Technical Hurdles Suggest Extensive Z-Film Alteration Highly Unlikely

[David Healy]

Here is an excerpt from the essay Cinemagic of the Optical Printer by Linwood G. Dunn, A.S.C. printed in American Cinematographer Manual (5th edition). It gives a good overview of the possibilities and limits of image manipulation on these machines.


"The following is a typical example of the optical printer's value as a scene-salvaging medium. In "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad,Mad World", an important scene was photographed in which a truck was supposed to back onto a shack and knock it over. The breakaway shack was rigged to collapse when wires were pulled on cue. Signals became crossed, and the shack was pulled down well before the truck touched it. A very costly retake was indicated, so the optical printer was called to the rescue. The task of correcting the error through a split-screen seemed relatively simple until it was discovered that the camera panned with the falling shack. It then became necessary to plot and move the split matching point frame-by-frame on the optical printer to follow the pan. Through the travelling split screen technique the progress of the shack's falling action was delayed until the truck had reached the point of impact."


So, basically what was done was the frame was split into two sections by means of a hard vertical line, and then the relationship between the two sections was manipulated. These techniques require a hard vertical or horizontal line by which to isolate sections for the manipulation. Look at frames from Z-film and try to establish a place where any horizontal or vertical line can be reliably established. Further compounding the problem is that the limousine changes size in the frame as it moves toward, past, and beyond the Zapruder camera.There is nothing in the Zapruder frames which could be said to be consistent relative to other frames, and this would provide a massive problem for anyone contemplating manipulation.

Let's tell our viewers just who Mr. Dunne was (as he has gone on to that great flatbed in the sky) then you can tell and show us us what that "massive problem for anyone contemplating manipulation" is,

here is Dunne's IMBd:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0242670/bio

btw: there are NO hard vertical lines in the Z-film.... come on, Dude!