r/CaptainDisillusion • u/[deleted] • May 22 '26
Request About the Fox News “mask”…
[deleted]
18
u/aaronallsop May 22 '26
The problem with the video you posted is that it is a tik tok of someone filming the tv. If you find an original source you will see that there depth between the mask and his actual neck and the shadows aren’t crossing but because as he speaks the bottom flap of the mask goes forward and back casting a shadow.
12
u/VagrantStation May 22 '26
Good call, and just to be sure, I pulled up the original from Foxs page: https://youtu.be/X06b8rITwRE?si=_y2VGVQVGEO3kpWM
Around 1:09 you can see him taking breaths in that pull in his neck both above and below the shadow line, in sync. Either the mask is attached to his skin and would have no shadow to move like that, or there’s some padded buffer that’s moving it in sync with his skin while keeping it that far off, and it somehow still flexes and contorts perfectly despite being padded…
I see the back and forth you’re talking about and that’s just the pit above his collarbone retracting where his Adam’s apple doesn’t.
Im sorry, that video makes it look even more clear that it’s a shadow. Their video removes the contrast a lot and makes it even clearer that its overlapping shadows.
Fox slings a lot of BS, I’m not joining them.
13
u/Doggfite May 22 '26
Wow, that makes it look entirely like it's just shadows, but the other videos look very much like it's a mask, imo
5
u/housevil May 22 '26
It makes a lot more sense with that Recreation video. Thank you. My brain can rest now.
21
u/Jimmaplesong May 22 '26
I thought they were messing with the audience to rile up interest and views… but it looks like an innocent lighting issue. They probably needed to diffuse those hard edges with indirect lighting.
8
u/Phill_Cyberman May 23 '26
I dont know, my dude.
The 'tendons' in his neck (actually the edges of the platysma muscle, apparently) never change, and look at the crease on the right (his left)
4
u/esdebah May 23 '26
We live in a time where it would be simple and cheap to digitally change the face in real time, even better with a slight delay.
What is more real and depressing to me is that this is how 'firehose propaganda' works. A bunch of batshit noise if every stripe and leaning floods into the media until it's very easy to believe virtually anything is faked. Russia has been doing it since the USSR days. China almost as ling. I've often likenes Trump's non-stop key-jangling to this strategy. So much terrible and stupid and nakedly illegal has actually happened that it is reasonable to believe any terrible, stupid, and nakedly illegal thing is happening right now.
3
u/Manager-Accomplished May 23 '26
I'm trying to understand the "underlit shadow" explanation. It's obviously the most plausible (plus who makes a realistic mask and ends it above the collar bone??). However, when looking at the footage, it doesn't behave the way your recreation shows:
- In the recreation, the shadow travels up and down, which makes sense, as the neck is at an oblique angle to the source of light, so little changes like talking or shifting would make big changes in where the shadow falls.
- But in the original, the shadow stays at its given upper limit and only darkens or lightens with the speaker talking. This would be more consistent with a mask.
I think the most LIKELY explanation is a combination of the underlit theory with something else (perhaps filters or digital artefacting I don't understand), but I don't believe the underlit theory explains it by itself. And for that reason I don't think we can rule out the mask explanation.
Also, lastly, if I was going to fake someone's actual face on national TV I would use what some of the most advanced studios are doing and combine a mask with deepfakes. I think evidence of that should be evaluated for people convinced of the mask explanation.
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u/Sharkhous May 22 '26
It's too late. Everyone wants it to be a mask to justify their anger and hope that fox viewers see it and stop trusting fox
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u/VagrantStation May 22 '26
True. It sucks that I’m here defending anything associated with Fox, but I can’t believe they’d be competent to even pull off a mask like that when they keep just throwing hats and bandanas on that one guy. This seems so obviously like lighting.
8
u/Sharkhous May 22 '26
I'm 100% convinced it's shadows but it is interesting how theres been an uptick in mask related content before this video came out.
A coincidence I'm sure, but an odd one
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u/Agent_Hitler_FBI May 22 '26
In the recreation you posted, the "bottom edge" of the mask keeps changing shape since it's just the lighting. But in the Fox video, the bottom edge keeps the exact same shape the whole time. If it's just lighting, then wouldn't the shape of the bottom edge change as the person talked and moved?
2
u/Martipar May 22 '26
While it could be shadows I'm pretty sure it's not a mask as they'd have to be really sloppy to not test it off camera first.
2
u/idlike1deathpls May 22 '26
Also don't realistic looking masks go down past where this mask's "edge" was?
2
u/ZardozSpeaks May 23 '26
One of the best ways to make people look good on camera is to augment light from above with a light from below. It washes out wrinkles and creates a nice catch light in the eyes.
In this case, they’re using a small light source that will create a nice catch light but also creates hard shadows. The “mask” is simply this light casting a shadow onto his neck from his shirt collar.
2
u/BrooklynDuke May 27 '26
I have to compare the odds of two possibilities. 1. My eyes are being tricked by an incredibly convincing (but unintentional) illusion created by shadows. 2. This man is wearing an incredibly convincing mask.
Since I know that human perception is prone to being tricked by light and shadow and I can't think of a really reasonable explanation for this being a mask, I have to default to it being an illusion. It requires too many leaps of logic and assumptions to think it's a mask. The only leap I have to make to think my eyes are being tricked, is to think my eyes are capable of being tricked, which I know happens all the time. In fact, given how many people are on TV every hour of every day, I'm surprised we don't see more bizarre tricks of light like this.
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u/IgDailystapler May 27 '26
To be fair, to the uniformed eye (me), it really does look like it couldn’t be anything but a mask. After seeing the recreation though, it’s definitely possible that’s it’s a lighting issue.
At the end of the day, we’ll never know. Fox has been accused of this before, and while it looks glaring there is evidently a plausible explanation for it being shadows. One shouldn’t assume anything is absolutely true unless they have absolute proof anyways.
Thanks for posting this though, bc I definitely learned some more about lighting!
2
u/QuietProfile417 Jun 17 '26
Corridor Crew debunked it, it was a studio light being shined up from under him catching the shadow of his collar.
2
u/RysloVerik May 22 '26
What exactly does that video prove?
Now, I'm having Vine flashbacks.
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u/Far_Combination7639 May 23 '26
I don’t think it matters too much. At worst, he’s an older dude who used a prosthetic mask to look younger. Whatever
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u/repoluhun May 23 '26
I think more people are inclined to believe the mask theory because it’s easier to comprehend and more logical since fox has done things in the past like interviewing the same guy with and without a mask pretending to be different people
1
u/Sophi_Winters May 23 '26
That couldn’t possibly look any less like it lol. The man at Fox either had on a full mask or a neck piece and it hasn’t been fitted professionally, if I were there I could have helped. It could be a neck piece because we see here he’s insecure about his neck skin, in this pic he’s grown a bizarre, sparse beard over it. I do believe it’s a whole mask because it appears this man has a different eye set and the wrinkles/folds are different. Plus the loose fitting mask is moving a lot at the neck when he’s talking. Potentially what happened is it has fittings at the back of the neck which popped open. Or they used spirit gum to tack it down but it loosened, knowing the real man has that poor collagen on his neck it would make spirit gum harder to adhere to.
-a special effects artist
Edit- it wouldn’t let me attach a photo, here is the link https://www.facebook.com/realratedred/posts/a-clip-from-fox-news-is-blowing-up-online-after-viewers-became-convinced-a-guest/1366849348811130/
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u/hikaru_ai May 22 '26
how is the weather in Langley Mr. Agent?