Posted by John Preston on Aug 1st, 2009
I finally got caught up on C.S.I. New York. As I’ve said before, having a 16 month old in the house sure does put you behind on some of your favorite shows. As far as I can tell, the season finale only had one scene worthy of a WeCallBull, but it was a dandy.
Mack Taylor and his crew were at a dead end in their search for a kidnapping victim. All they had to work with was a videotape of the victim reading some demands. There was nothing about the background or the ambient noise that could possibly pinpoint a location.
The tape was worthless… until the kidnapped reached across in front of the camera to turn off the tape. His hand was in the shot for a fraction of the second. They froze a frame from the video and then enhanced the image of the hand until you could see the ridges on one finger. They were then able to capture a fingerprint from that enhanced image and identify the kidnapper. I’ve got to Call Bull on that.
Video enhancement is a common tool for television shows nowadays. Shows like C.S.I. are always taking blurry images and clearing them up. You do have to give them a little leeway because there is some amazing enhancement software out there, but this just goes too far. Fingerprint matching doesn’t leave much room for error; you either find and exact match or you don’t. I don’t care how complex of an algorithm you use for enhancement there is a significant margin of error from those areas being "filled in" by the software.
It did occur to me that if the video was shot in HD, the software would not have to fill in nearly as many gaps and a fingerprint match might be possible. However, this video was shot in a 4×3 aspect ratio instead of a 16×9. Therefore it was standard def. (old style) and simply wouldn’t have had enough data to allow for an accurate fingerprint.
Posted by John Preston on Jul 28th, 2009
I figured it was only a matter of time before a reality show pulled a stunt worthy of a Bull call. I didn’t expect Hell’s Kitchen to have the honor of being the first. However, I’ve got to Call Bull for the opening episodes of the show’s sixth season.
It is no secret that reality shows often have to re-shoot scenes and do some elementary staging to maintain a certian production quality and to increase the entertainment value of the program. We’d like for a reality show to be 100% real, but we’ll usually forgive a lot as long [...] Continue Reading…
Posted by John Preston on Jul 27th, 2009
A good friend of mine, Scott "Bama" Moore, posted a link to this video on the We Call Bull Facebook page. It is without a doubt worthy of a Bull call at so many levels. The underlying foundation of We Call Bull is to draw attention to those instances when the public’s lack of education and understanding is exploited. No matter which side of this hot-button issue you stand on, there’s clearly some exploitation going on. Why else would CNN devote a full five minutes of airtime to what, in essence, is a marketing gimmick.
Thanks Bama!
Posted by John Preston on Jul 21st, 2009
I know it seems like I post a lot about C.S.I. Miami. That may be because they push the reality barriers more than other dramas. More likely, it’s because I’ve been watching a lot of C.S.I. Miami lately. With a 16-month-old around the house, you tend to get a little behind on your favorite shows. The summer reruns give you a chance to catch up.
Nonetheless, I’m Calling Bull to Horatio Cane and his crew once again. In the episode Sink or Swim, an Attorney (played convincingly by P.Diddy) is throwing a party on his yacht. His fiance’ is killed [...] Continue Reading…
Posted by rcornish on Jul 20th, 2009
Show on Spike that a friend was telling me about, the episode explained I thought was kind of bad from the get go. Basic premise, pick two famous warrior classes from history, gather information on weapons, armor, etc, and then run a computer model simulation to see who would have won in a contest of arms. I had my doubts when I heard about the show and now that I am finally watching an episode I am in even more doubt about the true measure of any outcome. The current episode I am watching is pitting the William Wallace [...] Continue Reading…
