Status: Real (I think)
Check out this video that shows a bunch of kids casually tossing empty soda cans into trash bins. They make perfect shot after perfect shot, from behind their back, thirty feet away, beneath their legs, etc. And always as if they're not even trying to make the shot. You can watch the video either on their website,
vietnam-26.skyblog.com (scroll down to the link that says
The Caca Cola Company), or on
youtube. The question is, how did they manage all these perfect shots? Was it through some kind of cgi or digital special effects, or did they simply do repeated takes until they made the shot and then edited the successful shots together?
Most of the commenters on youtube seem to think it's all fake (i.e. digitally manipulated). Many of them point to a scene at 1:32min where the can appears to bounce off of air.
But I don't agree. To me it looks like the can is simply bouncing off the rim of the trash can. (Scratch that... I was looking at min 1:32 on a downloaded version of the movie, not on the youtube version... On the youtube movie, at min 1:32, the can does indeed appear to change direction suddenly in mid-air. The scene is the one in the thumbnail. However, this could simply be an illusion caused by the angle of the camera. Or maybe there was some liquid or a weight in the can.) Also, although I don't know a lot about video editing, this looks like a very low-budget movie, and I suspect it would be a lot cheaper to do repeated takes rather than to do fancy cgi or otherwise manipulate the video. So I'm voting that it's real, in the sense that they actually managed to get the cans into the trash bins in real life without the use of special effects. (Thanks to Bart Goovaerts for emailing me about this video.)
Comments
I dunno--something looks odd about the can's shadow. I'm no expert on video, but that shadow sure looks "intentional".
Wouldn't the low-budget look make it easier to fake (with careful editing anyway--maybe not much cgi)?
The scene where one guy kicks the can and rebounds it off a rain spout into the garbage seems like maybe a monofilament line and reel, especially just before the can goes in, it seems to speed up just a bit unnaturally.
I suspect really clean plexiglass or glass in at least 2 where the can rebounds off nothing at all.
Finally, I see several 'basket ball' trick shots where the can goes out of frame and then reappears just before entering the receptacle. Guy on a ladder out of frame with identical can; either catches the thrown can and drops the dupe, or the dupe goes wild and he times dropping it in.
Finally, none of them are actually drinking the soda, although some get close to "acting" like they are.
And some of the cans look weighted, as well...
Just my 1.5 cents
I also used to be a young man with a lot of free time on my hands, (like a year ago) and can totally understand how these guys could spend countless hours to get all these clips of them making these shots. And with digital cameras now, it doesn't even cost them anything to film-delete-refilm.
They were like "Dude, lets make this awesome tape and post it on YouTube, it will be so cool" And I guess they were successful in getting the attention they wanted.
and they should be recycling their cans.
Otherwise, it looks like a bunch of young men with too much time to waste and I agree that they should be recycling!
Some of the bounces around the rim of the bins look suspicious too.
About the can at 1.32...the camera is behind a plexiglass bus shelter and that is what the can bounces off, not thin air. You can see the reflection of the guy in the glass in the top right as he walks on.
But has been said, the guy throwing the can in between two cars passing, the can speeds up as it approaches the bin, and almost shoots in.
Some of them seem real though, and not that hard to achieve with a few takes.
So, I give it a combination of real and CGI.
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=PfOT5CLMfK4
bottle throwing profs vol 1