How Isil doctored the image of Obama, making him appear haggard in videos
The terrorist group carefully manipulate their videos to make the US president look as tired and weary as possible, demonstrating its technical prowess
7:59PM BST 03 Sep 2014
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Isil's video editors have carefully manipulated colour and screen size to make Barack Obama look as haggard as possible in their recent productions.
The two videos disclosing the murders of James Foley and Steven Sotloff display Isil’s mastery of complex editing and animation techniques. Both productions set out to denigrate Mr Obama and present a narrative that blames him for the deaths of the two journalists.
Comparing the two videos shows how Isil has improved its techniques – but the terrorist film-makers still remain capable of basic mistakes.
The videos share the same structure: they begin with clips of Mr Obama ordering air strikes and then cut to a scene of the hostage kneeling in the desert and denouncing America. They conclude with the black-clad Isil terrorist announcing in an English accent that the captive will now be killed.
But there are important differences. In the first video, Mr Obama is shown speaking for 86 seconds. The editor has introduced some white streaks across the screen, like an old VHS tape, to lend a tired and dated feel to the president’s appearance. But the impact is reduced by the fact that Mr Obama speaks before a spotless wall of white marble and the presidential flag.
In the second video, the editor pays Mr Obama a backhanded compliment by going to far greater lengths to make him look wearied and careworn.
First of all, the clip of the president speaking is reduced to only 22 seconds. Then the editor has exploited the fact that Mr Obama is shown not against a backdrop of marble, but a blue curtain and an American flag. That allows the colour grade to be artfully manipulated, making both the curtain and the flag look frayed and washed out.
A grab from the Isil video
A grab from the Isil video
In the same way, Mr Obama’s blue jacket is made to appear a funereal black. His strands of grey hair are picked up and exaggerated. The editor has also caused an interlacing effect of black lines to run across the president’s white shirt. For good measure, he has carefully stretched the screen lengthways in order to make Mr Obama appear thin and gaunt.
“To achieve these effects, you would need to know what you are doing,” explained Alice Wagstaffe, the senior film-maker for Telegraph Media Group. “It’s not the work of a beginner: it’s the work of a professional or a semi-professional editor.”
But the video crew filming still make mistakes - either as a result of haste or relative inexperience. When the hostages deliver their scripted statements, both are simultaneously filmed by two cameras, one in front and another to the side.
In the second video, however, the camera filming Sotloff from the side is overexposed. The operator has also forgotten to synchronise the white balance of the two cameras. When filmed from the front, Sotloff’s orange robe and the black clothes of his murderer look sharp and clear. From the side, however, the picture is obscured by the sun’s glare.
For all their undoubted sophistication, Isil’s video-makers are still learning.