How to create realistic alien footage

For as long as cameras have been around, photos and videos of supposed UFOs have never been far away from the media spotlight. There are some classics that split opinion, some that appear eerily real and remain unsolved, and some that can be debunked almost immediately. In more and more frequent cases, we’re even seeing governments release previously classified footage that all but confirms the presence of unidentified flying objects.

With the revelatory UFO/ UAP hearings in US Congress just a few weeks ago revealing (officially for the first time) that there is something else out there, and since Halloween is almost upon us, we figured that you may want to have a look at just how easy it is to create your own fake alien video!

UFO sightings

The United States, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom are just some of the governments from around the world who have released documents and reports on UFOs in recent decades, showing that this phenomenon is of real global interest. Thousands of reports and sightings are received every year, with many remaining unresolved.

Just a quick trawl through documentaries on Netflix, videos on YouTube and plenty of posts on forums such as Reddit reveals how popular this topic remains. Humans are fascinated by the idea of extraterrestrial life visiting Earth and with so much noise and discussion online, the right UFO video could easily go viral very quickly!

The rise of fake footage

In general, with the advance of technology and AI in recent years, as well as ever-more powerful editing software and processors, fake footage has never been easier to create, or more realistic. In many cases, it’s now difficult to tell what’s real and what isn’t. This is problematic for many reasons, but it can also be tons of fun when it comes to UFO videos. Just how real can they get?

Recently, Corridor Crew over on YouTube decided to test things out with their own UFO video and it quickly went viral on Reddit, fooling thousands! You can watch a recap of what they learned here:

How to fake a UFO video – key takeaways

There’s no singular successful recipe for creating a fake alien video, but the Corridor Crew established a few great lessons that you can apply to your own UFO videos.

Keep it simple – don’t get cocky

Simplicity is best when it comes to creating a fake alien video. Once you start getting ambitious or too complicated, you leave yourself prone to errors and easy mistakes that an audience will spot.

Allow people to fill in the blanks with their imagination

You don’t need to give your audience everything. You just need to give them enough. Humans have incredibly powerful imaginations that can fill in the blanks and help build out a concept.

Moving inorganically

Your UFO footage should show the “alien spaceship” moving in a very inorganic way – it should be too fast to be a human-made machine and move or turn in a way that isn’t possible for our own planes and helicopters.

Metadata

This is where the folks at Corridor Crew came unstuck. When they shared the original files on Reddit, users quickly dug deep on the metadata and found Adobe After Effects files which all but confirmed that actually, this video was a fake. If you’re really looking to fool the smart people in the room, you’re going to have to clean up your metadata and cover your tracks!

Create a narrative around the idea

When it comes to posting the video online, you need to have a bullet-proof, believable narrative around your UFO video. Where were you? What were you doing? Why did your camera happen to be filming at this moment? People are going to ask a lot of questions as they try to uncover whether your alien footage is real or not!

How to fake a UFO video – what you need to succeed

However you decide to create your UFO video, you’re going to need a number of things. First of all, if you want to get the best results, you’ll need to use some powerful post-production software such as the Adobe Creative Suite. This will allow you to manipulate and edit your footage in the most believable way. For their viral Reddit post, the corridor crew used Adobe After Effects.

Alongside that powerful post-production software, you’re going to need all kinds of other resources to work with. For example, what’s going to be your base “plate” – the piece of footage that you start out with? And what’s going to be the UFO?

Alongside royalty-free music, when you sign up to Artlist, you can immediately start making use of thousands of hours of stock footage. Something like this cockpit view from a plane flying over Denali could work really well for your base plate. All you need to do is edit a mysterious flying object flying through the frame…

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a believable, ready-made video then we have plenty of those too. The We are not alone collection brings together some of the best sci-fi stock footage you’ve ever seen! Check out this flying UFO and some very real alien footage…

To bring it all together and add extra layers of realism, you can explore all kinds of sound effects, including our Alien sound effects collection, where you’ll find UFO fly-by sounds and creepy alien noises.

Ultimately, the more resources you have available to you, the more accomplished your UFO footage is going to be.

Wrapping up

So, that’s how to fake a UFO video. While it’s certainly easier than ever to create a believable fake alien video, people are also better than ever at debunking this footage! To create something genuine that fools people and looks real, you’re going to have to be inch-perfect in everything you do. Making use of a vast amount of assets on Artlist and applying the key lessons from other creators such as the Corridor Crew can give you the best possible chance of success. A little bit of luck goes a long way, too.

And who knows…perhaps some of the UFO footage out there really is the real deal…