manual focus. People get such blurry pictures all the time because auto-focus will focus on things before the image.
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