BBC viewers were left puzzled this week when a child appeared to teleport into a news report.
Twitter user @realTewkesburyBC shared video of the bizarre incident online Wednesday:
WTF... does anyone else see the child teleport? pic.twitter.com/P0ju9J9cby
— @realTewkesburyBC (@TewkesburyLeak) December 12, 2018
“WTF... does anyone else see the child teleport?” the person asked in a tweet.
The clip prompted various pop culture references in response:
— Phil Maylor (@Maylor) December 12, 2018
...there has been a glitch in the matrix.
— Zander (@bendergavyn) December 13, 2018
— Andrew Spence (@AndrewSpenceIM) December 12, 2018
🎶[INSERT X-FILES THEME CLICHE]🎶 pic.twitter.com/BQriNQE9UH
— ScotsVsAusterity (@ScotIndyDebate) December 13, 2018
Did anyone else hear the Tardis vworping? No? Well...
— thescspt (@thescspt_tw) December 12, 2018
— Mark Mathews (@markmathewssong) December 13, 2018
— Celtkicks (@Celtkicks) December 13, 2018
Wow. @DrWhoOnline needs to investigate. We have a break in the time continuum. Time’s gone wibbly wobbly!
— SPDPR #FBPE (@steviepattisond) December 13, 2018
So, has the BBC developed some kind of “Star Trek”-level transportation technology?
Not quite.
According to this thread from Tom Richell, the head of video at British news website The Independent, the strange video clip resulted from the editing process:
No, this child is not teleporting and yes the BBC edited it... but DON'T GET ANGRY YET pic.twitter.com/ymGofca1ks
— Tom Richell (@tomrichell) December 13, 2018
Let's start with the full clip pic.twitter.com/zx9DKy6zGM
— Tom Richell (@tomrichell) December 13, 2018
So obviously, despite claims, he's not teleporting (shame imo). It has been edited, but hang fire on the BBC bashing please https://t.co/XQBG9q743Q
— Tom Richell (@tomrichell) December 13, 2018
The edit itself makes use of a transition which uses face tracking and something called optical flow interpolation
— Tom Richell (@tomrichell) December 13, 2018
The idea is to smooth over jump cuts in interview or talking head segments. Adobe users like me know it as Morph Cut. I think it's called Flow on FCP
— Tom Richell (@tomrichell) December 13, 2018
It basically takes the two shots and mashes them together in such a way that the harsh cut between them is smoothed over
— Tom Richell (@tomrichell) December 13, 2018
If you watch the woman's face repeatedly you can see it moves over to the right in a weird way as the boy child appears pic.twitter.com/bHjMWLD7nB
— Tom Richell (@tomrichell) December 13, 2018
Away from the technicals - no the BBC isn't trying to edit this out of context. I find it *really* unlikely they're trying to end the vox pop with her smiling either. That would be a totally pointless edit https://t.co/1SvK1OHA6u
— Tom Richell (@tomrichell) December 13, 2018
It's likely that this is a longer clip and they have come out of it early (that's what happens with live TV news folks)
— Tom Richell (@tomrichell) December 13, 2018
When you're turning stuff around quickly (like this will have been) mistakes creep in. This is nothing more than an innocent coincidence. Sorry to disappoint y'all
— Tom Richell (@tomrichell) December 13, 2018
Mystery solved!
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