Ghost Sighting at Orchard Road

David Calvert

A video, purportedly taken on a mobile phone and showing the figure of a female apparition, was posted to me by Karen Han from Ghosts, Hauntings and the Paranormal. The video clip was taken in the heart of Singapore’s shopping district , behind the Takashimaya shopping mall. To see video click on link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLECzqDwJBs

So what’s your take on this clip: real or fake?  To find out what my take is, read my analysis below Jan’s Testimony.

Jan’s Testimony

[October 5, 2011]

“I was walking home with my girlfriends afer a late supper and chat at  Orchard Road at about 1 am when suddenly witness a lady in white across the road.

She was next to a tree when we saw her. She disappeared then mysteriously appeared ahead a few metres and seemed to be crossing the road but when a passing taxi looks like it was going to hit her… she disappeared again!

We were all so frightened that we couldn’t help but scream and run away. Does anyone know if there was a hit and run accident near the empty plot of land behind Takashimaya in the past during this date?? I thought the Chinese ghost month was already over!  It all happened so fast but our friend caught it on her iPhone and we had to slow down the video to see the ghostly images. I am still shaking as I post this.”

Evidence-Based Conclusion: 

After analysing the image I came to the conclusion that it is a probable fake and here’s why:

• Throughout the entire sequence there is strong evidence of motion blurring, due to the camera phone being hand-held and yet the “ghost” is completely unaffected by the blurring effect. This is impossible if the apparition was real.

• Jan said they saw a “woman in white” , but no matter how closely I looked I still couldn’t make out enough detail to determine its gender. This of course could be due to the poor image resolution of the camera phone.

•  She also said that it looked like the taxi was going to hit the ghost, suggesting the apparition had stepped out in front of it, yet I see no evidence in the film to suggest the apparition stepped onto the road.

• If the ghost was visible to the girls and visible sufficiently enough to be caught on film then how did the taxi driver not see it and take steps to avoid a collision with it?

In order to learn the technicalities of how such a hoax might be perpetrated I contacted feedback@worldnexuspublications.com  Their reply was very informative and corroborated my suspicions. Here’s what they had to say:

“Most mobile phones can export the video and be converted also to popular formats and edited… and replayed and re-recorded with the editing and put back into the phone. The most popular way is to film it on a conventional HD video camera, play it on an HD television (plasma or LED) and record it playing with the phone video. Of course the conventional video footage can be manipulated with all the popular software but, when re-recorded with a mobile phone video it will look even more convincing.”

The email they sent me shortly thereafter simply read:

“Hi David …. definitely a fake …. Thanks.”

© David Calvert 2011

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