OVNI. Estados Unidos

Pheonix Arizona , June 5th 2005.

The following submission statement was provided by u/NAWFAL93:

I came across this video. The quality is low, but it looks interesting. I can't find more information about it. Has anyone seen it before? Do you think it is fake?

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[DEBUNKED] Koi UFO Video 087 appears to show a ring of lights in the night sky above some trees, with lights appearing to fly in and out the ring formation. The video has a caption indicating it was filmed in Phoenix (Arizona) on 5th June 2005.

The video was posted in 2005 and gained considerable publicity, including via the rense.com website.  The publicity prompted supportive comments from various ufologists and video editing experts, including David Sereda (famous for his analysis of NASA "UFO" videos).

In fact, Brian Bessent confessed in 2006 that he had hoaxed the video.  He posted a diatribe on his ufotheatre.com website about the gullibility of the UFO community. He explained that he hoaxed UFO videos to make money and that this was very easy to do.  He referred, in particular, to his use of the "Bryce" animation software plus "stoner techniques", which involved him getting stoned before filming. Apart from getting stoned before making his videos, he referred to getting stoned using the money he made from his videos - commenting that he "made thousands and bought hella dank .. and bongs shit i smoked so much i think i nearly died ... all thanks to rense!".

Brian Bessent commented that "making money off UFOs requires no talent other than a slightly higher intelligence than that of your intended market".

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Brian Bessent's 2005 (hoaxed) video was supported by various ufologists at the time (including David Sereda - famous for his analysis of NASA "UFO" videos). Given that we have the benefit of a confession of the hoax, it's probably a bit unkind to laugh at some of the pretty pathetic reasons put forward at the time for rejecting the hoax hypothesis.

We now know that Brian Bessent confessed in 2006 that he had hoaxed the video.

He posted a diatribe on his ufotheatre.com website about the gullibility of the UFO community. He explained that he hoaxed UFO videos to make money and that this was very easy to do. He referred, in particular, to his use of the "Bryce" animation software plus "stoner techniques", which involved him getting stoned before filming.

Apart from getting stoned before making his videos, he referred to getting stoned using the money he made from his videos - commenting that he "made thousands and bought hella dank .. and bongs [expletive] i smoked so much i think i nearly died ... all thanks to rense!".

Brian Bessent commented that "making money off UFOs requires no talent other than a slightly higher intelligence than that of your intended market".