The mystery of the Patterson-Gimlin film and it's creature, explained by a professional makeup effects designer.
When Roger met Patty, he had the good fortune to be prepared for filming something on a moment's notice, and he had the bad fortune to film something so strange that many people refuse to consider what he filmed might be real. This film defined his life, and crerated a legacy that endured more that 40 years after he passed away. But this film has also become a curse upon his name, because of the unrelenting character assination by skeptical fanatics who think that discrediting him as a person discredits the film. But science vindicates Roger Patterson, authenticating the film and it's subject, and that vindication is long overdue. His film is authentic, Patty is soewmthing real. And humanity needs to be re-defined, to see if Patty is included or excluded.
You can purchase "When Roger met Patty" by William Munns here on amazon.com.
Introduction
The 1967 Patterson-Gimlin Film is often described as the second most analyzed home movie in history (second only to Abraham Zapruder's filming of John Kennedy's assassination in 1963). Two men, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin, were exploring the northern California woodlands in October of 1967, and Roger carried a 16mm movie camera loaded and ready to film something on a moment's notice. He was looking for some evidence of the creature called "Bigfoot", because there had been a trackway of footprints found nearby two months before. On October 20, a little after noon, he and Bob were on horseback with a pack horse in tow, going north on the west shore of Bluff Creek, and they rounded a curve of the creek with a log jam on their left obscuring what was ahead. Past that logjam, they had their famous encounter, which Roger filmed. In his film, we see a humanistic figure, apparently covered in a dark brownish/black fur, walking hastily away from the men and at one point looking back at the camera, and continuing to briskly walk away, until Roger's camera runs out of film. In the 47 years that followed, that film footage has been the eye of a controversial hurricane of debate, and a single film frame of that figure looking back has become the international photographic icon for the mystery called "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch".
This collective document is an analysis of the famous Patterson Gimlin "Bigfoot" film, but from a whole new perspective. There is a powerful urban legend, believed by many people, that this film has been proven to be a hoax with a man in a fur "creature costume". It is not true, but still, it is a formidable legend to challenge, and can only be done so by a professional who actually designs and builds such costumes. So a major part of this book will be devoted to both the makeup artist craft itself, and the applied knowledge of this craft to the analysis of the Patterson Gimlin Film (PGF).
A proper investigation requires that one must be open to all paths of investigation that the data leads to, and once I started this analysis effort, I found that issues of cameras, lenses, editing and film copy process also were relevant issues needing analysis. So my effort expanded into those areas, and I had some professional experience in these filmmaking skills as well as my makeup expertise.
But this analysis effort has been personalized because there is a powerful skeptical community who believe Bigfoot does not and cannot exist, and so as soon as anyone offers an analysis to the contrary, they set forth on a mission to attack the person, personalize the discussion and then try to discredit the person who does the analysis, instead of keeping the discussion on track with the ideas and the scientific analysis itself. We see this increasingly in every walk of life, this politicizing of ideas and personal attacks on people who offer an idea that the challenger doesn't agree with.
I have seen my life examined microscopically, not by people with any intent to admire what I have accomplished, but rather by people who simply are hoping to find some arguing point to discredit me or belittle my accomplishments. Everything good or admirable they read about me simply does not stick in their minds. It is discarded as useless to their agenda of criticism. They want "dirt".
Because this personalization has been so intense, this book must be as much a personal story of my efforts to stay centered on a path to real knowledge and understanding, as it is a story of how the mysterious Patterson Gimlin film is rightfully analyzed. While the film's analysis is a unique endeavor, the story of one trying to achieve a factual and reasoned solution amid an environment of partisan gamesmanship and "win at all cost" opposition is a story I suspect many readers can relate to in their own lives and activities.
In my effort to understand this film and the controversy around it, I have become part of the controversy. Much of what I present herein is derived from my research work. While authors do commonly take the position of observing or reporting on a matter from an outside perspective, and remove themselves from the discussion or dispassionately reference themselves in the third person, I can't remove my research from my presentation of the controversy. So I made the decision to simply and factually acknowledge that I am part of this controversy and my analysis can be best explained in the first person form. Much of my insight is derived from my life experience and my eclectic resume of career and technical skills acquired from about 45 years of professional endeavor and self-taught education. So a personal and first person approach is what I feel is the most appropriate form for this book. I have chosen to simply write a book that I feel is a truthful expression of what I have learned and considered in this curious seven-year adventure, a book I will always be proud to have written, a book I would actually like to read myself if another had written it.
Reception to this book will be intense and diverse. Only time will tell if it endures as a reasoned analysis, a scholarly text. But I will have expressed my thoughts, ideas, and reasoning, in a form that I feel is a positive accomplishment, and so I am at peace with my effort and my decisions.
Bill Munns
You can purchase "When Roger met Patty" by William Munns here on amazon.com.
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